Home Depot 2005 Annual Report Download - page 19

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Your Other Warehouse
Your Other Warehouse, which is also a part of Home Depot Direct, is a distributor of special order
faucet and plumbing fixtures, lighting, fan and hardware products for The Home Depot and EXPO
Design Center stores and a variety of other third-party resellers. Your Other Warehouse carries over
60,000 products from over 130 suppliers, including Kohler↦, American Standard↦ and other major
manufacturers. Your Other Warehouse operates five distribution facilities and a call center and employs
approximately 900 associates.
Store Support Services
Information Technologies. During fiscal 2005, we continued to improve our technology capabilities by
opening a second technology center, located in Austin, Texas. In addition to providing redundancy, the
center allows for growth and expansion. The center currently houses engineers, software developers and
computer operation staff.
In fiscal 2005, we completed the rollout of back-end scanned receiving to all U.S. and Canadian stores,
which allows us to simplify, standardize and automate how we receive product. We commenced vendor
certification for certified receiving. We continued installation of self-checkout registers, which, as of the
end of fiscal 2005, were in 1,272 stores and we grew centralized automatic replenishment to 20% of
store sales. We also implemented a Special Order Services Initiative pilot in 285 stores and we
introduced new mobile cart functionality in all stores.
While our technology investments have been primarily focused in our stores, we invested in technology
improvements in other areas. During fiscal 2005, we implemented new financial systems for our Mexico
retail operations, upgraded our call centers, improved our websites and launched several new
direct-to-consumer brands.
Associate Development. At the end of fiscal 2005, we employed approximately 345,000 associates, of
whom approximately 26,000 were salaried, with the remainder compensated on an hourly or temporary
basis. Approximately 68% of our associates are employed on a full-time basis. We believe that our
employee relations are very good. To attract and retain qualified personnel, we seek to maintain
competitive salary and wage levels in each market we serve.
We develop our training programs in a continuing effort to service the needs of our customers and
associates. These programs, including mandatory product knowledge training classes, are designed to
increase associates’ knowledge of merchandising departments and products, and to educate, develop
and test the skills of our associates. Because we primarily promote or relocate current associates to
serve as managers and assistant managers for new stores, training and assessment of our associates is
essential to our growth. Our district managers and store managers typically meet with our human
resources managers to discuss the development of assistant managers and department heads.
We have implemented programs in our stores and divisional offices to ensure that we hire and promote
the most qualified associates in a non-discriminatory way. One of the most significant programs we
have is our annual Human Resources Review process, which assesses and reviews leaders and teams,
succession planning and executive pipeline, high potential associates, staffing, retention, diversity,
training and compliance. The program is closely linked to our Performance Management Process, which
evaluates the performance, leadership and potential of all associates. We also maintain a list of
qualified associates who are interested in new assignments and of qualified outside applicants that can
be reviewed when positions become available.
Marketing. We are one of the nation’s largest retail advertisers, and utilize a broad range of mass
media and targeted media. We also incorporate major sponsorships into our marketing plan, such as
NASCAR↦, the U.S. Olympic↦ team, The Home Depot Center, ESPN College Game Day↦, and a
number of home and garden shows. We also utilize marketing arrangements with television shows of
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