I was wondering if other cashiers has been told that if you do not get a 95% score on elms the company has told all managers that cashiers is to be wrote up. I was told today that if I do not get my elms score up I would be wrote up. the union has always said that the company could not write cashiers up over elms but I am beginning to believe that is going to change. I have almost 28 years with Kroger and I have never seen it so bad that you are scared to death anymore that you will be suspended for not doing your job because the company says that you are not doing your job because of a score that does not make sense. has other cashiers been told this?
To be honest I've been working at Kroger a little over a couple of months now and I never pay attention to my elms. I know my fellow cashiers are constantly checking their elms. I spend more time interacting with the customer and giving them a positive checkout experience.
In fact, I was recently informed by my manager that I had a "mystery shopper" to rate on my service and I passed with an overall score of 90%.
I have yet to be told anything about my elms. Don't get me wrong I'm fast but I will admit other cashiers are faster. Elms is a stupid policy/process to have. As fast I checkout the customers I am always getting asks:
"Did I get the deductions with the Kroger card?"
"Did I get my Mega Savings?"
"Did my Digital Coupon work?"
"Wait I have a rain-check?"
"I'm paying some with WIC, some with Debit, and the rest in cash." My answer, AAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!
"Wait, I don't want this item can you remove it. Oh! wait this too."
My personal favorite, "Why is the item this price if it says a lower price on the shelf?".......My answer, "Price Check!"
With all these potential issues the elms score goes down so its pointless. I have yet to hear anyone at my store get written up or even talked to about their elms. My store concentrates more on customer service and that's what I do best.
As an employee who doesn't work the front end, what exactly is elms?
Ring tender. It's a measure of a cashier's speed.
...And if a customer has a $100 + order, or pays with WIC, or has two kids in one of the kiddie shopping carts, or writes a check, or anything like that, it automatically slows everything down and the elms score drops. But does the computer system know this or care? No. And the managers only watch the numbers, not the human interaction.
As an employee who doesn't work the front end, what exactly is elms?
Ring tender. It's a measure of a cashier's speed.
It also affects how many hours other departments get too. In the bakery, for example, certain tasks are given a time frame for them to be completed. Theoretically it should take X amount of minutes to make a package of cookies or a cake or whatever. When said item is rung up at the register, the bakery gets credit for those hours and the hours for the following week are adjusted accordingly. That's why it's important to scan every item. If we do an order for 50 packages of cookies and the checker does a 50 quantity and scans just one package, we only get credited for the labor hours needed to make just one package. Then, when the budget comes out for the following week, the hours in the bakery get cut because they think we only sold one package of cookies and we don't need the hours. Other departments are the same way. The more items that get scanned the more hours they get.
the time to week out slow cashiers that won't improve is during probation. your FES and FEM are supposed to coach you to better performance. it's not always successful. your store is probably failing because your below average enough it's screwing up green half hours.
my store is not bad on ring tender but we can't meet our green half hours because we don't get the help needed fast enough.
As an employee who doesn't work the front end, what exactly is elms?
Ring tender. It's a measure of a cashier's speed.
...And if a customer has a $100 + order, or pays with WIC, or has two kids in one of the kiddie shopping carts, or writes a check, or anything like that, it automatically slows everything down and the elms score drops. But does the computer system know this or care? No.
Not true at all, actually. The system actually does account for everything order-related you listed (which excludes the mom with 2 kids) and while some of these things may take longer to do, you earn more time for those things. You also earn more time for running express lanes, getting overrides, etc.
