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      Rakuten Kobo

      Part of Rakuten

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      Rakuten Kobo reviews

      4.2

      83% would recommend to a friend

      (261 total reviews)
      avatar

      Michael Tamblyn

      88% approve of CEO

      82% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      4.5

      Diversity & inclusion

      4.3

      Culture & values

      4.3

      Work/Life balance

      3.9

      Senior management

      3.9

      Career opportunities

      3.7

      Compensation and benefits

      Rakuten Kobo has an employee rating of 4.2 out of 5 stars, based on 261 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Rakuten Kobo employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail & Wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Reviews by job title

      261 reviews
      1.0
      May 26, 2014

      Fired 100+ employees in 2014. Future uncertain.

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Talented co-workers and fast-paced environment.

      Cons

      Managers and executives that have the habit of sprinting from one priority to the next without having a coherent strategy. No mentorship and little training for new recruits.

      2.0
      Apr 25, 2014

      Great company with potential and new CEO

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      The best part of working at Kobo when I was hired 3 years ago was the people and the culture. We were a family and worked hard together and played hard and celebrated all of the successes and up hill battles together. The leadership team really cared about us and everyone wanted to go into work every day and even though we could work from home when we wanted we came to work because of the environment. Over the past few months we have a new CEO from Japan who is trying to make positive changes to get the company on a track to profitability. He seems very smart and has an impressive bio.

      Cons

      Last November Kobo had layoffs and promised us that was the last of them and all of our jobs were safe and we had nothing to worry about. Over the last 2 days entire departments were wiped out and approximately 75 more skilled and dedicated employees were let go. We were marched into meeting rooms one by one and the 2 girls from human resources that terminated me were pathetic. They probably had 2 years work experience combined and it showed. I was 'read' a letter with no eye contact while the other one in the room was texting on her phone.

      2.0
      Nov 26, 2021

      Great WLB and Culture, terrible compensation

      Software developer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Great WLB, rarely work outside of 9-5 Your co-workers and peers are easy to work with and great people to chat with Interesting things to work on

      Cons

      Compensation is significantly below market rate. They have not kept up with market trends and most of the top employees are leaving to other companies for a significant bump. This bleeds into other areas as well, recruiting new employees is also a significant challenge due to this Promotions are also very insignificant, They consider the % increase of your current salary when giving a raise not market rates or paying fairly across different teams. Promotions happen only once a year, you could be working a level above your current title for a full year before any recognition The R&D department has been having very high turnover leading to projects being delayed and deadlines not met, creating frustration as teams are understaffed but expected to deliver the same output The parent company Rakuten has significant control over the decision making

      avatar
      Rakuten Kobo Response
      4y
      We are happy to hear that you found the work life balance at Rakuten Kobo to be healthy and your fellow colleagues to be great people to work with. We couldn’t agree with you more on this! Our employees are what make Rakuten Kobo a great place to work. While we review employee compensation annually against benchmark market data we acknowledge the market is moving quickly and are reviewing data more frequently and are about to launch our 2022 compensation cycle. Our Global Total Rewards team works closely with our parent company to ensure we are offering a competitive salary not only in the market we work in, but across Rakuten as a whole. We review employee salaries on a regular basis to ensure our employees are being compensated fairly. As part of our Total Rewards framework, we also offer bonuses, RRSP matching, and stock options. We also offer a generous annual Flexible Spending Account, internet allowance, travel allowance, as well as a generous training and development budget to help employees further develop their careers. Although these might not be considered as salary, they are an additional financial investment we are happy to make in our employees because, as you said, great people make a business, and we believe we have some of the best employees out there. Thank you for taking the time to write to us and we wish you all the best!
      Viewing 13 - 15 of 261 Reviews
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      ReviewsRakuten Kobo reviews

      Glassdoor has 328 Rakuten Kobo reviews submitted anonymously by Rakuten Kobo employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Rakuten Kobo is right for you.