Looky at me posting two weeks in a row

[polgara_5]

I'm on a roll :D

So far so good with the new job. I can see why some of the employees don't like the GM. I like him. He's just not very people oriented. He's definitely an operations oriented manager, and he will admit to that. He's very knowledgable about logistics, procedures, etc, but he has little patience for stupidity and childishness. As I have been learning, Barnes and Noble is very soft handed about a lot of stuff and it's hard to eliminate employees who are not performing well because we have to be careful of everyone's feelings. *insert eye roll here*

They stress that the company has to meet a goal for Membership enrollments. Fine. Had that at the Gap with Gap Cards. However, there are no consequences for consistent bottom performers other than continuing with training and coaching. *frowns* Yeah, other than not being bugged by your manager, how is that going to get their buy in and get them motivated? I asked questions about rewarding and having consequences. Not allowed. HR won't even let you highlight the names of the bottom performers in red cause it singles them out. Well, yeah, that's the point. We operated with the pink list program at our store in the Gap. Each month that went by you got a worse color and worse consequences. You went five months, you were fired for not doing your job, essentially. (we had it coached in better terms, but I'm tired, lol) But think about it. You went five months without getting at least 1 GC. Then you obviously weren't doing you job of connecting with the customers (which is in the job description as well as promoting the GC) so yeah, you were just wasting my payroll.

Sorry if you disagree, and I'm not putting it there to start on controversy, but I'm a little bit conservative in that regards. If you aren't meeting the needs of the business, you have no business working there. *shrugs*

But anywho, things are changing at that store. Corporate mandated a new policy that starts in another week along with a schedule adjustment and the current employees are totally freaking about it. *rolls eyes* They are already digging their heels in and are being negative Nancy's about it all. The other Assistant Manager has worked in two other Barnes and Nobles in two different states and says she's never seen a group like this before. They will hop on anything and everything to complain. Won't they love my "Yes, I understand how you feel, yes, I see your point. But guess what? It's your job, let's just get it done, okay?" :D

I have a feeling we may lose an employee or two. Oh well. If this is what upsets them, we don't need them. Cause really, the changes that are being made are really nothing new. We had these same policies in place at the Gap. You just have to know how to work within them.

So past the boring news for you, and to something exciting. I'm going to polish up the next part of the Fish Climbing Trees series and get it posted sometime this week. So yay!

Hope everyone has a good week!

Comments

[sulien.livejournal.com]

In all truthfulness, I out and out avoid places with those sorts of sales tactics. I tend to make Rodney McKay look like a patient saint when it comes to hovering salespeople pushing up-sells and membership cards, so it's a good thing for the sales personnel of the closest Barnes & Noble that it's 87 miles away, one way. *points at icon* Seriously, that's me. So not the salesperson's fault in my case!

[polgara-5.livejournal.com]

If they are trained right it shouldn't be obnoxious. And really, the goal is quite low - 2.25% for B&N, which translates to 2 people out of 100. And if they are trained right, they can tell who they can talk into it versus who won't. I can tell by body language whether to go forward with the asking process or not. At the Gap we told them 3 strikes, but my employees were good at not being pushy (and we were always well above our goal there). Honestly, it's more about the culture and training than anything. *shrugs* And I don't like pushy sales people either. I don't mind them making suggestions and letting me know about offers but I don't want them to be overt about it.

But most people don't want to be treated that way. And you can add to a sale without it being pushy. I added two books the other day cause I chatted the guy up, found out we have extremely similar tastes, he was actually in the process of getting his book published, we compared plotlines of things, I suggested three series he might like and he took up two of them. But, he was looking to start some new series. I can't convince people to pick up something new if they aren't already open to it. Others I will help find what they're looking for and they are usually ready to head out so I don't attempt to do what I did with the other guy. I always adjust my approach to the customer and try to train my employees to do the same.

But honestly, unless you B&N is different, they tend to hire 'taskers' rather than 'sellers', at least that's how our store seems to be. So you wouldn't be pushed anyway. I can already see that I'm going to have to work on just getting them to greet everyone who walks in the door as a first step :D