Target Canada recently invited CAPS to their head office in Mississauga to learn more about the organization and the opportunities available to University of Alberta students.

On Monday, August 13, 2012, staff from CAPS: Your U of A Career Centre visited Target Canada's head office and attended a session called “Behind the Bullseye” where Target shared their expansion plans into Canada--one of the largest foreign retail expansions any company has ever undertaken.

The day started with a welcome from Tony Fisher, President, Target Canada and Tiffany Monroe, Vice President, Human Resources, who spoke about Target’s expansion and growth plans. Tony spoke very clearly about the importance of work-life balance to a career at Target, and also talked about the size of the expansion: Target will be open between 125 and 135 stores in all 10 provinces across Canada in 2013, and will employ between 25,000 and 27,000 people. While many of the staff currently employed at the Target head office in Mississauga are from the U.S. Target stores, Tony assured the audience that over 90% of Target Canada employees would be Canadian.  

Tiffany spoke about how the retail industry becomes a career of choice for many, the more they learn about what it offers. She spoke about the growth and challenges that Target will experience in the coming years and the excitement surrounding that--for instance, your career with Target will not be static: movement happens every 18 to 24 months and with such enormous growth there is great opportunity for advancement. Tiffany talked about the Executive Team Lead (ETL) and the Business Analyst (BA) positions--the ETL positions are responsible to lead a team, drive profitable sales performance, recognize, coach and provide meaningful feedback with a focus on performance and development, while the BA positions develop business strategies, marketing plans and merchandise to drive sales, manage and allocate inventory while maintaining value and quality. While the requirements for these positions are a university degree, the type of degree is not as important as the characteristics of the applicant. Target looks for post-secondary grads who have strong interpersonal, organizational, conflict management, administration, reasoning and decision-making skills as well as strong cognitive skills including problem analysis, decision-making, financial and quantitative analysis. Target Canada plans to hire 800 Executive Team Leaders over the next year to year and a half.

Target also expects to have a three year succession plan in place for all employees at all times to ensure continuous growth and challenge. Aimed at fulfilling the Target 4-fold leadership expectations of personal goals, team goals, thoughtfulness and results driven environment, this succession plan, developed collaboratively with the Organizational Effectiveness team, is based on your personal strengths and interests and includes a training plan to take you where you want to go within Target.

Target Canada will be attending Careers Day on Wednesday, September 26, the Augustana Career Fair, Wednesday, October 10 and the Arts Career Fair, Wednesday, October 17.