Rosalind (Roz) Johnson

Walmart has removed degree requirements from most of our jobs, with over 75% of our U.S. roles now not requiring a degree.    We are collaborating with The Burning Glass Institute and other leading companies in the Skills-First Workforce Initiative, such as Bank of America, Blackstone, Johnson & Johnson, Microsoft, PepsiCo and Verizon. Our skills-first approach aims to open up career opportunities, meet employer talent needs and strengthen the economy. The framework will be open source and available to all U.S. employers by September 2025.    Our initial focus is on the nine most prevalent job roles across various sectors, which collectively account for over 11 million American jobs. By creating a shared language, or taxonomy, for assessing and valuing skills, we can promote the widespread adoption of this hiring approach.    Read more here: 

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Target reported a rather soft first quarter, with declines in sales and revenue that reflect overall shopping habits. Although the retailer didn’t open the year with a bang, it is setting up for growth later in the year through new initiatives and, hopefully, in a more conducive selling environment. #retailsales #target

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As a GOOD AMERICAN customer, I can’t wait to experience the store. 👖As a former merchant, having a digital option to showcase styling, fit and product knowledge would have given me the confidence that my merchandising strategy was being executed in the store without having to physically be on location. 📺This is a great way to make sure teams are product obsessed with the constant graphics and that the visual merchandising / styling options are being showcased at the store. 🛍️To make sure this extension of digital is a success, Good American would need to keep the content fresh and consistent with real time inventory and reflective of the current product assortment. Sales associates would still need to be product obsessed but they would also need to show customers what is possible with the digital screens. The experience should augment and assist the sales associate and not be considered a replacement of staff. 🔹The excitement of finding a product on the screen, loving the look and being disappointed if the item or the size is not available could also drive customers away. GA would need to be on top of their inventory position and have a good handle of managing their inventory across all channels. 🗞️Check out more #BrainTrust comments on RetailWire: https://lnkd.in/eDJp--GF #retail #retailnews #goodamerican #cx #stores #merchandising #TRE #TopRetailExpert

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There is absolutely NOTHING and I mean this in every way NOTHING a retail leader cannot do. The way we can adapt and act, have such an awareness to others and their feelings. Retail math!!!! Fiscal calendars and all. A communication skill set that is not only direct when needed but eloquent and warm too. It throws any and everything at you at all the most wildest times. I used to laugh “murpheys law” and retail go hand in hand. You’re a payroll specialist an HR generalist, a retail ops leader and most importantly you’re a person, with flaws and if your a true leader you aknowledge that you make Mistakes and teach others to do the same! So blessed that I get to support NSO and Framebridge retail teams because understanding the field and knowing what retail leaders do is the first step to bridging the gap in corporate and the field! 🫶

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The Retail Monitor, a monthly survey from CNBC and the National Retail Federation (NRF), found that sales ticked up 0.26% from March to April. NRF CEO Matthew Shay attributed the modest increase to “a growing job market and real gains in wages,” but qualified that “consumers remain focused on value and price and are shifting their spending patterns where needed to make ends meet.” #retailsales #economicgrowth

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If It Ain't Fixed Don't Broke It Macy's announced another round of 150 store closures 3 years after closing 100 stores The closures and layoffs are part of a streamlining effort to better align with the ever changing consumer and marketplace Best Buy is closing 15 stores in 2024 after closing 25 stores in 2023. Additionally, Geek Squad layoffs abound as Best Buy expands the use of A.I. New Gap CEO, Richard Dickson, has stated that marketing has lost sight of the differentiation between its Gap, Old Navy, Banana Republic, and Athleta brands Three large struggling companies with similar turnaround strategies Cut costs, improve inventory mix, align symmetries, yada yada yada One thing these companies never talk about? How do we improve the lot for our employees? How do we get our employees to care? How do we get our remaining employees engaged in our success when all we've done is beat them down Okay, that was 3 things, but you get the point Companies don't know how to engage their employees, and they don't care Why should they? The Institution of Leadership has not moved the employee engagement needle since the 1990’s, which is surprising since the same tired old solutions have been recycled as new for decades Servant Leadership hasn't improved engagement Authentic Leadership hasn't improved engagement Emotional Intelligence hasn't improved engagement The Point? Just because others continue to fail to improve employee engagement doesn't mean it can't be done Better ideas, higher engagement It really is that simple The Illusion of Competence #leadership #innovation #tech #management #emotionalintelligence

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Love it! But those who work in stores only wished their partners at HQ wanted to be in stores without a mandate. It is impossible to be the best in supporting stores or building a customer experience without being in stores often…at night, on weekends and during holidays! And once in stores be uber curious and engage with customers and the team. Ask “what can I do better or to help?”, “what gets in your way?”, “what should HQ change?”… ask these and other questions…and be genuine and authentic or don’t go! Oh, and get in the back room and ask to process freight, complete an Omni order, learn the steps involved in process’ and do the work! The best leaders work in stores with their teams, not simply “visit”. Retail magic still happens where the team, customer and product collide!

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Wednesday this week Mattress Retailer Toolkit is hosting yet another Experts sessions call, this is a live call at 11:30 am East Coast Time and it’s FREE for all to attend. On this call Kristen Dressler from Team Builder Recruiting, who helped us with our last two rockstar hires will join us. RSVP to join us ⬇️⬇️⬇️ Replays will be housed in our member community AND she will have a members only resource page of valuable assets when creating ahiring ads, forming interview questions and brining in on the right hire the right way. She’ll be sharing - 5 Winning Hiring Strategies to Build Your Team Attracting, interviewing, and building a team is a challenge every business faces. By approaching this mission-critical task with a touch of strategy and a little planning, you increase your chances of success exponentially. In this presentation, we'll discuss what candidates are looking for in a career move. You'll learn how to identify the type of person needed for your open position, marketing strategies to attract qualified candidates, and interview tips to help you identify which candidate best matches your role. The presentation wraps up with insights on presenting the offer to your first-choice candidate so that you have the best possible chance of getting a "YES!" to your offer. You'll leave this session with practical tips and tricks to build an effective and streamlined hiring process.

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A really insightful read, a wonderful capture of why great leadership matters. https://lnkd.in/gmBu3Xum

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As retail leaders, we all know that recruiting continues to be a challenge, especially given the industry’s high turnover rate. Leaders must find the right fit to represent the brand (and show up every day!), and they also have to structure the jobs and the work environment to retain their best talent. Regardless of the kind of retail business it is, at MOHR Retail, we’ve found that there are three elements of a top candidate: ✔Natural talent ✔Learned skills ✔Acquired knowledge The importance of understanding what the right fit looks like and then asking the right questions and conducting effective interviews is critical. Don’t underestimate the importance of the interview! Our research shows that skillful interviewers lead to better hires and will decrease turnover within the first 90-120 days. To find ongoing success in hiring and retention, it takes an ongoing, multi-pronged approach to maintain a strong pipeline of quality candidates. A good boss, solid training, performance goals/incentives, and a great culture all come from inside the company after the person is chosen. But they’re also what keep the talent pipeline healthy and turnover at a minimum. As a retail leader, you need to have a comprehensive strategy in place that prioritizes recruitment and addresses retention factors that keep the top talent engaged with your business. What recruitment techniques have worked well for your company? #LearnMOHR #RetailTraining #Recruitment

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Celebrating a win for California’s retail safety. Proposition 36 passed! 🎉 Proposition 36 rolls back parts of the controversial Proposition 47. Proposition 47, passed in 2014, was ironically called the “Safer Streets” proposition, even though it was designed to reduce jail overcrowding. It was meant to reverse historic tough-on-crime policies and divert money spent on incarceration to rehabilitation. The crime reform was well-intended but had unintended side effects for organized retail crime prevention. The proposition raised the felony threshold for prosecuting shoplifters to $950. Anyone caught for shoplifting under $950 would be cited with a ticket and released. It wasn’t a strong disincentive for repeat offenders. Ultimately, Prop 47 fueled a surge in commercial burglary (smash & grab) and shoplifting. It’s no surprise that 70.4% of voters approved the new proposition.. Under the new Proposition 36, people found guilty of shoplifting will now be more likely to face felony charges that were previously classified. Shoplifting under $950 is now punishable by up to three years if the offender has “two or more past convictions for certain theft crimes. It also increases potential punishment and jail sentences based on the total amount of goods stolen from prior incidents. Finally, it lengthens felony sentences by up to three years if at least three people jointly commit a theft or property crime or there is property damage. Congrats to all my ORC and LP friends who oversee stores in California! 

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As a lifelong retail merchant, I'm going to potentially have a stroke if the retail media continues to report sequential month-over-month results as an indicator of anything. Year-over-year results are indicative of true performance, with the caveat of a shift in a key seasonal event like...I don't know, perhaps Easter...that will impact the natural trends in consumer purchase behavior. In good news, inflation appears to continue to be cooling...good news unless you are trying to convince your buyer that a price increase you took previously should not now be reversed. Good luck with that, by the way... #retailmerchandising #retailsales #inflation

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RESUME TIP for RETAIL LEADERS: The appearance of your resume is just as important as the content. When someone opens it they immediately get a sense of whether it's easy (and enjoyable) to read, or if it's thrown together with little attention to detail. That usually happens before anything is actually read. Here are 10 tips to improve the appearance of your resume: 1. Don’t overuse text enhancements. I've seen resumes with bold, underline, italics, color, and different font types and sizes. Nothing stands out if you try to make everything stand out. 2. Make sure there's enough white space - it's just as important as text enhancements. Use the same size of white space between all sections, and the same size between all jobs. 3. Write numbers in number form - they stand out more. For example, write 6 stores rather than six stores. Traditional writing rules don’t always apply to resumes, so don't worry about the "10 and over" rule. 4. You’ll never get everyone to agree on the best font for a resume but I recommend common ones like Calibri, Tahoma, Gill Sans, or Garamond. Easy to read is best. 5. Hyperlink your email address, LinkedIn profile, and any website links on your resume - it's easier for the reader. Also remove the underlining - it looks cleaner. I usually change the color to black as well, if I've used color elsewhere in the resume. 6. Your resume has to be organized and easy to read, and that doesn't just mean paragraphs and bullets. Are the company names, job titles, dates, and other critical information easy to find? Don't bury important info where it's hard to see at a glance. 7. Simplify where possible - you don't need to put Tel: beside your phone number or Email: beside your email address. Also get a custom URL for your LinkedIn profile before adding it to your resume - it looks more professional. 8. Don't make the size of your name too big. It can be bigger than the rest of the text, such as your contact information, but 15-16 is usually big enough. Remember, your name is more important to you than it is to the reader. 9. If you need to save space, you can leave out section headings. The reader will recognize the summary, work experience, and education sections without headings. Occasionally I will use horizontal lines instead. 10. If you have a long list of bullets that are more than one line each, add a small space between each one to make it easier to read. Long bullet points can be just as daunting as chunky paragraphs. Bonus... 11. This is just my preference, but make your resume a full 1, 2, or (if absolutely needed) 3 pages. Don't use half-pages - they look incomplete. Bottom line? Make your resume clean, consistent, and easy-to-read, and you’re well on your way to making a great first impression! #retail #resumes #resumetips

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Building a winning retail team is all about the fundamentals: hiring right, training effectively, and treating your team with genuine care. Lee Cockerell, retired EVP of Walt Disney World has also listed these as keys to his success. In today’s fast-paced environment, these steps make all the difference between thriving and simply surviving. #leadership #hiring #staffing #development #training #team #RetailLeadership #TeamBuilding #EffectiveLeadership”

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The time I went undercover in airport retail to find half of the employees were stealing… I once worked for an airport retailer in Detroit, and before I even got the job, I walked through the airport to check out the different stores. This was before 9/11 when anyone could walk into an airport terminal. Back then, airport stores were cash-heavy businesses. Travelers are always in a rush. People would grab the paper, drop 50 cents on the counter, and run to catch their plane without staying to collect the receipt.  During my walking tour, employees stole that money in almost every shop I visited. I’d already been in loss prevention for a while, and I’d never seen anything like it. I got the job and convinced my boss to let me go undercover as a new clerk trainee to identify all the crooked employees before I started my role as a regional loss prevention manager. The only people who knew my identity were the CFO and GM. To make employees comfortable with stealing in front of me, I had to act like a bad employee. It was A LOT of FUN. During training, I was a lazy and malcontent employee - talking back to everyone and even sleeping on the job. The trainer hated me.  Once I finished training, I rotated through each store, working with different employees every day. Half the employees I worked with stole regularly. The day I started the real job, I strolled into a team meeting wearing a suit. Many employees didn’t even recognize me. The ones that recognized me - their jaws dropped to the floor! Half the staff quit over the next 3 days. The turnover was so high, managers had to work the registers. To prove the theft, we manually reviewed journal rolls and inventory. We had to send problematic employees to Terminal A, where the sales volume was consistent, and the discrepancies were easier to identify. That was “old school” exception reporting. Fortunately, now we have exception-based reporting software that automatically identifies potentially nefarious behavior, for example a high frequency of line voids was a very common way to steal cash at the airport. This undercover operation was a blast and fun to reminisce about. But I’ll take #lossprevention software any day of the week over the old-school approach because it helps loss prevention practitioners snuff out crime much quicker and has a greater impact on the bottom line.

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According to National Retail Federation's Jack Kleinhenz, Ph.D., despite key factors in retail and consumer such as trade, immigration, regulation, tax and spending policies, "there is good reason to expect healthy economic growth in 2025". Read on below for more from Chain Store Age's Marianne Wilson: https://lnkd.in/gTVqUZCQ

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Balancing People and Process: The Dual Approach to Effective Store Visits Leaving the store support center for store visits always excites me because each store is unique, and I never know what to expect or what new partnerships I might build. These visits are crucial for continuous improvement, blending the responsibilities of inspiration and evaluation. The challenge lies in balancing two key approaches: being an approachable leader who connects with associates and being a process-driven individual who ensures compliance with company standards. Striking this balance can turn store visits from routine inspections into powerful opportunities for growth and motivation. - Building and Maintaining Trust While Being Process-Driven - Here’s how I work to effectively balance accountability with genuine concern, and valuing associate input. Planning Ahead I review a pre-set inspection list developed by my team and check sales, safety, and HR metrics before the visit. I also gather information on store managers, such as their tenure. This preparation shows that I’m not just checking a box but genuinely interested in understanding the store, its associates, and its community. Active Listening I actively listen and commit to investigating any issues raised. For example, if an associate questions a safety concern with a planogram, I promise to work with the store planning team for a solution. I never dismiss concerns, and explain why the issue may not be actionable. Clear Communication I start each visit by introducing myself and outlining my goals for visit. Afterward, I share my observations transparently, addressing both positives and areas for improvement. Most stores I visit are executing well, but when there are opportunities, I aim to guide them rather than criticize. Building a positive culture requires buy-in and understanding we are on the same team, not just compliance. Recognition and Constructive Feedback Feedback should not just highlight problems but also acknowledge and celebrate successes. For instance, if a store’s hazmat area is well-organized, I thank them for their efforts. When discussing areas for improvement, I provide actionable feedback and engage in two-way conversations about solutions. Final Thoughts Authenticity is key. I genuinely enjoy meeting associates and my passion is going to shine through when I work with them on addressing their concerns, and balancing our many priorities. While I can’t fix every problem, I want our associates to know I’m committed to shaping my priorities around the feedback I receive. I serve the stores and want to drive meaningful change, not merely check a box for appearances. Long-term, actions speak louder than words. The snowball of momentum of more or less engagement and trust comes from delivering on the feedback I receive and I am always committed to putting in the work to earn the increase in engagement and trust.

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Target announced it's Q3 earnings today and boy did their stock take a turn for the worse. This is concerning as Walmart just announced yesterday to Wall Street increased sales expectations and brought up their forecasts, while in turn, Target is dropping theirs. +0.3% comparable sales, driven by strong traffic and digital performance. (1.9%) store comparable sales +2.4% increase to guest traffic +10.8% increase in digital comparable sales, reflecting nearly 20% growth in same-day delivery powered by Target Circle 360™ and double digit growth in Drive Up.  Beauty comparable sales grew more than 6%. Food & Beverage and Essentials categories grew low-single digits compared to the prior year. (0.2%) decrease to gross margin rate. Year-to-date, gross margin rate has expanded by a full percentage point compared to last year. #Target #Walmart #sales #digital #beauty #traffic #grossmargin parallel retail group

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