Assistant Manager

Assistant Store Manager

The Assistant Store Manager partners with the Store Manager to coach the store team to deliver an excellent and consistent shopping experience for all customers and their pets. In this position you will be required to support the Store Manager in communicating, and being able to articulate our vision, values, and priorities to the team. The position is responsible for ensuring the well-being of all pets while contributing to the success of the store through the adherence to operational standards to meet and exceed sales goals. This position requires you to follow and enforce all company policies and procedures communicated by the Sunrise Store Support Office.

Sales Leadership

• Assist in driving sales, service, and customer experience initiatives in store to achieve sales, KPIs and other store performance goals.
• Regularly monitor customer service and selling models within their store to ensure all staff interact with customers in a professional manner; resolve all customer complaints. Directing work as needed.
• Celebrating and recognizing the team's efforts and accomplishments.
• Maintain a high level of professionalism and positive attitude in the workplace, including conducting oneself appropriately when communicating verbally, in writing, or by email.

Customer Excellence

• Protect employees and customers by maintaining a safe and clean store environment. Required to maintain cleanliness and well-being of all livestock including animal care and feeding. Accountable for the protection of all company assets both tangible and intangible.
• Motivate, coach, develop and performance manage teams focused on the expected customer experience and selling model.
• Review all store communications and distribute information to their store employees as appropriate and ensure any required actions are completed.
• Ensures the company values are upheld and accurately represented within their store.

Operations & Talent Development

• Ensure Brand Standards and operational excellence are maintained and sustained.
• Responsible for maintaining the fish system, including inventory, ordering, and adhering to budgets.
• Inventory management - Assist the Store Manager to order within budget and appropriate to drive sales.
• Partner with the Store Manager to ensure physical inventories are accurate and shrink goals are met.
• Create a team-oriented environment through customer service role plays and developing in-store contests.
• Provide support to Store Manager in the management of labor hours to meet customer needs and completion of all required operational compliances.
• Support overall training to ensure all training plans, new hire checklists, sales techniques, and new product launches are executed.
• Support the day-to-day assignment of tasks while training and developing store associates for future success within the organization.
• Partners with Store Managers with performance management concerns to course correct performance as needed with team accordingly within a timely manner.
• Assist Store Manager with hiring needs. Maintain talent pipeline by developing and maintaining proactive staffing plans for their store; plan and coordinate hiring (pre-screening, interviewing, reference checks) and interviewing candidates as needed.
• Partner with the Store Manager to plan and execute community events and develop mutually beneficial business relationships with various rescue agencies.

Business Insight

• Understand the business. Regularly monitor business throughout the day / shift. Needs to be able to react to business needs.

Experience, Education, Certifications (List minimum required to enter the role.)

• Minimum 2 years in a retail management role
• Enjoy working with and around animals.
• College degree an asset

Job Requirement

• Ability to work a flexible work schedule which includes morning, evenings, weekends and/or holidays.
• Ability to work a rotating schedule that includes the following:
• 2 closing shifts per week
• 1 full weekend (Saturday and Sunday) every period
• Saturday or Sunday each week
• 1 full weekend off every period if coverage permits
• Must possess a valid driver's license.

Physical Demands, Working Conditions and Effort of position:

• Several duties require physical exertion and dexterity. Heavy lifting up to 55lbs required several times throughout a shift.
• Most of the time is spent on the selling floor, standing, or moving around. Active listening required when communicating / speaking with customers and employees.
• Works in a relatively temperature-stable environment.
• May occasionally need to work alone.
• Accidental injuries from pets are possible.
• Common injuries are slips/trips/falls and strains/sprains due to lifting.

Competencies:

• Customer Focus: Is committed to meeting the expectations and requirements of internal and external customers; acts with customers in mind; establishes and maintains effective relationships with customers and employees based on respect and trust.
• Motivating Others: Creates an environment that inspires people to want to do their best; can motivate many kinds of direct reports and team or project members; Takes time to actively listen, ask questions as needed and solicit feedback accordingly. Communicates tasks and decisions down; empowers others; invites input from the team and shares ownership and visibility; makes each individual feel his/her/their work is important and adds value.
• Drive for Results: Support the achievement of exceeding goals successfully; prioritizes what matters most by linking tasks / tactics to the bigger picture. Articulate the work to be done and what success looks like; Leverage candor in feedback; influence up, down, across and without authority.
• Listening: Practices attentive and active listening; has the patience to hear people out; can accurately restate the opinions of others even when he/she/them disagrees.
• Time Management: uses his/her/their time effectively and efficiently; values time; concentrates on his/hers/their efforts on the more important priorities; gets more done in less time than others; can take on a broad range of activities.
• Delegation: Clearly and comfortably delegates both routine and important tasks and decisions; broadly shares both responsibilities and accountability; tends to trust people to perform; lets team members finish their own work.
• Team Building: Consistently sharing ideas, best practices, and experiences to help people achieve optimal results. Embraces challenges with a positive attitude while demonstrating a willingness to learn. Anticipates and addresses potential or emerging conflicts in collaboration with Store Manager, and demonstrates compassion as needed. Be a partner in leading the team to ensure that people understand why their work is important and meaningful.