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Target’s Unofficial Slogan: “Expect More (Work), (Get) Paid Less”

Target's Unofficial Slogan: "Expect More (Work), (Get) Paid Less"SExpand

Target, the slightly less popular and cleaner version of Walmart, is having a terrible year. Today it fired one executive, and clawed back compensation from another. What’s the atmosphere like inside Target now? Allow another employee to explain.

In the past six months, Target suffered an enormous data breach; fired its CEO; and worst of all, had an employee tell us how bad the situation is at company headquarters, a bout of honesty so shocking to one of the company’s top executives that he wrote a soul-searching essay about it.

A rough time, to be sure. And today, the company’s board ordered canned former CEO Gregg Steinhafel to repay more than $5 million of his exit package, on the grounds that it was too generous. Also today, the company fired Tony Fisher, the head of its Canadian operations, on the grounds that its Canadian operations are a well-chronicled disaster that lost nearly a billion dollars last year.

Damn. That’s a lot of problems. Target says that it wants to face up to its problems and hear honest critiques. We seek to help them with that. In the spirit of presenting a multiplicity of views, we now bring you a brand new bittersweet perspective that was sent to us in the past week by a (different) employee at Target’s headquarters.

So like many Target employees I’ve read the defacing of Target management by the anonymous mid-level employee in our downtown headquarters. In a world of polarized opinions and internet hype I am sure there are thousands of employees on both sides of this equation. To be honest, my disagreement with the anonymous employee isn’t that he’s wrong or right; It’s that he’s completely short on facts. So let’s rectify that…

Target is a company of generalists with very few specialized areas. The people that are promoted first generally are very good at being generalists. Let’s not forget that Target is a discount retailer, and our own unofficial slogan is “Expect more (work), (get) paid less”. As a generalist you don’t get paid as well as a “Center of Excellence” position, which is Target’s way of saying a specialized position.

Coming from outside Minnesota the concept of a company of generalists is not in line with my previous experience, and causes several problems. The first of which is brain drain. Simply put, as one person excels at their position they gain certain knowledge that other team members don’t necessarily have. When that person gets promoted they tend to go to a completely different part of the company, taking their knowledge with them. This means that the average of the knowledge on any team is limited entirely by the length of time of the longest tenured person. Mistakes that were made years ago are likely to be repeated because the knowledge of those mistakes disappears quickly. Although you spread knowledge around the company, the sum knowledge in any one area is lessened.

Also, being a company of generalists causes very few people to be the “best in class” at their role. I am in a Center of Excellence role, and I’ve seen what other companies do. They hire the best at their work and give them a vertical career path. Target doesn’t. Your career path at Target will always me a zig-zag across divisions and pyramids. That’s the simple truth. You will never be great at something; just good…

Is Target innovative? They can be. The author claims we just copy other ideas. It may look like it, but that’s only because Target has been so busy trying to define multichannel/omnichannel and innovate without all the necessary tools at the ready that a lot of our systems are held together by bandaids. We can’t innovate because it’s soul-crushing attempting to get technology to be our ally. There is a constant fight to get emerging concepts and truly innovative ideas moved forward because we are so busy trying to fix the problems we already have. We have so many systems tied together with so many interfaces that changing anything in any system is a year-long and million dollar project. Until Target realizes that their systems are 5 to 25 years out of date, our idea of innovation will be trying to make what we have do more, not trying to do anything revolutionary.

The last thing that isn’t mentioned in the author’s list of issues is that Target no longer has an identity. Our mission statements all talk about rebuilding trust and regaining customers, but we have no core identity left to give customers a reason. We have a Brand Name and we milk that brand name for all it’s worth. But when it comes down to it none of us knows what Target is about anymore because Target has been too busy trying to be a better Walmart/Amazon. If there were no Amazons or Walmarts we would have to seriously soul-search to understand who we are and what our Brand Name means.

 You can reach the author of this post at Hamilton@Gawker.com]

Sourced from gawker.com

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This might be the most miserable Target store we have ever seen

Blame Canada. That may as well be Target’s modus operandi these days.

“Botched,” “flop,” “stumble” and “remarkable failure” have all been used to describe Target’s first expansion outside the U.S. into Canada where its stores have been a disappointment pretty much from the start.

It’s been more than a year since Target opened its doors in Canada, and its stores are still far from profitable. Customers are complaining about high prices and empty shelves. The Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month that the store’s losses are expected to reach $2 billion by the end of 2014. Its goal is reportedly to generate $6 billion a year in sales by 2017.

Of course, Target has a bunch of other problems on its hands. It’s still dealing with the aftermath of a data breach that exposed millions of customers’ credit and debit-card information in the pre-Christmas shopping rush. The incident has taken a toll on the company’s profits, which were down 46 percent last quarter, and ultimately cost Target’s CEO Gregg Steinhafel his job. But its problems in Canada, where the retailer has about 124 stores, could prove to be a much more long-lasting and costly issue.

“No retail executive would want their names associated with a business that is unable to keep basic items such a food and detergent on the shelves,” Brian Sozzi, CEO & chief equities strategist of Belus Capital Advisors, wrote in a blog post Sunday. “Whatever Target Canada’s leadership IS doing, in concert with HQ directives, [it] is not solving the fundamental issues at the stores and within the supply chain.”

A Target spokesperson wouldn’t comment on the photos, but said that the company has been “open about our focus on improving operations in Canada.”

Here are some photos Sozzi’s team has taken in the past week at a store in Canada to illustrate the terrible situation

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Sourced from thehuufingtonpost.com

                                                                                                         

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Target Headquarters “In Desperate Need of Help,” Says Employee

Target Headquarters "In Desperate Need of Help," Says EmployeeSExpand

Union-busting retail giant Target is having a tough time: its CEO just resigned, its stock is down, and it faces an existential threat from Amazon. We now bring you one current Target headquarters employee’s thoughts on what’s wrong with Target.

We received the following email from a current mid-level employee at Target’s headquarters in Minnesota. This represents just one person’s experience inside the center of the Target bulls-eye. But it does contain some fascinating insights into their workplace culture. We’ve bolded a few parts that stood out to us. Enjoy.

I started at Target almost 2 years ago, in Sept  2012. Prior to Target, I worked in a technical field and I was job  hunting. I had a lot of friends who worked at Target – in the Twin  Cities you can’t help but know people that work at Target in some  capacity. They seemed to enjoy it so when I got a call from them, I  jumped at the opportunity to work for them. I went through 3 weeks of  interviewing, and then I got an offer. The money was an increase but  their vacation time sucked – only 2 weeks! Most big companies give 3  weeks even at the lowest levels…

After  your onboarding experience you’re expected to still network and have  [30-minute “Getting to Know You” meetings] with new people, either those who join your teams, or that you  meet through networking through the company. And then once you have a  GTKY, you’re expected to continue to have 30 min meetings with various  people to catch up and share what you’ve been working on. You’re also  supposed to have these status meetings with the people on your team,  your manager, your manager’s manager, your mentor, etc.

Since  you’re having all these status meetings, you’re probably wondering when  you should be working. Well you don’t have to worry about that because  you don’t really need to. Target purposely staffs assuming that everyone  is working at 50% productivity. In essence they have 2 people doing a  job that 1 person could do at another company, because the rest of the  time you’re in status meetings or volunteer events or FFF events (that’s  Fast Fun & Friendly, basically an excuse to not be working). You’re  penalized and viewed as unfriendly and not a team player if you spend  too much time in your cube working and not enough time socializing.  There have been times when I’ve taken my laptop and worked from  Starbucks because I need to be out of my cube but I also need to get  work done. Target also doesn’t reward the people who are productive and  good at their jobs. The way to move up at Target HQ is to be popular. At  other companies you need to at least be popular AND produce good work,  but at Target you can be popular and do shitty work or no work and get  promoted. The people who keep their heads down and do the work, they get  ignored and passed over until they get fed up and then quit. Doing good  work won’t get you a good raise though, because Target HQ is known for  giving shitty raises. You can get an excellent score on your performance  review and be rewarded with a 2% raise, and they expect you to be super  happy and thankful for it. If you want to make $ at Target, you have to  leave and come back, but you won’t make it on raises…

The Target culture is very Minnesota – it’s very  passive aggressive. They expect you to conform to them, to be  “Targetized” and drink the Koolaid. If you aren’t super bubbly, super  social and passive aggressive, you get told that you’re a problem. Being  direct, wanting to actually get your work done, asking questions and  pushing back are all viewed as bad things and you’ll be told to tone it  down or you’ll be pushed out. They also do a really bad job supporting  their new hires who moved to the Twin Cities to work at Target. A lot of  people quit after a year and move back to wherever they were before  because they hate it and they don’t have a network of people to support  them.

Target HQ is  in bad shape and in desperate need of help, direction and vision,  starting from the top down. [Former CEO] Greg Steinhafel getting fired was a good  step, along with the CIO being fired a few months ago, but it’s not  enough. The entire executive team with the exception of the CMO Jeff  Jones needs to go. Why? Because everyone was homegrown and “Targetized”  and has no concept of how to run a 21st century business. They still  think it’s 1996 and you can keep throwing up Target stores and suburban moms will love them. They pay lip service to how retail is evolving but  it when it comes to actually making good decisions, they do horribly.  When I started, they were so excited about getting “Buy online, pick up  in store” as if that was some new invention. How many other stores have  that and do it better than Target? Regular customers don’t even know  about it, because people hate Target’s website. They’ve tried starting a  Netflix like service, or a subscription service, but no one knows about  them and they are just copycats of what other businesses are doing.  Target has no original ideas, they are just reacting to what other  companies are doing and jumping the bandwagon. They have a culture that  makes decision via consensus, so it takes FOREVER to make a decision and  implement even the smallest change. That keeps them from being able to  make the necessary changes, and they won’t ever get there without a big  change in leadership and a true vision beyond “keep the doors open”.

Overwhelmingly  the area that has the most issues is Target Canada. From the very  beginning it was a bad decision, but the company had already made  contractual obligations and couldn’t get out of them. So they carried  forth with a really bad plan and had people in charge who don’t know  what they are doing, making bad decisions. Very simple, elementary  things in retail/supply chain are being messed up which is why the  Canada opening has gone so bad. To make it worse, they are repeating all  the things they did wrong in 2013 – absolutely nothing is getting  better. A few execs came back to Target US from Canada and were given  promotions, after a complete failure in Canada. And this is who they  have in charge.

If  Target doesn’t make a serious change in their leadership and culture,  it will end up being a Kmart, a Sears, or even worse a Circuit City. The  Twin Cities would be devastated – around 15,000 people work for Target  HQ at one of their numerous sites in the Twin Cities. The local economy  would be hit super hard. Sadly I don’t see Target getting better, and  I’m actively looking for employment elsewhere. As soon as I get a job  offer I feel is a good fit, I’m jumping ship. I’m not the only one,  since last November, I get at least 5 “So and So has resigned to pursue  other opportunities” emails, and that’s just in my pyramid (a pyramid is  like a big dept, like Finance, or HR, or Merchandising).  When I  started getting those emails and it included people like Senior VPs who  were quitting, I knew it was time to go. There have also been a few  rounds of layoffs, though mainly TTS (Target’s IT group) and Property  Development. I actually really hoped that my area would be laid off but  instead we’re staffing up :-(

I think I’ve rambled enough – even if you don’t publish this, it was therapeutic to write it all down.

It is safe to say that this is not the level of morale that America’s third-largest retailer is looking for in its own headquarters.

Sourced from Gawker.com

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