Despite the gradual removal of restrictions that have been in place thanks to the pandemic, HEB, one of the many large grocery chains within central Texas, has been making all kinds of changes to its policies, initially struggling to navigate COVID-19 due to the bar being raised in order keep shelves stocked and keeping departments filled with employees.
This end phase of the pandemic has been bearing all kinds of fruit. Ever since the company has eased up on COVID restrictions, admin Jackie Garcia has been welcomed in ten new hires in the past few weeks compared the usual two to three workers that she has introduced to the company during the early months of the pandemic. (Photo Credit: Michael Johnson)All kinds of changes have been happening around the store as of late, such as a major overhaul to HEB’s Time and Attendance system. Garcia has been very flexible when it comes to the availability of new H-E-B Partners. She takes the time to ask each new partner about their preferred working hours, and remains a shining example of the company’s determination to make sure its employees at working at maximum productivity. (Photo Credit: Michael Johnson)The pandemic has set a precedent for punctuality. The company’s six point system only allows for up to six absences every six months. Garcia makes it very clear to new hires just how important it is to be on time for work with this new attendance system in place. (Photo Credit: Michael Johnson)H-E-B takes pleasure in offering its new hires group learning opportunities. New hires are being guided by administrator Jackie Garcia through HEB’s WorkForce system to set up their schedules for the upcoming holiday season, which is when the store is busiest. (Photo Credit: Michael Johnson)The insurgence of grocery prices, along with most other things, has made some produce items become less popular. Nathan Dunn at the end of his shift must make sure the soon-to-be expiring products be discounted to be more favorable to customers. Dunn does this to help prevent the food from going to waste. This can be crucial to some families who are less fortunate, and Dunn takes pride in helping his community. (Photo Credit: Michael Johnson)Unfortunately, even if product gets marked down in price, there are still times when it exceeds its expiration date and must be removed from the shelf. Nathan Dunn performs a “walk” through his department, placing expired product in boxes and scanning them out so the department head knows what items need to be replenished. (Photo Credit: Michael Johnson)Being in the frontlines of the pandemic, Nathan Dunn must adjust to the shoppers who now need to shop for sometimes weeks at a time just to ensure they have enough before a likely outage. Dunn must restock the produce department in larger batches to ensure they will last through the masses of shoppers, that for what Dunn says, “can come at any time”. (Photo Credit: Michael Johnson)Ashley Diaz can occasionally take a break and focus on preparing for the upcoming onslaught of customers. In order to keep everything in order, Diaz would often have an employee help stock and bag items, but because of the labor shortage, times can be difficult for Diaz. Previously defined break times are now used for preparation in order to expedite the flow of the following group of customers. (Photo Credit: Michael Johnson)By adhering to corporate policies and making sure the registers are cleaned before closing, Ashley Diaz keeps the area tidy for both herself and her clients. Diaz finds the time to do this when business slows down since it allows her to manage multiple registers at once. As a result, the workers who open the store the following morning will have one less chore to worry about. (Photo Credit: Michael Johnson)Ashley Diaz must deliver the best customer service while preventing herself from becoming ill because she is the final stop on everyone’s shopping adventure. Diaz and the customers at HEB have benefited much from the obstacles that have been put up. Diaz observes that as COVID spreads, fewer consumers enter the store and more choose curbside pickup because they don’t want to take the possibility of contracting COVID. (Photo Credit: Michael Johnson)
Ashley Diaz, the service lead of the Taylor HEB’s central checkout, has only recently come into this position, and has been made to handle tasks that normally would fall upon cashiers and baggers. “The endemic has brought with it its own set of challenges as far as we are getting a huge number of younger generations coming in, so the lack of experience currently is proving to create a difficult time.” Diaz said.
Ashley Diaz believes that the lack of experience, as well as losing her more experienced employees to better jobs that are now available to them have been the biggest detriment to keeping things efficient on the front end. However, she remains on the side of optimism, as this loss of knowledgeable staff is making room for fresh minds. “We are losing life experience, but we are able to mold and create amazing Partners through proper training and time, so this process has been like a double-edged sword.” Diaz said.
Even as the end of this pandemic is being reached, COVID’s negative impact on workers has heavily affected other departments as well. Nathan Dunn, an employee from the Taylor HEB’s Produce department has noticed the lasting sting of this pandemic on him and his fellow workers. “The pandemic has decreased quality because now fields are trying to get the product out to us as fast as possible. We are getting quality that is lower than we are used to seeing.Dealing with quality with fields has a lot of factors to consider, but the downfall of workers in these industries are making it harder for products to get out to us.” Dunn said.
Outside of training new hires and keeping product on shelves fully stocked, another impact this endemic has made on this company’s policies is by having them completely overhaul their time and attendance policy. Jackie Garcia, the admin of the Taylor HEB, makes certain that there is a great amount of emphasis placed upon this transition between systems, as they can be difficult to navigate for both new and current employees alike. “When COVID first hit about two years ago, how we handled this situation was that we allowed our partners to have off for ten days. Time and Attendance wouldn’t be tracked then. Now that COVID is still here, but is not as severe of an outbreak, our policy has changed so that with COVID, even if you test positive or negative, you will still be paid, but it will only be up to five days and will be count against you for attendance if you miss a scheduled shift.” Garcia said.
“For Taylor HEB, we have been able to maintain Partners to stay due to our leadership and how well we treat our Partners. We are constantly doing career fairs and on the spot hiring.” Garcia said, looking optimistic towards the store’s future employees and future endeavors as the end of this pandemic reaches ever closer.
Interested in becoming an HEB Partner? Be sure to check out their Careers website to look into opportunities at local stores as an employee in one of the various departments within the store, and also the multitude of opportunities working with them from a corporate perspective as well.
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