REI reviews

Well, I have a few: - The company invests in their retail stores and are WAY behind in investment in technology and professional staff - Many people at corporate were promoted from the stores. That's nice but has led to something of a group-think mentality and not enough diversity -- in terms of experience -- among the corporate staff. Jerry knows this and has tasked leadership to make changes, but that's a slow boat to turn around and will take a long time to impact. - Marketing leadership. This was the division I worked in and I thought it was very poor. Related: HR. In the sense of professional development and coaching managers on how to set expectations to manage poor performers out of the company. At my exit interview, two different people from HR asked if the reason I was leaving was because of a leader in my org. If they know there's a problem, why hasn't a change been made? - Pay. Compensation is WAY below market rate. I, and seemingly everyone else, took a pay cut to work there and the employee discount certainly didn't make up for it.

The culture is slow to embrace change and innovation. It's a very risk-averse environment. Company HQ feels like a big high school campus and staff is isolated from professional peers. Professional development opportunities are limited. Leadership is mostly male, and men tend to advance much more easily through the ranks.