CVS Caremark Reviews in Kansas City, MO Area

Pros

The insurance is good and it's a nice clean place to work. The training is very good and can help in a new job search. Don't feel it's a long term job. People are constantly quitting or moving to another store.

Cons

It is hard when you first start because you have to do all the hard work ringing up and drive thru which can be physically exhausting. No 15 min breaks because not enough people working a shift to allow it. CVS does not hire enough people to make it a comfortable atmosphere. They cut the hrs so short the pharmacy has a hard time keeping up the work in time.

Advice to Senior Management

The store manager is constantly worried about bonuses which I can see is stressful. They need to make sure enough people are hired for busier stores. Technology is greatly lacking.

Pros

flexible hours,interact with customers,24 hours convinience

Cons

Dont care if you have benefits, no career, high mgmt turnover,no structure, 2o cent raises

Advice to Senior Management

Need to care about employees!

Pros

good discount
some cool manager
they are pretty good about giving you requested time off if you give them notice

Cons

ridiculous work load
some managers won't give you a break at all and that is really hard on any worker during an 8 hour shift
customers treat cashiers like they are 6th grade dropouts

Advice to Senior Management

treat your cashiers like humans not slaves

Pros

Generally the stores are allowed to manage themselves without too much intervention from corporate management and many knowledgeable employees if you know where to look.

Cons

Pay is comparatively low with very little chance of merit bases increases. Very little hands on assistance from corporate management when a problem needing there assistance arises.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus more on keeping current employees with the company through advancement opportunities and better pay, as opposed to bringing in new employees and keeping everyone at the same level. Also making sure institution of new ideas or policies is well researched beforehand and carried out all the way though to minimize problems.

Pros

Clear direction on what needs to be done and what the expectations are.

Cons

Not given enough hours to complete task. Seriously as a manager would run the front store 10-15 hours by myself a week. Thats right, no cashier and no one on the sales floor. It was not uncommon to have to check in vendors, answer phone, help check out a customer, answer manager call at pharmacy, and help a customer at photo all at once. I'm not making this up!!! During down time I would have to work on projects on the sales floor while cashiering. This wasn't just someone called in sick, but was part of the daily routine of running a store on 200 hours while open 8am-10pm every day of the week. A sad way to run a retail store were customers are supposely top priority.

Advice to Senior Management

More hours.

Pros

Everyone at CVS/Caremark is friendly and will make you feel at home. Lots of benefits available at low employee cost. Lots of training when time is available.

Cons

Customer Care Representatives must be at the top of their game at all times. Every call is recorded and analyzed with sophisticated equipment. Reps must be "perfect" on each call no matter what the situation. Reps are tied to telephone most of the time. Difficult to take bathroom breaks when you are talking on phone to a customer. Many are calling only because they feel there is a problem that must be fixed immediately. Supervisors do not want to take phone calls if customer has problem. They prefer to remedy situation after the call is done, and angry customer is even angrier.

Advice to Senior Management

Keeping in mind management's purpose of satisfying stakeholder's equity, more training should be provided before Rep takes call on handling call without Supervisor intervention.

Pros

Day to day function of what need to be done at store level was easily understood. Also what was expected.

Cons

Not given enough help to complete day to day function of what need to be completed. Open every day of the year including Christmas.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to understand what it takes in order to complete everything that needs to be done that is reasonable and realistic.

Pros

I enjoy working with the public and like working at CVS. CVS matches money put into and retirement IRA

Cons

I like working AT CVS, not FOR CVS. CVS does match your contributions to an IRA. But, for the most part, part-time employees get few benefits from this company. I was really excited when I saw a posting for scholarships for CVS employees's children - until I looked closer and it was only for full-time employees. We get no paid vacation and our employee discount is not good. I worked for Osco before CVS bought us out and we accrued vacation hours and receive a very good employee discount. CVS is just making more money off of it's employees instead of giving them a break.

Advice to Senior Management

Please treat your part-time employees better - especially the ones who are loyal and have stayed with the company.

Pros

CVS provides somewhat competative pay,but the market in Kansas City is starting to get saturated and jobs are becoming scarce and overtime is rarely possible. There are great benefits, 401K matching, other perks, such as discounts at various retailers and on automobiles. In addition, you start with 2 weeks vacation and can work up to four weeks after a few years on the job. I think this is the norm at most retailers. There are opportunities to move up, but this may uproot you from your current location. Overall a good company, but its important to find a store that works for you and good people to work with, because not having these things can make anywhere a bad place to work.

Cons

OT is scare as I said above and this is not ideal for young pharmacists who want to work a lot to pay off loans and buy a home. Also, there have been cutback on technician staffing putting more workload on the pharmacist. This is fine in stores that are not all that busy, but when it dies get busy pharmacists are running around all over the place. This really increase the chances of making errors and no pharmacist wants that. It is a strange balance and you really have to be comfortable working hard under pressure with few errors.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior managment sometimes forgets what its like working day to day in the store. It is important to have a good district manager who is helpful and truthful. I have had the experience with both and this can make a world of differnece. My first manager was one that told you want you wnated to hear and did what he needed to do. This resulted in upset personaland a general distain for his presence. The district managers job is to help those working the the trenches. If they do this properly their distrcict will flourish and their bonus wull be huge.

Pros

It pays the bills for now, I like the people that I work with, and "some " of the custormers are cool

Cons

Pay raise only once a year, must multi task at all times with very little or no help,
and must deal with the general public .

Advice to Senior Management

we need higher pay to keep up with the cost of living and little more help to operate the stores
remember it's about the custormer and service