Target Human Resources – Business Research Paper(300 Level Course)
The life blood of any large corporation is a well trained and adequately staffed work force. At Target Corporation, there is no exception to this rule. Target Corporation is a quickly growing company who boasts 1400 stores in the United States with plans of opening 600 new stores in the next 4 years. This quick expansion requires a great deal of planning and commitment from the human
resources department to ensure that there is adequate staffing in place run these new stores. In the following paper, I will discuss Target’s staffing practices in regards to the trends of diversity and technology.
As an assistant manager at Target Corporation, one of my many “out of the store” responsibilities is my commitment to our districts executive hiring committee. This hiring committee consists of 10 assistants that recruit, interview and hire new executive team members for the North and South Carolina districts. There are three reasons a committee like this is necessary. Each store has a minimum of 5 executives, depending on store sales volume. With 4 new stores planned in Charlotte alone going up in the next 2 years, a surplus of executives is the key to future success. Continually hiring executives accounts for store personnel leaving, either on their own accord or due to termination. Another reason accounts for team members who are relocated due to promotions and special projects.
As a member of this hiring committee, diversity has been a large topic of conversation for us as a committee and is one of many quantitative numbers that the team gets evaluated on. Diversity of Target’s executive staff plays a large role in the success that Target has enjoyed since its beginning. Having a diverse management staff allows store teams to better relate to the populous of the surrounding areas of the building; which will effect the relationships within the work staff and management and the work staff and the customers who shop at the store.
The leader of the hiring committee has given the team suggested guidelines to follow for staffing each store executive staff with a widely diversified group. Having a team diverse in gender is one of the first challenges we face. Generalized differences are identified in the approaches of women and men to definition of the job, overall style, decision making and interpersonal relationships. This means that men and women inherently have advantages and disadvantages in terms of management skill and styles. Having a good mix of both men and women in each store as managers allows the executive staff to learn and count on each other in times of turmoil and strife. Similar effects can be seen in cultural differences as well.
Target employs more than 300,000 team members in 47 states, 63 percent of whom are women and 37 percent of whom are minorities. In its legal department, attorneys are a direct reflection of the diversity initiatives it supports and the culture it has helped create. Women make up more than half of its attorneys and minorities consist of more than 10 percent.
One tool we use as a group to hire diversity is to run help wanted ads in culturally specific news papers and publications such as EL Progreso Hispano News here in Charlotte. We also have been involved with minority groups at local colleges such as UNCC and CPCC to try to attract a diverse work groups.
Another interesting trend in the hiring process at Target is it’s use of technology in the hiring process. Target, in general, has used technology in many aspects of it’s business model to gain dominance in the cut throat market of retail. At the beginning of a candidates job interview process, they must complete a job application and personality examination. This process can be done either at application kiosks at the store or at home on the internet. All applications and personality examination results are accessible to store executives in a web based data base program called Target Job Application System, or JAS. All applications can be viewed and organized by any one or list of determinants such as availability, education, desired job and many more. This allows for quick access to applicants that can fill a specific job or duty in the store. This same program grades personality examinations, reports on back ground check information and results of drug tests given to candidate who have been offered a job. JAS has quickly proven itself as a useful tool in the challenge of staffing a Target store.
Another interesting technological break through Target uses to staff its stores is called SHARP, or Store Allocation and Resource Planning. SHARP is a computer program that has two main duties each week. The first thing SHARP does is produces a schedule each week for the entire work force of each building. The second, and more important function in regards to this paper, is the function of forecasting sales and personnel needs that are specific to each store in the chain. Sharp calculates current sales trends, current staff including availabilities and upcoming work loads and produces a suggested number of payroll hours allocated as well as a staffing minimum for each department in the store.
Each Target store has a small human resource department headed by a manager know as the team relations leader. As a former TRL, it was imperative for me to follow the guidelines set by SHARP in order to appropriately staff my building. This program is also effective in planning seasonal staffing needs such as Christmas. Sales and jump 500% in on week during the holidays and it is difficult to guess how much staff is actually needed to run business at that level, SHARP makes it easy. Of course exceptions will be made and the computer program cannot account for all factors, especially the human ones, but the system is a great tool to use to get a good idea of where an individual store should be in terms of staffing minimums.
Target Corporation understands that the company is only as good as the people who work in the stores. Target puts much focus on staffing its stores with not only the correct amount of people, but also the right people who can work together and merge together as a team. Much planning and payroll hours are spent in the HR departments to ensure that we as managers are focusing on the right tools in terms of the work force in the building. With tools we can use such as technology and our intense focus on diversity, Target hopefully with have a strong future ahead.