Performance Agreement

pink5

I'm a retail assistant manager and due to have my review next week , im sure I am going to come away from it with an "unsatisfactory" rating due to the stores poor results the last two years in different performance indicators one being secret shopper scoring which has been poor for about 3/4 of the time, % of customer loyalty cards we have got people to sign up to hasnt met targets, labour costs has been above our budget, amount of linked sales such as batteries, cables, cards, phone credit hasnt reached our store target, extra warrantys on our products havent been sold in line with our targets. this has boiled down to our store having some of the poorest results in the country.
the store manager has been given a poor p. agreement rating and I think he will in turn give me and the other two assistant managers a similarly poor one too which at this stage could mean being put on a perormance improvement plan (PIP) which could result in dismissal.
My question is do you think this is fair considering the following:
1. Secret shoppers scores come back to us a month after the visit with a report and a score, we are not told the date or time of visit and are not told the names of the staff who served them we are just given a score to accept, therefore we cannot award or retrain any individual based on the score, difficult then to manage this despite the fact i do checks every day on staff and let them know if they are not doing things right and praise if they are but i have no way of knowing what they behave like when im not around.
2.Again I have done alot to improve sales of warrantys and links, from competitions among team, sales league to track who is selling and reward with something small at end of the week, training of all people, follow up and giving feedback, daily team feedback on results. i get the same story form them that the customers wont buy them, they ask when im listening but i dont think they do this when im not there.
3. I have no full control over labour costs as different managers and supervisors bring ppl in to do various tasks for them each week and store manager is ok with this.
4. the store manager is to blame for a lot, when he is there he stays in office even when he is only manager in, laways on the phone, doesnt believe in reward for work well done ( believes its their job), doesnt encourage the team.
5. i havent had a review since last year (meant to get two per year) and have had no formal feedback from him on results ,my performance etc.
6. he believes that if the store performance indicators are poor then everyone should get "Unsatisfactory" in their review no matter what they have done all year and i mean every individual from asst mgr down to part time saturday staff members.
Is this right?

Procrastastudy

I come from a very similar background. This is a common issue in retail sales. Some pointers:

Keep records of everything you do. Get staff to sign off on any training or performance management you do. Have your ducks in a row and your paper work organised.

When sitting down with you manager have a pair. Be polite but firm. The message you want to convey is - "I'm doing my job, I can prove I'm doing my job and if you screw me over I'll be proving it to the Area Manager." You need to be VERY careful how you play this. I've seen really good managers hung out to dry because they weren't exceptionally careful in how they approached things and were seen as disloyal. If your Area manager thinks you are going to screw him over it'll be bye bye.

You need to get this over with and then broach with your manager that you don't feel he's pulling his weight. You again need to be careful, polite and firm. Again if you don't get any satisfaction you'll have to feed it up the chain. If you haven't done all you can in addressing it in store it's going to get painful. You need to convey - "I did everything I could to carry this guy but I couldn't let it go on."

If it goes down the road of disciplinaries there are all kinds of tactics you can use but really at that point your career with that company is over. You need to head this off at the pass as it were.

EDIT - Rule of thumb - Deal with the person directly and informally then deal with their Boss informally - in a looking for guidance 'oh glorious and wise one' kind of way. Keep emphasising your a company man(woman) and you're sure its a minor blip you can work with them on. When what you actually mean is he's (store manager) a knob and you're (area manager) a knob for not dealing with it.

pink5

What I have already:
List of staff I have retrained on procedures
examples of incentives and tracking mechanisms i used to keep track of sales performance.
evidence of how i improved selection process to get right people into the business.

another thing is that before i worked with this manager i have many years of satisfactory ratings with no poor ones, i only started getting poor ones with this manager, same applies to otthers on my team.

my weekly reports not signed by him where they should, shows hes not doing his part.
excellent attendence record.

The Big Red Button

pink5 wrote: »

I'm a retail assistant manager and due to have my review next week , im sure I am going to come away from it with an "unsatisfactory" rating due to the stores poor results the last two years in different performance indicators one being secret shopper scoring which has been poor for about 3/4 of the time, % of customer loyalty cards we have got people to sign up to hasnt met targets, labour costs has been above our budget, amount of linked sales such as batteries, cables, cards, phone credit hasnt reached our store target, extra warrantys on our products havent been sold in line with our targets. this has boiled down to our store having some of the poorest results in the country.
the store manager has been given a poor p. agreement rating and I think he will in turn give me and the other two assistant managers a similarly poor one too which at this stage could mean being put on a perormance improvement plan (PIP) which could result in dismissal.

Firstly, if the store manager's poor performance rating is going to lead him to give you a similarly poor rating, it's not fair that he has the power to do this.

Could you request that the area manager does your performance review meeting instead? Or at least request that they sit in on it?

If I were you, I'd be approaching the area manager directly now to discuss this with them. You'll be in a much weaker position following the performance review, as it'll just look like "sour grapes" because you got a poor rating. Far better to discuss your concerns before this happens, with either the area manager, or the appropriate "higher" contact (basically, your manager's manager, or even perhaps someone higher in the chain.)

pink5 wrote: »

My question is do you think this is fair considering the following:

1. Secret shoppers scores come back to us a month after the visit with a report and a score, we are not told the date or time of visit and are not told the names of the staff who served them we are just given a score to accept, therefore we cannot award or retrain any individual based on the score, difficult then to manage this despite the fact i do checks every day on staff and let them know if they are not doing things right and praise if they are but i have no way of knowing what they behave like when im not around.

Be proactive here. Try to bring it up in the performance review, before your manager does. Say that it's a concern of yours, that you are very unhappy with the secret shopper scores - but that you'd really appreciate more information on what went wrong so that you can tackle the problem more efficiently.

pink5 wrote: »

2.Again I have done alot to improve sales of warrantys and links, from competitions among team, sales league to track who is selling and reward with something small at end of the week, training of all people, follow up and giving feedback, daily team feedback on results. i get the same story form them that the customers wont buy them, they ask when im listening but i dont think they do this when im not there.

This is where you need evidence, a complete listing of everything you have done and any new initiatives you have introduced.

There is obviously some problem with communication with the staff. Don't you trust them? Why not?

Maybe, if you're placing too much focus on the sales league and daily team feedback etc, it's causing them to sort of secretly gang up against you? That they have an unspoken (or spoken) agreement amongst themselves, where they try to keep their sales broadly in line with each other, to avoid any one person looking bad?

While working as a team is important, it may be more beneficial to work with each individual team member and discuss their sales, and set individual targets (rather than publicly naming/shaming/praising.) It's more time-consuming, and it would only be a short-term measure. But it would give each individual team member their own personal motivation to do well, regardless of how well/badly the team is performing as a whole.

pink5 wrote: »

3. I have no full control over labour costs as different managers and supervisors bring ppl in to do various tasks for them each week and store manager is ok with this.

Then ask for this control, ask for more responsibility over this. Ask to be given the responsibility to sign off on the rota.

If your manager says no, he can't let this issue impact on your performance review.

Also, if he says no, discuss it with his manager. Make them aware that you've sought this added responsibility.

pink5 wrote: »

4. the store manager is to blame for a lot, when he is there he stays in office even when he is only manager in, laways on the phone, doesnt believe in reward for work well done ( believes its their job), doesnt encourage the team.

As I said, go above his head if necessary.

pink5 wrote: »

5. i havent had a review since last year (meant to get two per year) and have had no formal feedback from him on results ,my performance etc.

Again, make sure that his manager is aware of this.

pink5 wrote: »

6. he believes that if the store performance indicators are poor then everyone should get "Unsatisfactory" in their review no matter what they have done all year and i mean every individual from asst mgr down to part time saturday staff members.
Is this right?

I disagree with this, but as I already said, you need to address this with the appropriate higher-up personnel before he gives you a poor rating.

pink5 wrote: »

What I have already:
List of staff I have retrained on procedures
examples of incentives and tracking mechanisms i used to keep track of sales performance.
evidence of how i improved selection process to get right people into the business.

another thing is that before i worked with this manager i have many years of satisfactory ratings with no poor ones, i only started getting poor ones with this manager, same applies to otthers on my team.

my weekly reports not signed by him where they should, shows hes not doing his part.
excellent attendence record.

Are you really determined to keep working in this particular store?

Might transferring to another store in the chain be an option? As a lot of the problems seem to stem from the manager in this particular store.

Worst case scenario, if you do end up being placed on a PIP, as you mentioned, make sure you start looking into another job ASAP. Much easier to find a new job when you're employed already, than to go looking for a new job following dismissal.

Procrastastudy

On thing I forgot to mention. You need to ensure the store is performing better on his days off when you are in charge. At the very the very least make sure that the team is very tightly performance managed on those days. Ideally you need to make sure labour etc comes in on target. You shouldn't send people home but some companies allow this. If someone needs cover then redepoly of of your team to another store. Likelihood is he's probably leaving you short on the days you are on - I know that's classic asshat manager behaviour.

pink5

thanks for the sound advice from you both its going to be a tricky situation alright as alot of things i should have documented I don't. I would really like to hear from anybody who has experience of this on either side and how they got through the situation.

Procrastastudy

pink5 wrote: »

thanks for the sound advice from you both its going to be a tricky situation alright as alot of things i should have documented I don't. I would really like to hear from anybody who has experience of this on either side and how they got through the situation.

I screwed my boss around for three months and then told them it was going to cost them X to get rid of me. They paid it - I went back to college to screw people for a living


Thats just me though!