Pros

Great bonus structure compared to most compaines...

Cons

Long hours...tough enviroment from a mental and physical stand point.

Advice to Senior Management

Stay focused-stop changing the priorities. The "focus" may exists on paper, but not in reality.

Pros

Fun environment. The people are friendly and down to earth. The job is easy and challenging at the same time. There was always room for learning new things. Management were very fair and consistent. Working there was like working with your family. The scheduling was very fair (almost too) and all of the management supported associates continuing their education.

Cons

There were opportunities for better training before sending new associates to the sales floor. Some of the operational processes were unnecessary and time consuming. There were reports for reports for reports.... if you get my drift. The computer system was slowly being upgraded, but needed better technology sooner that could increase productivity and reduce down time.

Advice to Senior Management

As a former member of management I would say that there was always an opportunity to increase the communication of new information and training.

Pros

Challenging work, excellent pay for the field, good benefits and excellent possibility for advancement if you want to be a Store Manager for the rest of your life.
Home Depot will always give back what you put in.

Cons

The Home Depot like any retail environment is extremely stressful and disorganized. Lack of technology and an aged infrastructure and logistics system makes it near impossible to provide the level of customer service the company demands. Long uncompensated hours as a salaried manager, "fire drills" when higher ups could possibly be in the area are always affecting our execution and performance and keeping stress levels high when they do not need to be.
Also trying to move from the store into corporate or field staff is next to impossible, the company seems to rather hire from the outside than staff its ranks with knowledgeable associates who have grown up with the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Please work faster on updating our logistics, supply chain, and technology overall. Being in stock is a requirement of the company but we should not have to spend our days driving from store to store to transfer in product because we cannot get it. Also,negotiating stronger control over our service providers (such as installers and delivery agents) would greatly increase customer satisfaction because right now when they screw up all we can do is stand there and tell the customer "I'm sorry" and then refund them money to try to make them happy.

Pros

Home Depot is the best retailer out there. Although no employer is perfect, I find my job to be both challenging and rewarding and the pay and benefits beat out the competition.

Cons

Management could be more involved in the nuts and bolts of the operation.

Advice to Senior Management

Be a little less concerned about numbers and a little more concerned about processes. It is the execution of processes that translate into better customer service.

Pros

Benefit package very good, medical, vision excellent. 401K very good, matching 3.5% and ability to change weekly contribution amounts from paychek, and daily transfers of funds within the futurebuilder.

Cons

--Hysterical reactive environment at times, unreasonable last minute demands put upon workers on a weekly basis which, also on a weekly basis, can be averted with better planning across the board. In most cases, many goals are kinown days ahead of time but always seem to trickle down to the person(s) needed to accomplish them at the last minute.......which effects job performance and impacts unnecessarily on private lives, especially for those with family obligations.

Advice to Senior Management

--Better planning, less stinginess in dispensation of vacation time earned and allowed by associates (It is their personal time after all and more sensitivity to this would create a much healthier work environment)

Pros

Pay was good and bonus could potentially be great. Ability to order product and react to hot sellers was also a plus.

Cons

It seems the company has focused too much on stock price and Wall Street's perception rather than remembering that the company was founded on helping customers gain confidence in their projects. They have scaled back too much in payroll and the quality help you are able to hire ends up leaving because of excess workload.

Advice to Senior Management

Loosen up payroll constraints. Sales will eventually follow and pay for the added labor if you were to regain the reputation of being able to offer the help as advertised 24/7 on commercials. Forget about stock price and get back to basics.

Pros

good pay and it helps me to further gain experience to take with me into another field one day. Its good

Cons

There is not much chance for upward mobility unless you know the right people, but that is the way it is

Advice to Senior Management

Update systems for recieving and shipping. Lowes is better at this and it is time to catch up to the competition

Pros

Home Depot is a powerhouse of knowledge if one is seeking to gain that information. There are vast training courses offered via PK (product knowledge) classes and are readily available on the computers at work. Home depot offers services to the community free of charge and prides itself on volunteer work.
Home Depot gives incentives to associates based on the level of customer service and teamwork demonstrated which helps with morale friendly competition. A good store committee makes for great events year round!

Cons

There are times when managers do not manage correctly. This is due to TTD (teach-train-develop) not being executed correctly with upcoming managers. Hiring from the outside isn't as intense of a process as it should be. External candidates who enter into a management position should be aware that you will be having to "get your hands dirty" pretty often on the sales floor. Some aren't aware about it and complain.
 Internal candidates need to differentiate between associates and associations. Unfortunately cliques can for through working, friendships and favoritism develops as well in some unfortunate cases. Some managers do not and are not developed in HR policies. Unfortunately HR's were eliminated from stores which proves to be an issue when managers lean towards being biased. Not all are, but it's better to leave that role to someone neutral. Orientation should be 2 weeks long as it was in the past. All stores should go green and be energy efficient when built. P-Cards are a joke when it comes to planning events for store associates. Especially in city markets. Loosen the reigns on the Fun Fund and have some fun!

Advice to Senior Management

How your people act is a reflection of how well you manage them. Learn correctly, teach even better. Develop those under you to shine above and beyond. Customer service is top priority. Stay shop-able, stay safe, stay clean, stay in-stock and keep your people KNOWLEDGEABLE and COURTEOUS!

Pros

the benefits are outstanding. they are compasionate when it comes to personal time. training is one of the best in the industry

Cons

the clicks that go on with upper management beyond the professional, are something to consider when going into a supervisor position, ie. favorite supervisors that dissapear from the floor for Hours at a time. if you think you can go in and just do your job, your mistaken. paperwork is constantly changing and being heaped upon you. they are Always saying the more sales dollars they bring in the more hours they will give to the people on the floor, it Never happens

Advice to Senior Management

look at the policy of dollars for hours. if you want to see your department managers be successful then let them do their job, stop puting more and more paperwork on them

Pros

Limited Personnel that are a blast to work with
Helping Customers with their needs

Cons

Management
The above can be broken into lack of leadership and respect

Advice to Senior Management

RESPECT is not a bad word as much as some seem to think it is.
Fast and Accurate feedback not holding onto things then jumping in with both feet and a writeup or 5