Club Manager to Club Management Team 

• We are staying laser focused on our strategic pillars of People, Product and Digital.
• We’re using them as a guide to help us transform how we operate so we can become a place where members and associates can’t imagine their lives without Sam’s Club.
• We know that any great transformation starts with our people. Our associates make the difference and elevate us above from the competition.
• Let me tell you about what we’re doing next within our “People Pillar”:
  • We’re moving to four work groups and streamlining job codes to help associates work as a team to complete tasks and have better ownership of their work.  
  • We’re transitioning to a block schedule for full-time associates to improve consistency for our people.
  • We’ll continue skills training to help broaden your skills and prepare you to work across multiple areas of the club.
• The goal of these changes is to allow our team the opportunities to learn new skills, provide them with more consistent schedules, and ultimately provide better service to our members.
• Here’s how it will all work.

 

Work Groups

• Based on the job code our associates are in today, they’ll transition into one of four work groups; Member Team, Merchandising Team, Fresh Team or Specialty Team.
• Each work group is expected to work as team across multiple areas of the club versus working in a specific location based on job code.
• Let’s walk through each work group and what it means for those specific associates.
  • Here is the new organization chart (show chart).
  • As an assistant manager, your role has been realigned to a work group.
    • <tell each manager their new job title>
  • Now let’s talk about what this org chart means for our hourly associates.
  • We are streamlining the amount of hourly job codes in the Member Team and Merchandise Team work groups. This will empower associates to work in more areas of the club to help create an even better member experience.
  • All job codes in Fresh Team and a majority of job codes in Specialty Team will remain as they currently are.
    • We reduced job codes in Fresh last year, so these associates are already positioned to work across their work group.
    • The positions in Specialty Team are very specialized so most associates in this work group will not be required to work in other areas of the club. 
  • Associates will be transitioned to a new job code with no negative impact to pay.
  • We recently took the opportunity to look at when associates are scheduled to stock merchandise and moved our overnight associates to daytime shifts. These associates will be placed into workgroups and will receive new job codes with all other hourly associates in the club.
  • Each associate will be in his or her new job code systematically in Workday, starting Saturday, June 22. 
  • To allow the job code transition to occur, there will be a workday lockdown Monday, May 13 – Saturday, May 25. During this time, we will not be able to create actions in Workday for movement or hiring.

 

 

Block Scheduling

• We’re moving to a block schedule to provide stability for full-time associates.
• Block Scheduling will simplify shift combinations and will allow us to employ a greater proportion of full-time associates.
• It does this by aligning to the work groups and moving to two standardized full-time shifts; an AM shift and a PM shift.
• Part-time associate schedules will fluctuate from week to week anywhere from 18-24 hours.   However, there may be opportunities for part-time associates to pick up additional shifts based on business need. 
• Part-time associates can see and pick-up any unfilled shifts in My Club Schedule App.
• I will be deciding which associates are placed in each shift based on the associate’s preference and tenure with the company.
• This process will take two to three weeks to place all associates in their permanent days of the week.

Training

• We’ll continue to skills train associates across more areas of the club so they can become more knowledgeable to better serve our members.
• New training has been developed that is quick and simple to give associates the necessary skills to perform all tasks within their work group.
• As an Assistant Manager, you’ll be responsible for facilitating Quickstart, a quick 30-minute interactive learning experience that will help associates understand the four work groups.
• We’ll be working very closely with our Market Champion, <INSERT NAME>, to train all associates over the next several weeks.
• More to come on this soon. 

 

Wrap Up

• New job codes, schedules and work groups will start on Saturday, June 22.  
• Over the next several weeks I’ll be having conversations with each of our associates to discuss what these changes mean for them.
• During those conversations I will inform the associate of their new work group, talk about his/her new job description and job codes and discuss availability and preference for new shifts.
• Change – even positive change – can be difficult for many people.
• Let’s CBWA more than normal over the coming weeks.
• Thank you for your leadership and everything you’re doing for our associates.
• Now, what questions can I answer for you?