POOLCORP reviews about "training program"

rankings, an outdated computer system, salary in the training program was the same when you finish the program and go into a full time role.

Long hours for management; especially in the summer. Understaffed at certain branches. A lot of heavy lifting and warehouse work. Some customers are just selfish thinkers and treat people like crap. Unless you go through the manager in training program it’s hard to be promoted or to have a set training plan to be considered for promotion. Bonus program could potentially be 25% of your take home pay...if you bonus. If you don’t you end up doing the same job as last year for less pay. Not competitive enough with salary.

Warehouse work all day. Warehouse environment is not professional at all. Salary is not bad but after you compete the program they refuse to give you a pay increase. Depending on your branch you can work longer than 8:00 am to 4:30 pm... sometimes even starting at 5:30am

You are expected to work long hours because all day you are doing basic labor work to keep up with demand. The company runs too lean so there is never any time to attend to your management work unless you put in 12 hour days 6 days a week. Most locations need 1- 2 more employees to run efficiently. Raises are around 1-2% for most employees and 3-4% of they think you are exceptional. For those doing entry-level jobs (warehouse, counter sales etc) its around 15-60 cents a year and they try to only award 1-2 employees in your location the 3-4%. They have low retention with their MIT program because they demand a lot for the low wages. Most tend to leave after 2 years( they sign a 24 month contract to cover moving expenses and tend to leave once its fulfilled) only about 25% of my MIT Class is still with the company after 2 years. From what I've seen, most people in management, aside from those in upper management, are people that grew with the company with no higher educational background. It can be a pro for those that grow with the company but there is a HUGE issue retaining college educated employees. I my self had my cost of living wage stripped once I entered in to my new role after my training (decrease of 4k in wages) and was told I had to get a promotion in order to receive a wage increase because I was already being paid top dollar for my position.

With over 350 branches A LOT factors on location... One problem is that corporate treats everyone like they are on the same playing field. Which is simply not the case when you're in a heavy weather influenced industry. If you're in a more diverse seasonal market hitting your numbers can be extremely challenging -Heavily weather based business -Bonus is very hard to obtain -Salary is too low for the manager job -Branches run lean (but in some markets they have to because of lack of work to do in winter) -Micro-Management at times -LONG HOURS April to August And finally.... one of the biggest cons is the customer base. Now this I'm sure depends on location but the Pool customer base is not exactly the most professional group in the world. Sure they can be fun people to get a beer with but most are horrible at running and owning a business. Terrible at managing money and are not educated. Some customers are a dream but many are a nightmare.

- Penny pinching, short term incentivized culture. This is primarily driven by the CFO downward, but you can see its repercussions throughout the business. Basically, the entire company is heavily incentivized on one results. This leads to accruing significant management debt (kicking problems down the road), understaffing, and getting lower quality people because they won't pay what the market will. - Pay less than market wages and benefits: that's why people are complacent with mediocrity or move on to other things. If you make this argument to HR or attempt to negotiate, things get hostile... but the numbers and employee turnover rate don't lie. - Don't invest in technology or systems: the company uses an ERP that was created 40 years ago. You only learn it through rote memorization. They're hesitant to put their money where their mouth is when it comes to technology. They pick the cheapest platforms (in basically every business unit) and accept the problems and limitations. - Over-promoted managers: there's several managers that were promoted to positions because they were simply the last person standing. They are not good at their jobs and hinder progress, but I was not confident they'd ever be held accountable. - Age bias for managers: you have to be at least 30 to be consider for any manager position here. There's an unspoken age bias. It's not a big deal though, because of the next point. - Not prepared for the next generations workforce: they have like 5-10 people at the corporate office that are in their 20s. They don't care to hire/retain young people unless it's for the MIT program. - Don't promote from within for high level positions: this is probably a good thing, but they hire externally when they need a high level position field. Field: -Log jam of capable managers: I saw tons of markets where the branch managers were qualified to be regional managers, but the regional managers were making bank and not remotely close to retirement age (and also didn't have opportunities for advancement). Talented people leave because there isn't a great opportunity to move up. -Way too many incapable managers: there are lots of branch managers that don't care. They'll sit in their office, leave early, won't engage the customers, etc... but never held accountable. -Sales focused: they promote sales people to management roles more than operations people. There's a general emphasis on sales more than anything. They will rarely fire customers, even if the business is unprofitable. -Horizon business model doesn't make sense given the market needs and competition. Are we retail? are we B2B? who cares! we try to do retail and B2B at the same time and end up being average at both.