Hello ShopSmart Team,
Hello ShopSmart Team,
Just a few reminders and announcements.
First of all, we want to thank each and every one of you for all the long hours you put in over the holiday season. The success we saw from Thanksgiving through the New Year could not have been reached without all of you clocking in with your bright smiling faces and hardworking attitudes. Your dedication to serving our small town with grocery, home, and appliance needs does not go unnoticed.
In fact, our Team not only surpassed the in-store sales goals we set for ourselves this year but hit the highest in our district! Outstanding work, Team! I get the opportunity to work personally with many of you throughout the week, and I see the attention to detail and mindfulness you all put into stocking shelves, ringing up sales, and greeting customers; this win for the company is merely a reflection of that.
The General Managers and corporate want to show our thanks with a pizza party. We are tentatively planning on Friday the 6th at 4:30 in the break room, directly following our yearly Smart Work Meeting. Please reach out to Tabitha, as she is the party organizer, with any and all questions! We hope to see you there.
Continuing with the good news and thanks, we want to give a special shout-out to Janice who has officially been with ShopSmart for 42 years! Janice is a fixture of our little store, beloved by the community and our Team. Along with being ShopSmart's longest-held employee, she also holds the most employee of the month awards - a whopping 136 awards signifying 136 months of exceptional work! To thank Janice for her dedication, we have given her a permanent Employee Of The Month parking space! Thank you Janice and enjoy! If you see her out and about this week on the sales floor please be sure to congratulate her!
A reminder that with Christmas break ending, our seasonal and college-age friends who come back home to help us when we're the busiest will be leaving. You might see an influx/change to your hours because of this. Please remember that any concerns or changes in your schedule (holiday hour or otherwise) need to be submitted to and approved by Kelly before the first of the month. Failure to do this will result in you being responsible for working your scheduled shift regardless of your availability. You are, of course, free to switch shifts amongst yourselves with the approval of the GM for that day. Remember to be mindful of max hours when swapping shifts. Thank you!
As mentioned above, our Yearly Smart Work Meeting will be on Friday the 6th. Attendance to this is MANDATORY for both GM's, general staff, and front office. Attendance will be taken. Those who fail to attend will be written up. Note: anyone with outstanding write up's who fails to come to this meeting will automatically be terminated per the company handbook.
No exceptions.
Smart Work Meetings are the perfect time for all of us to get on the same page for the new year with general store updates, important merchandise releases, and safety reminders! Plus, it helps us all connect and say hello before we're back to the normal, everyday pace of work after the holidays.
This year we will be spending some extra time on store policy and how we interact with guests - Maybe you had an interaction this holiday season that didn't go quite the ShopSmart way, or maybe you have some questions about store policy, I think we all can benefit from a policy refresh class!
I'm sure most of you are aware of a few specific instances that took place recently in our store between our ShopSmart guests and employees that didn't follow protocol. There have been a couple of reporters coming in wanting to get a comment or two from our staff about these handfuls of instances; You are more than welcome to talk with the reporters. However, please keep in mind that ShopSmart does not condone the actions of the employees in question. Feel free to provide a copy of the employee handbook to anyone inquiring. The handbook outlines store policy for how ShopSmart wants its employees to resolve conflicts with guests.
We understand that the holiday season is a stressful time, we also understand that conflict resolution techniques are not one-size-fits-all. Sometimes a situation arises where you have to think on your feet; however, I am concerned that there are a few things we need to cover ASAP, before our Smart Work Meeting. Consider the following as base ideas for working with customers -
Employees are expected to refrain from throwing, tossing or pelting food items at guests shopping in the store.
Employees are not to take out items from a guest's basket/cart that they don't want them purchasing, that they would like to purchase themselves, or that they (the guest) already have multiple of in the cart/basket. NOTE: it doesn't matter if you know this guest outside of work. It also doesn't matter what this guest did to you first.
Employees cannot ask guests, "Are you dumb?", "Can you not read?", "Are you always like this in public?". Please refrain.
Employees are to respond with "Thank you!" or "You as well!" When told to have a nice day. Anyone who continues saying "Don't tell me what to do" or "Don't talk to me anymore" will be written up immediately.
Please take time to think about how your actions and words reflect back on you and ShopSmart when helping guests in the store. We want to put our best foot forward in the public eye, and in the relationships we create while on the sales floor!
It was recently over-heard that a makeshift FightClub called "SmartFight" has been meeting on Wednesday nights behind the cardboard recycling dumpsters. We would like to announce that any fighting, organized or not, is prohibited from company property.
ShopSmart does not and will not ever condone violence of any kind, especially that against your co-workers. The GM's would also like to make it clear to our newer employees that any rumors of "Best fighters get best shifts" and "if you lose you sleep in the warehouse" is NOT true. Please talk to HR if you have been a victim of "SmartFight".
Janice would also like us to clear up the rumor of her being undefeated in SmartFight. I think anyone who knows Janice well at all could deduct that that is not in her nature. She would also like everyone to stop calling her “Champ”. Previously thought of as a nickname stemming from her many Employee of the Moth awards, she now fears it has something to do with “SmartFight”.
We have made adjustments and outlined our expectations to keep the ShopSmart property a violence-free zone in the employee handbook. If you have any questions on this, please reach out to HR or your GM.
Hand in hand with that, there is no betting or gambling of any kind allowed on ShopSmart property, and drugs or alcohol consumption of any kind is prohibited as well. (in anticipation of people wondering about drinking kombucha on store property: it has been decided that due to the almost non-existent alcohol content in kombucha, it will still be permitted on store grounds. Thank you.)
This brings me to the last topic needing to be touched on. As many of you know, Dan was let go of last weekend. At ShopSmart we value our employee's privacy, however, due to the nature of Dan's termination, it was decided that it would be best the clear up the situation.
On Christmas Eve, a few minutes before closing, there was an incident involving a ten-year-old boy being hit/partially run over with the driven floor mop. As the situation developed, it came to light that the young boy and Dan had been arguing with one another before the incident.
The boy was in with his mother grabbing a few last-minute items before Christmas morning as Dan was mopping. The boy repeatedly got in his way/was walking on the freshly cleaned floors. Dan was overheard by another ShopSmart guest as telling the boy, "If you get in my way again you'll be sorry,".
Once the camera footage was pulled back by authorities, it was clear that Dan hit the child on purpose. Allegedly all Dan intended to do was hit him a little, NOT run him over. It is important to note that we do not condone any of his actions.
We are disheartened and appalled at the way things were handled that evening and we hope that through better Team building and conflict resolution training, we will be better equipped with handling frustrating situations with guests.
It is important to note that we have a "see something, say something" Policy in ShopSmart. In the video footage pulled from the night of the incident, we noticed that multiple employees witnessed the situation unfolding in aisle 13 and either pretended not to see what was happening or stood there and watched. It is also reported that the employees who watched the incident take place were laughing "maniacally". We do not have proof of this since we cannot pull back sound with our cameras; however, a few guests shopping near that aisle reported the laughter. Please, we cannot stress this enough, if something of this nature happens in the future please find or call for your GM.
Be mindful in the weeks going forward to not add to the rumor mill about this situation - if you have a question about something that happened that night, please find Denise in HR.
All of you should have received an employee handbook when attending employee onboarding training; if you would like another, please come to my office during my posted Free Office Hours, and I will print you a new copy. It is vital that everyone is familiar with the handbook and follows the handbook to the best of their abilities. If you have questions, please either talk to a GM or Courtney in HR.
Remember everyone, ShopSmart is the best way to shop! And we can only be the best if we are the best at helping our guests!
Thank you,
Brad Miller
General Store Manager
