Graybar Electric Reviews

Pros

Great Benefits
Good Managment
Fun work enviornment
Team based cohesive unit

Cons

outdated and inefficient shipping and receiving methods, wastes A LOT of paper
other branches will make the last hours of the day a complete hell

Advice to Senior Management

Find a new way to track shipping and receiving

Pros

Employee Stock Program, Pension Retirement benefits , SAP, Support Resources, Location

Cons

Lack of Management
Lack of Motivation for high performers
No career development opportunities

Advice to Senior Management

Become more involved. Engage in leadership and mentor good people so they can become great.

Pros

-Fully funded pension plan and profit sharing nearly every year
-Employee-owned with stock that always pays quarterly dividend with occasional stock dividend
-Industry-leader that is profitable and very financially strong

Cons

-Flat organization that is slow to change, more reactive than proactive
-New senior management is much more cutthroat and all about the bottom line, with fear as primary motivation tactic
-Many "lifers" who block opportunities for career upward mobility
-Corporate is consolidating more and more responsibilities from field to St. Louis HQ (particularly accounting & finance)
-Base salaries are lower than industry standard

Advice to Senior Management

-With an aging workforce the company needs better succession planning (particularly at the District and Branch management levels), and better college recruiting efforts to groom homegrown talent.
-The lack of upward mobility prompts many promising employees to leave or become increasingly frustrated, need better defined career paths so people don't feel like they are in a dead end job.
-Senior management needs to renew commitment to employees since perception is they are only concerned about bottom line
-Don't have so many "market initiatives", focus on the select few that offer the most potential for growth

Pros

Poor salary, benefits not that great. Good to get experience for a better paying job

Cons

More work than what they pay

Advice to Senior Management

get a clue

Pros

Benefits, People, Training; Graybar has tradition and a respected Company; Financially Strong, Vendor support and respect; Employee Owned

Cons

Traditional Company to the extend new employees are placed under a microscope; pay is less than industry average; promotions are difficult to achieve.

Advice to Senior Management

Company needs to be more receptive to new employees; Training is more than tracks on the SAP; need to have more interaction with employees besides Video Conferences that are 1-way.

Pros

Benefits are very good, especially the retirement benefits. PTO is ok but management has been very flexible and open to time off requests.

Cons

Some difficulty in moving across departments to move up in the organization. Pay is a little lower and management constantly states this is because of the benefits we receive.

Pros

No degree required to move up within the company

Cons

Pay is horrendous. Management places no value on ability, performance, or work ethic. The only consideration for promotions and hiring is years of service with the company. The company is quickly being surpassed by competitors and losing ground in the industry due to unwillingness/inability to change and adapt.

Advice to Senior Management

Get your stuff together

Pros

Excellent benefits. Great potential to move up if you apply yourself. The people who work hard and put themselves out there and chase opportunities LOVE the company. Those who sit back and wait for opportunities to come to them are often negative.

Cons

Difficult to get significant raises. Job changes are really the only way to get additional money. Would be better to pay people more money to be in the positions they shine in.

Pros

employee owned, good benefits, somewhat flexible on the branch level, plenty of locations throughout the country, no evening weekend work

Cons

little to no opportunities for overtime for hourly workers, corporate can be a little too hands on at the branch level, upper level taken care of much more than the lower level people.

Advice to Senior Management

don't become too top heavy, invest and pay more to the people at the bottom who are the backbone of the company

Pros

Benefits, People, Employee Ownership (Stock)

Cons

People that are promoted to mangement are done so based on preformance not on if they have the right qualities. Lack of training for staff, lack of communication of direction from management, meetings about nothing useful to the worker, management beats employees into submission without anything good to say. As an inside sales rep you spend more time being a CSR then you do selling, then get pounded by management for not selling enough. Pay is TERRIBLE, and so is sales compensation TERRIBLE. Management only gives top accounts to reps they want them to go to not people that deserve them, all top accounts for 2 reps out of a 14 rep sales staff can you say fishy, also goes along with poor management of people. I am serious do not waste your time selling for this company it is a joke, I can make more selling at Home Depot.

Advice to Senior Management

Get your proities in line and make the vision from corporate go to the branches, do not allow the branches to break all of the GI's as they see fit to make more of a profit. You have to do an internal audit of all branches to make sure they are playing by the rules HINT HINT........ PAY your employees better maybe you will get a more productive staff.