It seems like every leader who once stood up for their teams and shared what was really happening at store level with senior leadership has either left the company, is in the process of leaving, or has already been termed. In a growth business C-level executives need and want mid-level managers who challenge and push back when something doesn't work or new direction creates a toxic and unrealistic environment. Now that we are no longer growing, we are focused on reducing costs and saving our way to success, and the single biggest variable expense is that of human capital.
We have transitioned to an organization that pushes people as hard as possible with little regard for how it impacts them personally or professionally, we use people up and move on to the next unsuspecting grist for the mill. This is not unknown at senior levels which is why we see such an increase in how we internally promote and support social causes in an effort to distract from the company's neglectful position on colleague pay, benefits, opportunities, and work environment.
Decisions now seem to be made in the interest of what works and looks best in the short term. Staffing has been reduced to such minimal levels that opportunities for mentors to work with and develop their teams have virtually disappeared, to be replaced with system based learning. The next time you talk to a colleague or leader, ask them to describe a situation that helped them to grow or taught them something that made them a better employee and see how many of them share an experience about a computer based training program vs. someone who took a vested interest in them and had time for one on one interactions related to their training and development.
Managers in stores now spend as much as two or more full days a week on their computers, that's a full 40% of their week invested not in working with their teams or on the floor with customers, but sitting in the office to attend Teams meetings hosted by the Region, the Division, Beauty, Big Ticket, Jewelry, Asset Protection, Operations, Visual, Leased, Omni, Loyalty, CX, and MyClient Champions to name but some of the hour or longer meetings that are mandatory to attend. We used to limit calls and information cascades to just Monday's, can anyone explain how we got rid of 50% of the field leadership and increased the number of meetings we have to attend by 100% or more?
Running a store in not rocket science, the best organizations are those that trust and allow their leaders to spend time working with and getting to know their teams and customers. Have we forgotten this? What happened to realistic goals? Why do we allow leaders at every level to establish their own goals and timelines making it harder and more unrealistic, instead of following the company direction? Either our senior leaders don't know what they are doing and are setting goals and timelines that are too easy, or our field leadership is out of control nobody cares about the environment they are creating. We have over 10,000 open jobs in the field and it's not just the problems with the new hiring system, word is getting out and fewer and fewer people want to work in this environment. We need to do better.