Corporate Irresponsibility - Anonymous employee REI Employee Review

-The pay does not match the job requirements and product knowledge you are required to have. -Starting pay does not match your education nor past work experience. You start at the lowest base pay for the department you hired for. -REI only values its employee by the number of memberships you sell. If you want to work and have lots of hours, you need to meet or exceed your conversion rate or membership goal given to you by management. Nothing else matters. -Failure of REI to recognise that selling memberships is not the best way to grow and expand their customer base, making them a viable business for years to come. Anyone who is savvy in business or who has a Marketing or Business degree knows that you grow your company through your existing company base. To do otherwise is too costly and doomed to failure. -REI does not know its members. Who are active and who are not. What their needs and wants are. They don't even know the retention rate of new members. This is common knowledge amongst most customers and employees. -REI lacks leadership and management from corporate on down to the store level. Most of them are uneducated, unprofessional and have no business sense. This along with the lack of technology have been the main concern of current and past employees including myself who've been with REI for 14 - 25+ years. -Management is too top heavy. Like the saying goes "too many chiefs and not enough indians." At the store II worked at we have 7 managers when their should only be 3. And we have 10 or more sales leads, two for each department. As a result we loose a lot of business during slow periods because we don't have enough employees to help customers and answer phone calls. Money could be better spent on having more employees rather than managers and sales leads. -Ongoing customer complaints to corporate and the stores about the lack of management on the floor. Managers at the store I worked at spend 99% of their time in the back office. -Failure of managers to do their job. They fail to understand the nature of their job, its requirements and responsibilities. It's "do as I say, not as I do" mentality, even when in comes to corporate policy and REI's code of conduct. -Burden placed on us employees. For example, employees are required to find someone to cover their shifts when they were scheduled by mistake by managers for approved time off for vacation or day(s) off. Managers told us it is not their problem even though they made the mistake. The schedule is written and posted, thus it is our problem. Of course this is unacceptable. And to be clear, it is managements responsibility to fix it, rewriting the schedule if need be. Not the employees. -Disconnect within management. This means they have no respect for authority amongst themselves nor for the chain of command, i.e. a supervisors blatant disregard for assistant managers authority. It is well known in the store I worked at that employees have gotten into trouble and even written up by a manager regardless the fact that they were given permission by a manager(s) to do something or given a task or project to do by a manager(s) just because that manager did not like or agree with it. -Lacks upward mobility and lots of competition for what is available. -No professional training for those wanting to get into management. It is self guided, internet based, and on the level one would give to someone who is in high school. -There is no system in place for innovation at corporate down to the store level. Employees who've tried have been written up or fired. -Technology. REI has not upgraded their technology in over 25 years. It's old and dilapidated. For example: they went live with their inventory within the last two or three years, while Retail went live with inventory back in the early 1980's. Nor do they have the capacity to see their numbers live in real time like businesses do today. -Loss of focus. They no longer follow their mission statement nor business plan. They have become a "glorified Walmart" wanting all their stores to be an exact mirror images of them selves throughout the country in how they look and products they sell, irregardless of the region or market they are in. They don't quite grasp the unique and diverse markets within these regions around the country and the specific needs of these customers. -Failure to understand regional assortment and the need to manage their stores across the country by region. For example, those living in AZ, TX, and NV like to get out when things cool down. Typically, this is the later part of Sep. through early May. These customers are frustrated because they are not able to buy flip-flops, shorts, etc. because it's winter time in the Rocky's and all we have are puffy jackets and ski equipment. -Fairness in the work place. -Personal growth and success. There is no mentoring or coaching by management. You will find it hard or impossible to move around to different departments you are interested in working in. You are on your own for achieving your professional goals, growth and success whether or not it's with REI or elsewhere. -Favouritism and nepotism. -Lackes good work/life balance, which is quite a surprise considering you are working for an outdoor retail store who is all about getting outside.