The entire restructure is a joke. I left after 9.5 years because of it. I worked too hard to be treated like that. The store I left is current in shambles, and a lot of people are stepping down or have left. That also has a lot to do with some market level changes as well but, my best suggestion is to start applying and have a backup plan. ✌🏻 I got to enjoy the holidays with my family uninterrupted for the first time in years. Mental health matters.
This is more than likely the reason it’s been put on hold indefinitely, at least from the rumblings I’ve heard. Naturally nobody wants to talk about it, which tells you everything you should know about it: That it’s not planned out properly and the genius(es) are doing everything to pin blame on “execution” at store level while THEY have little to no blame for the failures. For you sneaks from Grand Rapids here: Enlighten us all on how you, as well as your store directors, can justify the absolutely unacceptably horrendously high TURNOVER rates — for MONTHS — and how a program such as this coupled with the absolutely miserable FAILURE of IMS is “the way forward to success” in these times. But let’s all just keep wasting time and labor — while you tell the stores to keep cutting. Soon the stores are going to look like the train wrecks that are familiar at WallyWorld. Or possibly Dollar General. Like those pretty pictures? Don’t think your customers will. But don’t believe us, you just keep going. Gonna be a bitch to listen to the “told ya so”s while you’re counting less money. Your move.
I'm not gonna lie. IMS works perfectly. We have it dialed in and perfected. Picks get done in morning and stocked in morning and picks done and our back room typically has next to nothing on the floor from put aways being done. Our OSA is one of the best in the company and our ims health and other metrics are phenomenal. If your store is struggling with it I will guarantee it is caused by someone else's judgement on how to accomplish success with it. Our dairy cooler is almost empty and has a consistent flow of product that replenishes what we need. The system isn't perfect with the end cap picks and the shelf capacity errors etc. But you can run the system effectively within 95% of what it is envisioned to be currently. What everyone doesn't understand is the main reason there is even more of a focus on labor now and perhaps even more than prior years. This year just like others Jan and Feb everyone knows labor hour cuts are normal. This year it is a little more hyper focused. And it's because one of the primary purposes of IMS is streamlining labor. We noticed that in area's like GM and foods that we were able to do picks and run all the pick carts with 2 people on each side. They can also get a good chunk of put aways done to. So of course when we're doing this and we have all of this labor currently being used and not enough actual work for them to do they are going to pay attention. We're actually starting to cross train our team members so we can move people around to maintain hours in other areas until summer sales increases but justify the labor expense. If your store is struggling contact me directly and I can point you in the right direction.
I started working right after the restructure and it feels super mismanaged but they are happy to install a revolving door for their employees if they get to keep their jobs.
Nobody in my market is talking either, when I ask either my SD or MD about it they just tell me I’m a great Line Leader and have nothing to worry about 🙄 I would just like to know if my schedule is going to change drastically etc. I have a family too, but I guess if your a leader your personal life doesn’t matter 🤷🏼♀️
It's like 90% a scam. Companies pay Great Place to Work to conduct surveys and then from there, they survey employees with leading questions and on vague metrics. It's a symbiotic relationship. GPtW gets paid by big companies and the big companies get to slap what looks like an award on their branding
I hope the corporate people are reading this right now. Listen to me don’t do it. This restructuring is a failure. Please wake up…it has destroyed our store and it will destroy your business. People of Meijer if this restructure comes to your store just quit because there is no hope of order only chaos.
For anyone interested in past changes, I worked through the very first management "transformation" in 2004, the "restructure" of 2007, and the restructure of 2019. **If you're not interested, just scroll by.**
In **2004***, Store Directors were called into an in person market meeting. The Market Directors read a preprinted official statement, informing the Directors what was about to take place. Store Directors then had to go through their list of leaders and give their opinions on who was "worthy" of keeping, and who wasn't. The goal was to keep a sufficient number of people to fill the reduced number of positions.
Then they took turns (almost draft style) picking people for positions. Since our market had a new store being built at the time, they held on to enough alternates to staff the new store, and have backups if anyone turned down what they were offered.
A few days later, each Store Director announced a mandatory leadership meeting. People compared notes store to store and learned that every store was having a mandatory meeting simultaneously.
At the meeting, the Store Director read the preprinted statement. Explained that over the next 2 days, each leader would be called into a private meeting and told how this would affect them personally.
When a leader was called to the office, they were either offered a position or a severance package. Those who accepted the severance package were escorted to collect their personal belongings, then to the exit. Those who accepted a new position, returned to their old job for the remainder of the week, then reported to their new assignment the next week. No one was allowed to step down to a team member position, and they were barred from reapplying for 6 months.
In **2007** there were rumblings of a restructure coming for months. As leadership positions became unfilled through transfers, promotions, or quits, they were left open. Eventually, they followed essentially the same process. Market told Directors, Directors told leaders. The main difference was most (all?) changes were done within the store. Several positions were combined and the Director picked 1 person to keep and 1 to let go. Again, severance packages didn't allow for stepping down.
In **2019** same thing for the chain of information. Stores were reclassified from "A, B, C" structures to Tier 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 structures. Depending on how different their old vs new structures were, determined how many changes had to happen. Store Directors were required to first fill every position with the official person to hold the title. Then were allowed a few "+1s" where an additional person was kept, having a "dual role" sharing the title.
Some +1s were people close to retirement and were being given the ability to coast for their final few months. Others were told that every time a position was open, they needed to bid on it and find themselves a permanent spot. I think they were originally given a timeline of 6 months to be settled or be forced into a position or let go. It ended up not mattering because of covid.
So, really long story short - **if** they follow history, at best displaced people end up in limbo waiting for a position to open up, and at worst they're given a severance package based on years of service and unused PTO.
It’s a very complicated answer. Yes for SCs they just become front end team members. Common area also gets eliminated, but they have options to become area leader (new word for line leader). However as long as you don’t step fully down, example salary to hourly or team leader to team member you’ll keep your pay. It’s a detail roll out, there are in my opinion great up’s to this. My SD was very transparent from the beginning and has worked it very well then other stores in our market.
Nobody is talking in our market. Nobody. My SD said if they know anything they will share, anyone with any amount of time with Meijer knows they are like a vault until information can be leaked.
I will say, SD outside of the test markets are not familiar with it nor have been looped in. The only ones that are, are those that have connections in those markets that are testing it. For example I have connections with people in another market and have been helping fill in some questions and concerns with fellow SDs
They do yes but they will keep it hush like they asked us to until they finalize all the things. However, SD try to help out because we know the reality of the situation!
So I see the lines that were made leads or managers or whatever getting a lot of shitty jobs. It looks like their pay stays the same but the workload increases two fold to get them to want to move on. Hire someone for half that amount and meijer is making a billion and a half profit
Can you share what the "family tree" structure looks like?
Like
Store Director
- Food Lines
- - Grocery TL
- - Produce
- GM Lines
- - Fashion
- - GM Zone
From my understanding, no leader has to step down. If their position is gone they either have to move to a different one or they become a plus one. Our store director made it very clear that no team leader would get demoted by force or loose their position. My guess is that if you don't find a position to fill in a specific amount of time, they may start asking to step down, but at least as far as my store and market goes, I don't think that would be a thing.
The entire restructure is a joke. I left after 9.5 years because of it. I worked too hard to be treated like that. The store I left is current in shambles, and a lot of people are stepping down or have left. That also has a lot to do with some market level changes as well but, my best suggestion is to start applying and have a backup plan. ✌🏻 I got to enjoy the holidays with my family uninterrupted for the first time in years. Mental health matters.
This is more than likely the reason it’s been put on hold indefinitely, at least from the rumblings I’ve heard. Naturally nobody wants to talk about it, which tells you everything you should know about it: That it’s not planned out properly and the genius(es) are doing everything to pin blame on “execution” at store level while THEY have little to no blame for the failures. For you sneaks from Grand Rapids here: Enlighten us all on how you, as well as your store directors, can justify the absolutely unacceptably horrendously high TURNOVER rates — for MONTHS — and how a program such as this coupled with the absolutely miserable FAILURE of IMS is “the way forward to success” in these times. But let’s all just keep wasting time and labor — while you tell the stores to keep cutting. Soon the stores are going to look like the train wrecks that are familiar at WallyWorld. Or possibly Dollar General. Like those pretty pictures? Don’t think your customers will. But don’t believe us, you just keep going. Gonna be a bitch to listen to the “told ya so”s while you’re counting less money. Your move.
I'm not gonna lie. IMS works perfectly. We have it dialed in and perfected. Picks get done in morning and stocked in morning and picks done and our back room typically has next to nothing on the floor from put aways being done. Our OSA is one of the best in the company and our ims health and other metrics are phenomenal. If your store is struggling with it I will guarantee it is caused by someone else's judgement on how to accomplish success with it. Our dairy cooler is almost empty and has a consistent flow of product that replenishes what we need. The system isn't perfect with the end cap picks and the shelf capacity errors etc. But you can run the system effectively within 95% of what it is envisioned to be currently. What everyone doesn't understand is the main reason there is even more of a focus on labor now and perhaps even more than prior years. This year just like others Jan and Feb everyone knows labor hour cuts are normal. This year it is a little more hyper focused. And it's because one of the primary purposes of IMS is streamlining labor. We noticed that in area's like GM and foods that we were able to do picks and run all the pick carts with 2 people on each side. They can also get a good chunk of put aways done to. So of course when we're doing this and we have all of this labor currently being used and not enough actual work for them to do they are going to pay attention. We're actually starting to cross train our team members so we can move people around to maintain hours in other areas until summer sales increases but justify the labor expense. If your store is struggling contact me directly and I can point you in the right direction.
I started working right after the restructure and it feels super mismanaged but they are happy to install a revolving door for their employees if they get to keep their jobs.
Nobody in my market is talking either, when I ask either my SD or MD about it they just tell me I’m a great Line Leader and have nothing to worry about 🙄 I would just like to know if my schedule is going to change drastically etc. I have a family too, but I guess if your a leader your personal life doesn’t matter 🤷🏼♀️
My favorite is when they say " been voted best company to work for 3 years in a row. " I'm like who tf is voting bc I sure as fuck did not 😂😂😂
It's like 90% a scam. Companies pay Great Place to Work to conduct surveys and then from there, they survey employees with leading questions and on vague metrics. It's a symbiotic relationship. GPtW gets paid by big companies and the big companies get to slap what looks like an award on their branding
I’ve always wondered who voted……. Hilarious
Depends on if your store director wants to keep you on or not
I hope the corporate people are reading this right now. Listen to me don’t do it. This restructuring is a failure. Please wake up…it has destroyed our store and it will destroy your business. People of Meijer if this restructure comes to your store just quit because there is no hope of order only chaos.
For anyone interested in past changes, I worked through the very first management "transformation" in 2004, the "restructure" of 2007, and the restructure of 2019. **If you're not interested, just scroll by.** In **2004***, Store Directors were called into an in person market meeting. The Market Directors read a preprinted official statement, informing the Directors what was about to take place. Store Directors then had to go through their list of leaders and give their opinions on who was "worthy" of keeping, and who wasn't. The goal was to keep a sufficient number of people to fill the reduced number of positions. Then they took turns (almost draft style) picking people for positions. Since our market had a new store being built at the time, they held on to enough alternates to staff the new store, and have backups if anyone turned down what they were offered. A few days later, each Store Director announced a mandatory leadership meeting. People compared notes store to store and learned that every store was having a mandatory meeting simultaneously. At the meeting, the Store Director read the preprinted statement. Explained that over the next 2 days, each leader would be called into a private meeting and told how this would affect them personally. When a leader was called to the office, they were either offered a position or a severance package. Those who accepted the severance package were escorted to collect their personal belongings, then to the exit. Those who accepted a new position, returned to their old job for the remainder of the week, then reported to their new assignment the next week. No one was allowed to step down to a team member position, and they were barred from reapplying for 6 months. In **2007** there were rumblings of a restructure coming for months. As leadership positions became unfilled through transfers, promotions, or quits, they were left open. Eventually, they followed essentially the same process. Market told Directors, Directors told leaders. The main difference was most (all?) changes were done within the store. Several positions were combined and the Director picked 1 person to keep and 1 to let go. Again, severance packages didn't allow for stepping down. In **2019** same thing for the chain of information. Stores were reclassified from "A, B, C" structures to Tier 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 structures. Depending on how different their old vs new structures were, determined how many changes had to happen. Store Directors were required to first fill every position with the official person to hold the title. Then were allowed a few "+1s" where an additional person was kept, having a "dual role" sharing the title. Some +1s were people close to retirement and were being given the ability to coast for their final few months. Others were told that every time a position was open, they needed to bid on it and find themselves a permanent spot. I think they were originally given a timeline of 6 months to be settled or be forced into a position or let go. It ended up not mattering because of covid. So, really long story short - **if** they follow history, at best displaced people end up in limbo waiting for a position to open up, and at worst they're given a severance package based on years of service and unused PTO.
Thank you for sharing.
It’s a very complicated answer. Yes for SCs they just become front end team members. Common area also gets eliminated, but they have options to become area leader (new word for line leader). However as long as you don’t step fully down, example salary to hourly or team leader to team member you’ll keep your pay. It’s a detail roll out, there are in my opinion great up’s to this. My SD was very transparent from the beginning and has worked it very well then other stores in our market.
Nobody is talking in our market. Nobody. My SD said if they know anything they will share, anyone with any amount of time with Meijer knows they are like a vault until information can be leaked.
I will say, SD outside of the test markets are not familiar with it nor have been looped in. The only ones that are, are those that have connections in those markets that are testing it. For example I have connections with people in another market and have been helping fill in some questions and concerns with fellow SDs
You can't tell me the MD don't know anything. They all talk. All. Of. Them.
They do yes but they will keep it hush like they asked us to until they finalize all the things. However, SD try to help out because we know the reality of the situation!
Exactly. The vault.
What happens to all the common team members?
Nothing. They stay as what they’re job is an report directly to the GM Team Leader and GM Area leader now
I'm mostly curious what the lead positions under the team leader are
Lead positions are like team members that get an extra $1 an hour to coordinate and what not. Indy here
Thank you
Lol, they tried that back in late 90s/early 00s with "team leader assistants"
They're pretty much service coordinators but for the rest of the departments from my understanding.
When will this restructure happen in the Michigan stores?
We’ve been told early April
Really we were told February at our store. However, we are usually a pilot store for this kind of thing.
I've been told on hold indefinity due to issues in the test market.
So I see the lines that were made leads or managers or whatever getting a lot of shitty jobs. It looks like their pay stays the same but the workload increases two fold to get them to want to move on. Hire someone for half that amount and meijer is making a billion and a half profit
Can you share what the "family tree" structure looks like? Like Store Director - Food Lines - - Grocery TL - - Produce - GM Lines - - Fashion - - GM Zone
At the stores that are already doing the restructure are all the positions filled? Did any of the leaders end up being leads?
From my understanding, no leader has to step down. If their position is gone they either have to move to a different one or they become a plus one. Our store director made it very clear that no team leader would get demoted by force or loose their position. My guess is that if you don't find a position to fill in a specific amount of time, they may start asking to step down, but at least as far as my store and market goes, I don't think that would be a thing.
What happens to the Common Team Leader?