H&R Block Reviews

Pros

Great opportunities for advancement and growth. Flexible scheduling. Good communication with management. Fast paced work environment with opportunities to build a strong client base.

Cons

A wide degree of inconsistency in employee training. A competetive work environment can lead to tension with coworkers. Seasonal nature of work can be difficult to adapt to.

Advice to Senior Management

Invest in continuing quality employee training and first year tax preparers.

Pros

Great training, many classes available to current employees. Usually management is flexible with hours. Staying very current, actually ahead, of tax updates. File own and friends and family returns for very little fee.

Cons

Pay structure is weird, you get minimum pay and if at the end of a tax season your commissions are higher than the overall hourly paid so far that year you get THE DIFFERENCE AS A BONUS on your W-2, now, bonuses are taxed at a higher rate, #1, and #2, you do not see that money until the end of the season, and #3, a large chunk of it is taken out for taxes and you have to wait till the end of the year to get a refund. The hourly pay is minimal, my gardener and a cleaning lady get more, and in cash. It is not a career, it is a supplemental income job. And you have to get "rehired" every year, go through the application and interview process every time.

Advice to Senior Management

Recognize annual advancement of your employees and offer some increase in salary, even if it is 50 cents. Would you rather get new inexperienced people to pay them $9 an hour and train them or keep your seasoned ones and give them some increase. At least do not tax the commission as bonus!

Pros

i think it is a good place to contribute what i've learnt through education and gain real world experience. Time is flexible.

Cons

it's very seasonal. benefit package is not good enough. promotion is very limited. it's hard to consider it as a career.

Pros

-Meet great people.
-Ability to get involved with the community in a number of ways.
-A hyper competitive environment at the DM level and above (if you're into that kind of thing).
-Opportunities for advancement at the DM level and above if you can capitalize on your relationships before the next reorganization.

Cons

-Constant corporate realignment ensure you won't have the same boss for more than 10 months.
-Push for centralization is resulting on extremely wasteful spending on operational supplies at a time when labor is being cut drastically.
-Little corporate or regional oversight concerning breaches of client privacy, tax preparer fraud or loss prevention.
-The latest round of lay-offs has resulted in a "leaner" workforce at the field support office, which means that HR and payroll issues often take weeks to resolve and often require intervention at multiple layers to ensure complete execution.
-Company has created a field operations position which takes operational control away from district managers. These operations people are responsible for all facilities issues, ordering supplies and the actual hiring of seasonal tax preparers. It has so far been a failure, leaving many district managers with previously unthinkable facilities issues and numerous HR issues (due to hiring not being executed properly.). While regional directors live within or near the regions they oversee, the managers in charge of field operations reside in Kansas City and rarely see the offices which they oversee. This is odd considering field operations is basically in charge of the appearance and physical condition of every office. To make matters worse, Field Operations Managers and Regional Directors did not have clear guidance on the specific responsibilities of the of the Operations Coordinators, which led to important operational projects incomplete or partially complete. Whenever something doesn't get done, Field Ops and Field Leadership seem to be constantly pointing fingers at each other while the tax preparers and their clients are left to suffer.
-The retail tax business is in a severe contraction. As online tax preparation software takes more and more market share away from H&R Block, less tax offices and tax preparers are needed to support their business. Regional leadership is constantly trying to find ways to transition clients away from higher paid, experienced tax professionals to lower paid new tax professionals. They are doing this by implementing severe labor cuts which are targeted at senior tax pros. District managers are being told that senior tax pros should not be serving new clients and that only new tax pros should be seeing those clients.

Advice to Senior Management

-Make the District Operations Coordinator report directly to the District Manager or Regional Director and get rid of the Field Operations Managers. The FOM is an unnecessary layer of management and the ineffective DOCs use them to hide behind when they are not performing.
-Accept the reality of your business. Offices in affluent areas need to be closed. It doesn't make sense to pay $12,000 a month rent at a high end office that only serves 400 clients a year in hopes that it will someday be a busy office. People who live in these areas are simply not attracted to H&R Block. Be honest, as an executive, would you use H&R Block if you didn't work for the company? Retail tax prep if now a low income game, stop denying it.
-Stop trying to get your tax pros to build their own business. It has absolutely killed morale at all levels and has not been effective in bringing in new clients. Keep the tools and programs available to the proactive tax pros who want to use them, but stop trying to force your tax pros to become sales people. If they were any good at sales, they wouldn't be preparing taxes for 3 months out of the year and sitting on unemployment the rest of the year.
-Find real leadership. There is a reason our CEO doesn't live in Kansas City, he's not fully invested in the success of H&R Block. The turnover at the top levels of this company is not healthy. H&R Block is like a lily pad that executives spend a year on before they jump to more secure, long term opportunities. This has a trickle down effect on the rest of the company. Tax pros do not respect any company leadership beyond the DM level because they know they won't be there for long.

Pros

They will give you a free tax preparation. There are willing co-workers for support, local offices, & a willingness to give lunch breaks around school schedules.

Cons

About 80 hours of unpaid training & testing just to see if you've been hired
Scheduling that can leave you with 12 hour weeks / 3-four hour shifts
Unwillingness to alter schedule in the event of personal emergency

Advice to Senior Management

You take advantage of your seasonal employees, promising so much more than you give! Understandably, you need a lot of help for a few months,but you under pay the temps., especially for all the testing required on their own time!

Pros

If you need part-time work to generate unemployment compensation during the off-season, this job's for you. Costs a few hundred bucks to take the initial training class, but worth it, if you want to generate unemployment compensation during the off-season.

You can define your availability, and they'll keep within that. So if you need a second job to dig out of debt, for example, this job's okay.

Cons

No real compensation beyond close-to-minimum wage, until maybe your 3rd year. Convoluted, confusing pay structure, which leads you to believe you could make more money each year, but actually, it's based on the pricing of the tax returns, and their price increases don't keep up with your pay structure. Upper management are corporate robots & cheerleaders, spouting corporate jargon, rah-rah-rah!

Advice to Senior Management

If you have a corporate climate that believes your employees are your biggest asset and concern, and that they should be treated like royalty, they will be willing to treat their clients like royalty. People treat others as they are treated. Simple as that.

If you want more quality employees, offer to reimburse them for the initial tax class if they get hired, for one thing. Straighten out the convoluted pay structure...you're not fooling anyone!

Pros

good training and part time opportunitiies

Cons

can have a better pay structure

Advice to Senior Management

better communication with employees

Pros

Flexible schedules are very easy to obtain. Helping people can be extremely rewarding and the client relationships formed are favorable for the most part.

Cons

Block has too many retail locations to be adequately supported by its customer base. Fees have been increased accordingly to support the numerous bricks and mortar locations opened in the last five years.

Advice to Senior Management

Offer the 1040EZ with state for $ 20.00 with a 20 minute interview. Also, fees should be decreased for customers with one form i.e. HSA's that take two minutes to complete. The increase in fees has encouraged numerous clients to seek more cost-effective alternatives.

Pros

One of the advantages of working for H&R Block is the flexibility. I was able to work 3 nights per week during tax season.

Cons

I did not like having to call clients from previous years to "remind" them to come back again this year. I'm a tax preparer, not a salesperson.

Advice to Senior Management

Have the receptionist make your sales calls- not the tax preparers. Find ways to pay your preparers better. Make offices more appealing with better decor.

Pros

Flexible hours, ability to expand knowledge every year through courses offered during the off-season, rewarding to help people with their taxes, collegial and friendly office environment

Cons

The pay is low. Few opportunities for year-round employment. Occasionally there can be clients that are difficult to deal with. Can be stressful during peak.

Advice to Senior Management

Let's focus more on doing taxes well and less on the finance products.