I'm curious...Our store has lost a lot of older workers to retirement over the last few years and some to death, sadly, in the last few months...We've also had a few people get fired for various reasons...In my department, there are a couple of guys considering retirement soon within the next 1-2 years and one younger one who is thinking of taking a lead position in another department soon because he has a family now and needs more $$$, but these workers are not being replaced when they leave...Several of us are on the older end of the scale, too, and it's only a matter of time...In reality, we need younger and better-trained workers because the older ones will not be around forever and health issues have also abounded since COVID...It all comes down to this...We've got to hire younger people and it's not happening...and it NEEDS to happen to keep things going viably...You can't simply get the same work done with 3 or 4 as you can get with 7 or 8 people...Something's gotta give...We used to promote people from the front end in the past AND train them, but that's not happening...Many who do move up get put into Kroger Pickup rather than the departments...And people do not see the incentive to get into those top department slots anymore...So, my question is this...How are the other stores keeping their departments properly staffed when older workers are leaving at such a fast pace? Many are in their 60's and ready to leave soon...What can be done to retain the younger ones and keep them from getting jaded? Some of these workers have already had issues getting paid and some are still in school, too...You can also hire people, but 1. how do you get competent people and 2. how do you keep the competent people from leaving? What's the answer here?
I don't think it matters to the money crunchers and decision makers. The bottom line dictates the rules. A body is just a unit of labor. Simple job, easy to replace the body.
According to elms, every store is already overstaffed. As a department manager, I don't buy it.
People quitting and being fired at my last job around 2006 before the housing crash. We had about 50 employees. 20 people left but none replaced.
Something was up. Turned out that they moved 90% of the company jobs out of state and only one person moved to keep the job in 2008.
20 were laid off, 10 were kept on and then laid off in 2015.
I think the same thing is happening with kroger. The most important segment does seem to be the Pick up department. There are a few kroger warehouses similar to amazon
with robots picking the grocery orders. Search youtube. Robotics are too expensive but getting cheaper every year.
My theory:
Robotics will be cheaper than people to hire and maintain. We are being studied with all these wonderful reports and metrics our superior corporate has given us to
use to make our jobs so much easier and efficient. We have these awesome zebras and kroger phone applications that could easily track our movements without us knowing.
I am finished being a department manager but I don't know how to step down. I do not want to work in my current store and will miss the $4/hour. But, I will be making just a little more than someone hired yesterday when and if they top out in pay. I see the number of people working and the amount of work to do and it is not equal. There is always more work than people regardless of what elms says. Even the reports say it takes more hours than elms allows.
I do not have an answer to your question. My store struggles with hiring competent people too. They keep hiring less and less competent people.
I don't know how to answer. Kroger is basically a psychopath. I want it to go out of existence and those responsible for the last few years of insulting bs locked up.
Don't touch the application site. Move on to a better job now.
