We’re going to bring on our next speaker who is the star war. Let’s star is out in the bay. So it is still morning for her. Lucky for her still morning, I guess. I don’t know I am definitely a night person. But what I do want to do is just tell you a bit about LaStarr. And so you can understand more about why she’s joining us today. So LaStarr Moore is an area Supply Manager for Nordstrom, managing the shipping department. In addition to managing her department, let’s start at least the move committee at her distribution center, focusing on employee retention, engagement and creating a more inclusive environment. With more than 10 years of experience, so star runs her own social media branding business, love Starla, where she helps emerging businesses generate a social presence and help a crease clientele. LaStarr is a graduate, graduate of Sacramento State with a Bachelors of Science degree in business with a concentration in entrepreneurship. She served as the social chair of the Sac State Honors Program honors committee, welcome, LaStarr.

Thank you, how are you?

Good. How are you today?

I’m good. I’m a night person as well. It’s about 936 out here. So normally the time that I get it, but I’m doing good,
good. Good. I’m glad you could join us. I want to get I want to ask you like how did you get started? Because Because you’re a manager at Nordstrom. But how did you get into move and employee engagement? Because that’s like, wait, what, like, how did you like you’re not an HR, you’re in a warehouse, like, tell us how that all happened.

So a little backstory, um, I used to work at Marshalls and I was a manager at Marshalls for 12 years. And I was actually their operations manager and their HR manager, and their customer experience manager and image manager. So when I was in operations, and HR, a part of my job literally was to motivate employees, like I got rated on it. I was it was a part of my evaluation. So I learned a lot. When I went to Nordstrom because I wanted to get more behind the scenes feel. I actually began to I love being behind the scenes, working more with people and not necessarily with customers, because it allowed me to use my experience from dealing with the personalities of different customers with employees. When COVID happened, things changed in our in our department and our building. And instead of having a flexible schedule, when we got back after COVID started. My life just turned uphill, I was on overtime for from July of 2020 until December of 2020 working six days a week, about 11 hours a day, um, salary. So that was about 3200 hours are so that I calculate it that we did not get paid for. In addition to that, they took away all of our holidays, they took away our weekends, because I used to work Monday through Friday. And I was a little bit unhappy. So I actually left Nordstrom back in March and decided to try something else. I decided that I really wasn’t happy with the new situation. So I went back to Nordstrom a month later, they never wanted me to leave. And I said if I go back, I have a plan in place where I can really help elevate our business. So when I walked in the building, my first day back, I looked at my ops manager and my general manager and I said we have work to do.

And two days later I said I submitted any initiative to start an employee engagement program to help develop develop employees and to build a more inclusive, happier environment because employees were dropping like flies. Up until July our attrition rate was the worst in the network at 221%. So we had hired 300 employees and we lost 300 employees. So my HR manager sat down with me and he said I love your proposal. Well, they had their boss come in, who is the higher up the VP. And we had a meeting and he said, Let’s do it. And so I said, if we’re gonna do this, we’re gonna do it my way, because I got the secret sauce. And we started the committee. Now it was the Employee Engagement Committee. However, one of our fellow GCS in Oregon, they had started the same thing, because they had a new GM, and they call their committee, the move committee.

And so before I stole anything, I was like, Can we borrow this because I really love what it stands for. Team is okay. But move is motivating our valued employees, learning how to speak their language. And that’s what I said, we have to learn how to speak the language of the employees, what do they want? Are we really being consistent in delivering satisfaction? And so that’s how move started, and we’ve been moving on up ever since. I love it.

Can you tell us what move stands for, again, motivating our valued employees? Oh,

I love that. I agree with you. I love I love what moves stands for motivating our valued employees do show us we are valued. And I agree that those hours, but I like the move, as they say it’s cheaper to keep her. But also, when you’re coming, bring somebody who’s agreed to come back to the organization, and they’re looking to solve a problem. It is really, really important for organizations like you want to, okay, what do we need to bring you back? And the stipulations they like, oh, well, you know, all of this money on my salary. But these things have to change. And I think right now is very important for organizations to do this. And they’re feeling the pain because they didn’t do it prior to the pandemic, right. It’s It’s just we don’t have money to budget is it was really interesting how that money materialized, wasn’t it? All those other services materialized. So I really, I really love how you how you pick that up. Now, as we’re talking about how you got started, how and why you created this employee engagement program? Why should mid career employees and managers and mid level managers like you being involved in resolving employee to employee attrition, employee engagement, employee turnover? Why, why should you be involved?

We directly interact with them, I believe, like my employees see me more than they see the general manager, the operations manager, because I’m on the floor talking to them. I’m like their therapist, sometimes, you know, my job has many hats. And I build trust. And I’ve built a relationship with them. So they trust me. And they know that if they have a grievance or an issue, or an idea that I’m going to, you know, reach out to the proper party or executed myself, so really help them. So it’s important for us to be involved because we’re directly relating to them. We’re like touching them every day, having meetings with them, talking to them, and who better than us. I believe just even myself, I work in a company where the people have been no other managers have been there since I before I was born. I was born in 88. So a lot of them have this old school way of thinking and, you know, millennials, we like to work smarter, not harder, and they just want work. And, you know, the employees, I have a lot of millennial and Centennial employees that work in my building. And they don’t want to be at work all day, every day, every holiday every weekend. They have lives, they have children, they have their dreams that they want to work on. So it’s really learning how to speak their language and relating to them. And we do that because we connect directly with them every single day.

I love that. My question is and I and I want to approach this when you you’ve been in management, it one retailer to another one. Have you seen the need for employee errs, to step up and really train their managers to be able to manage people deal with their personalities and so forth before you can even do an employee engagement program like movies that you you’ve launched?

So it’s funny you ask that because that is a challenge that I am facing right now. Most of our leaders in our building, they are excited If they aren’t invested, they love what we’re doing. I have a few who are not as engaged with their employees as they should be. And their departments are actually the departments that are causing the most attrition in the building. And I’ve reported this to my HR, because on top of it being an engagement committee, it is a retention committee. And we’re trying to retain all of our good employees. So I use data. And you know, a lot of the managers don’t know this, but I present to the higher ups of what’s going on in the building, because we need results from all of the fun things are doing. And so, you know, I’m noticing that there’s two leaders in the building. And when we get reports of a resignation, or you know, someone’s getting separated from that department, and they are the least engaged. And so my call to all of my big, my big bosses or senior leaders, is every leader has to be engaged, they have to buy in, or you need to do some kind of performance management, because it is a requirement. It’s not an option, this is a
requirement.

Okay, we’re having some fun in the chat. So I would highly, I would like y’all to be engaged in in the in the chat. I like. So be sure if you’re into chat with us that right above the chat, there was a blue thing that and you can drop it down to say to share it to everyone, if you want everyone to see your message. Otherwise, it’s just coming to the panelists, I just want to make sure we are aware who can who can see your messages, because we get some good things, but not everybody can see stuff. So I do want to break that up. But I want to go and ask you this question, because I like how you said the least engaged person resigned. And now what? Like it wouldn’t surprise to you. So let’s talk about how do you leverage data to recognize the issue you’re working to solve? So employee engagement? Like what are you doing? How are you collecting the data, analyzing the data to really help you understand how to how to make changes with inside of Nordstrom?

So we have an impulse survey that goes out company wide, and every building gets employees to participate in it. And we use that data, because acts like are you engaged? How are you? How are your managers engaging you? What don’t you like, and you know, they do their one through 10. And then all of the leaders go into a room, and we look at how we’re rated. And you’re either in the red or the green, there’s no in between? And I like that. So either good, or you bet. And engagement was the biggest piece and attrition was like well, why aren’t you staying and you know, too much overtime, not getting paid enough things like that. So what they did is they looked at market data. And I love when they look at market data, because I always get and they looked at market data. And they saw that our competitors in the market and particularly in northern California, were paying more. And they also saw that they had a higher intention than we did. So they went and evaluate it, reevaluate it, you know, salary, and they started with the managers. And I’ve been campaigning behind the scenes for that. And I’ve been sending data like, literally breaking it down by cent how much a manager really makes according to the hours, they really work. And we just got our raises, they went into effect on Sunday. So they didn’t make the research. They also did that for the employees, and saw that in the market, our employees were getting paid $3 less than our competitors offer. So they reevaluated that and they gave the employees a bump in their pay, which doesn’t include their normal rates. So they’re struggling to get their annual raise next year, just like managers. So that was one thing that helped. The second thing is we measure attendance, are they coming to work? Why aren’t they coming to work, and we have a spreadsheet every day that goes out. And it literally lists like the employee that caught up the department and the reason. So I look at the reason. And if it’s other than illness, everybody will call out sick. I’m looking at the reason and then what we do is when that employee does come to work, we go in we do a check in Hey, is everything okay? Is there anything that you know, you feel uncomfortable with talking to your leader about that you would like to discuss with us? What do you like about work? How can we get you more engaged? And so we use that attendance data In the system, and every week, I go in, I look at all the hours that were scheduled. And then I look at all the hours that were worked. And then I send that calculation to my HR and my operations manager. And I say, this is where we are this week,

compared to last week. What can we do to move the needle.
And it’s been some really good data, because we’ve actually increased 2%. week over week since the move committee started back in July. Oops. So

I love that I want to say one thing about the illness, I’m sick of being at work is an illness. So sometimes you need to take that day. Because it is really important to take a look like Michelle, I, my team was like, I need you to take that day more often. Michelle, I’m not sick of being at my startup. I’m just saying, I’d need to take a break, though. So I love those metrics that you dropped with us, and how managers in their first level or their individual contributors how you’re looking at each part of this on a regular basis. And even though you may have hourly workers, it’s still it’s the same thing with his salary employees, when it’s attendance and really understanding what’s the driving factor for it. And and I really love that I get I remember, I think last week, somebody had asked in a Slack community, for people that had unlimited PTO as an employee, how did you use it? Because they were afraid it was going to be abused? Well, the thing is, people don’t abuse not coming to work, whether no matter what your policy is, and and I studies have shown that unlimited PTO is generally used less because before PTO that is accrued? Because when you see like, I have to work 32 hours to get point oh to eight hours? Oh, no, I’m gonna use my point to eight hours, right. And when it’s unlimited, I’ll take a day off, it’s always gonna be there, right? It’s like, it’s like you hit the lottery. So money’s just always gonna be there. So time off, as always, but we gotta work for time, you will take it. And so I love organizations when he had that mind shift. And he gave that. But I also want to talk about something that you brought up recently during our discussion, which was for tins. Are y’all working four days a week? And what was that? Why did y’all move to that work schedule 14 work schedule.

So first off, this is our first week, we piloted on Sunday, and I juiced because we were overworked. I was working on average, every two weeks, about 111 hours every two weeks getting paid for ad straight. And I had a problem with that. Because I’m in first outlast and you know, I don’t have a problem doing the work. But it was becoming a lot because we weren’t seeing our family members. We a lot of people got really sick. And then I’m, I believe in mental wellness all the way. And I said this isn’t, you know, helping anyone’s mental health. And I was like, you can’t promote you know, we want you to be well and want you to, to love what you do. And you work people six days, 10 hours a week, that’d be 10 hours a day. Like that’s not okay. So we kept meeting with our vice president, I stayed on his neck, I kept meeting with him and, and I really stressed the importance of why we needed to be on fourteens along with my counterparts. And in August. They said, You know what, we heard you, we listen, and we want you guys to stay. Because at the time, there were four managers on the books that were ready to book it and good leaders and we have a great team of great leaders and they didn’t want to lose anyone. So they had to bite the bullet. Get rid of that old thinking add more leaders to our roster so that we can have 14 And because we’re piloting it right now the employees will go on for attends in March. They don’t know it yet, but it was just
decided. Oh,

I love it. I love it. Like yeah, give. Give me my time back. I love it the most. Okay, go ahead.

Well, the thing about that, too, is so we have a lot of employees who suffer from mental illness in our building. And, you know, it wouldn’t be good as a leader to overlook that. And when I say I’m employees who have contemplated suicide, and you know the amount of emails and texts that I I get it, it weighs heavy on me. And I really, really wanted to fight for something to help them really increase their mental health. So we promote that that’s a part of employee engagement, making sure that they’re mentally sound, that they’re stable that they have the access and the resources that they need. So in addition to that, I have brochures on if you feel overworked, or if you need to take a rest break, I said, take a mental health day you got PTO, like, talk to your manager, you know, don’t be afraid to call out or be afraid to really just take that day of rest. Or if you need to take an extra 10 minutes on your break, go ahead and breathe and just release because it’s becoming more and more common, where everyone’s dealing with some kind of mental mental breakdown. And I really want us to contribute to that. And that is a big part of employee engagement, you know, you have to care about where they are mentally.

Absolutely.

Thank you so much for that. I want we only have a few minutes left, these always go so fast. I tell people like it’s gonna go fast. It’s 25 minutes. Like, we’ll get it down like, No, we won’t get it all down. But we all get some good, good, a good amount of information and conversation going if you have questions for the star, go ahead and drop them in the chat or either in the question section. And we’ll we should have time hopefully for at least one or two of them. What advice would you give to other mid level managers when it comes to employee turnover or engagement? Like what advice like starting a program, how to help improving engagement retaining, you’re retaining your team, like what is the advice you would provide
to them. So first get to know your employees, you can’t start something if you don’t know what they need, or what they want. And it all starts with conversation, talking to them, seeing you know, what motivates them, what drives them, you know, what keeps them going, what will keep them coming to work. So it all starts about like talking to them. That’s how I knew what to start. And when I knew what to start, then I use what they needed and what they wanted to see as you know, a foundation of how our program should run. And my program is run by employees. So I’m just I’m the person that writes the checks really technically, like I give them the money. What do you guys want to do? They just did a cookout, they said they wanted to be outside, I said, we can do that. And I just supplied the funds. And you know, I conduct the meetings, but it’s employee rent. So I wanted something that you know, I’m the lead, but it’s ran by my employees. So they’re running my meetings. They’re saying what they want to see how things went, what we could do better. So it’s really about getting to know the people who work for you, because they are the ones who really sustain the business without them. There’s no business.

absolutely, positively agree. And we do have a question for you. As we wrap up, have you been able to show your leadership team data on how investing in their employees has increased their bottom line?
Yes. Yes, I have. We just had a meeting and our productivity. So our bottom line is based off of productivity, and our productivity has increased week over week. And it was very low low in the network. And so as our productivity increases, we look at our P 50s. And our P 90s. Which is basically like our shipments to customers. And if the shipments are getting to the customers in in time, like when it’s due or before early, that’s what increases our revenue because they know Oh, it’s not going to be delayed, it’s not going to be late. Also how the stores are performing. So we are a part of getting the merchandise to the store. So the merchandise getting to the store in time, the company is going to make money. And we’ve already started to see everything go from being in the red to the yellow up to the green, and it’s by facility. And I’m on a quest for my facility to be number one because that’s a bigger bonus that we are getting more money for my fleet.

I love it. I love it. So great question. Last question I have for you is how can people can Oh, wait, we have another another question. Okay, because in a perfect world, what will your department look like when your mission is complete? LaStarr.

It will be number one, and it will my my department is actually one of the top performing reps itself. And I think my employees that because they have an advantage. They have the engagement to lead in the department. But it’ll be number one, it’ll run itself and I’ll be able to pass the baton on to someone else because I just got word that my HR wants me to actually like give move to someone else there’s something another program they want me to leave which is about diversity inclusion and belonging in the company so yeah so he just told me that two days ago so he said once this is solidified, pass it on I have something else for you.

So I have some people I’m going to connect you to but this is a great conversation and the work that you’re doing how can people connect with you on social like where should they go to fine let’s star um,
you can find me on LinkedIn Let’s star more you can find me on Facebook was far more My name is Mustafa on everything. But I’m on LinkedIn a lot. I love to connect with everyone on LinkedIn. So let’s start more you can search me or search my Facebook. It’s not a private profile. I’m public I’ll be I’ll be friends with anyone and we can talk and just you know connect so I’m always available.

I love it. I love it. Let’s star thank you so much today for spending time with us sharing your experience your expertise in this space. And I see you fantastic things for you and Nordstrom as long as they keep you happy coming down the pike. Thank you so much.

Thank you