Hours Decrease

[MATRIX]

Have any of you noticed that hours are being cut drastically? Our store has been barebonned to the point that customer service has been impacted. Heck our freight wasnt off the floor until almost noon today and had it not been for the PSA, & FSA it would have been there even longer.

[guest]

MATRIX wrote:

Have any of you noticed that hours are being cut drastically? Our store has been barebonned to the point that customer service has been impacted. Heck our freight wasnt off the floor until almost noon today and had it not been for the PSA, & FSA it would have been there even longer.

Yes we are cutting any one who is not full time to 10 - 15 hrs a week. Dont have enough sales for hours April and May has really sucked.

[MDLow]

Not here, we are running lots of OT to keep up w sales.

[MATRIX]

Just noticed over the past week. I thought it might have been a last ditch effort of management to make SSEI by improving budget or NBT.

[Thatoneguy]

This has everything to do with the decline in sales throughout the company. We leverage our operational expense as needed in order to maintain profit. With sales trending down we have to change our staffing plan to accomodate it. Sales go up hours increase. This is not new or part of the bmr plans.

[nedm]

That is correct. When sales go up staffing is up although I would argue that OT can be rare. I know a store nick named the "museum" because it is so slow. There's rumors it will close but so far it hasn't. It has not made payroll since opening on day one.

[charlie Chapman]

Thatoneguy wrote:

This has everything to do with the decline in sales throughout the company. We leverage our operational expense as needed in order to maintain profit. With sales trending down we have to change our staffing plan to accomodate it. Sales go up hours increase. This is not new or part of the bmr plans.

This may be the case but one still needs X# of people to help customers. The problem I see is there are too many depts without coverage and we are expected to cover, which I do not mind except we don't have the knowledge to always help-especially in the more technical areas. So, yes, we may be helping the bottom line by cutting hours but may be hurting the few sales by not having coverage. That is the problem with managing by numbers only.

[Furby]

Based on our store's vitals, we were more than $150,000 UNDER our payroll budget for last year and our sales were nearly flat. How does this provide a good customer experience? We could have staffed a 20 hour/week person in each department with that money. It seems LEF is leaning towards less customer service and fewer carry out products.

[Sally Ohh]

At our store we have about 60 employees working the dayshift, with very few customers. Due to IMPACT nothing gets done. If you are a customer during this time, it’s like walking onto a car lot… you almost get attacked by employees. It’s been this way for a very long time.

On the flip side, at night we have like 8 employees and we’re slammed with customers. It’s common for employees to carry 3 phones, juggle multiple customers, handle ALL freight, code 50’s, down stock, clean and zone. Seriously, this is commonplace.

SM and HRM are both rather slow witted and not overly intelligent… so maybe it’s just our store.

[Thatoneguy]

In response to the impact and task work issues this is why there are rumors of all task work going to overnights. Rumors is the key word. Even if the store is running flat to historical sales does not mean that you staff it to last years plans. Also some of the figures especially in regards to hours used to hours budgeted on vitals are not very accurate. If you want good numbers you have to get ahold of the financial statements, see your admin if you like.

[Sally Ohh]

I’m not critiquing the IMPACT model (although I certainly could, and do so without breaking a sweat). I bring it up only because the balance of having too many employees at certain times and too few during other times is a glaring problem at my store.

This has been an ongoing issue, and store management is unable, unwilling or incapable of addressing this issue. It’s the furthest thing from customer service that I have witnessed in some time… and management appears to self absorbed with corporate drizzle to understand this.

[Thatoneguy]

On tuesday i had 6 people in my area during impact and only one after 2 pm so i understand where your coming from. It is a good idea but has yet to be implemented correctly imo.

[Thatoneguy]

We should advertise impact hours at each location so customers know when the greatest potential for getting service is. Joking.

[charlie Chapman]

Thatoneguy wrote:

We should advertise impact hours at each location so customers know when the greatest potential for getting service is. Joking.

Or the greatest time to steal.

[Radar]

Thatoneguy wrote:

This has everything to do with the decline in sales throughout the company. We leverage our operational expense as needed in order to maintain profit. With sales trending down we have to change our staffing plan to accomodate it. Sales go up hours increase. This is not new or part of the bmr plans.

So let's consider this brilliant staffing model Lowes has, "sales go down, staffing hours decrease." Customer service and sales suffer with lower staffing levels, hour decrease some more.... Do I need to draw a picture? In circles where management actually have to understand business models, this is called the "chase demand" strategy. A very sure way to go out of business, fast. Buying Niblock a subscription to the Harvard Business Review would be a waste of money.

[Bird]

Radar wrote:

<quoted text>
So let's consider this brilliant staffing model Lowes has, "sales go down, staffing hours decrease." Customer service and sales suffer with lower staffing levels, hour decrease some more.... Do I need to draw a picture? In circles where management actually have to understand business models, this is called the "chase demand" strategy. A very sure way to go out of business, fast. Buying Niblock a subscription to the Harvard Business Review would be a waste of money.

I couldn't agree with you more. Just like you can't go into a relationship with a girl thinking about the last one, you cannot go into each week based on what last week was like. The next one could be busy, and if you aren't prepared, look out, you will be in no place to capitalize on the high customer counts.

[Thatoneguy]

This staffing plan is not new and it has never been perfect. When the hours are changed it is to benefit the store and its profitability (i dont know if thats a word by the way). Although operational expenses make a great impact on the bottom line my store still staffs what is needed to serve the customer when you look at sales by hour. What needs to change are the requirements (sp?) for task work throughout the day based on a the customer is first game plan.