Kohl's Reviews

Pros

KOHL'S is one of the few retailers that are doing well considering the current economy. Lower prices on name brand merchandise and much more. Electronic Signing which diplaces prices of merchandise on each merchaandise fixture is one of many examples of how KOHL'S is staying ahead of the competition in regards to the future.

Cons

Most associates are part time with the exception of hourly department supervisors. Certain departments like toys, fashion accessories, and housewares are often neglected due to priority of departments.

Advice to Senior Management

Concistency in employee hours will help maintain associate morale. Hiring an hourly associate and giving them 32hrs one week and 20 the next, may adversely effect this.

Pros

Kohl's compensates executives with 4 weeks of vacation per year and they also give every other weekend off, which is rare in retail.

Cons

Kohl's executives work a six day week during the holidays and the stores are open as early as 5:00am and close as late as midnight so there really isn't much room for sleeping.

Advice to Senior Management

Kohl's should give more inventory control to store executives. Managers have no choice in the freight they receive in their stores so if they notice something is selling well they can't order any more. This frustrates the customers because managers are unable to tell them when the item may come in again....they just wait to open the truck to see what was sent.

Pros

-Employee discount (15% can get up to 35% at random times)
-Will hire someone with no experience/ diploma
-Very flexible work hours
-Occasional great customers
-Health benefits
-You get personal and vacation time (However, you will have no say as to when you get to use it)

Cons

-Flexible hours actually means you'll get the least amount of hours possible
-Little to no actual training, you're going to have to figure everything out on your own
-About 80% of the people you're going to deal with are angry about something (But this is typical in retail.)
-Management is messy and unorganized
-If you're uncomfortable with soliciting credits you'll be told to "Suck it up"
-Almost no opportunities to advance within the company, even if you're a great employee

Advice to Senior Management

This company needs a huge revamp. The only training for the register is from a binder that doesn't work, and you have to teach yourself how to work everything while you're helping real customers. This leaves so much room for error and future problems with the employees. We are never told what coupons or promotions are going on while we're working, so unless you get every coupon at home or read them all on your own outside of work, you'll need to figure it out on the spot. This is often made worse when there's a long line, one cashier and not enough floor associates to cover the other registers.
Management is often erratic and disorganized. With each manager there's a different set of rules you have to follow, which is confusing and often stresses out everyone that is working. Often times you won't even know who is managing that day because many of them never come onto the floor. Many of them are very unprofessional and either dress or talk in ways that if lower employees were to do, they would be fired, or at least reprimanded for.
As with the Kohl's card, I understand that the company does want people to use it because it saves them money. However, punishing those who do not meet the unrealistic credit or email goals is unfair and unprofessional. Yes, employees want to do their best, but our customers are human too, and when we're constantly bombarding them with "Are you sure you don't want to save so-and-so percent?" and "Come on it only takes 90 seconds!" it's really a turn off, and coming from a customers point of view I can see why the cashiers pushing this card on people would anger some customers to the point of never coming back to the store.
For being a 'customer service oriented' store Kohl's has often pushed the needs of the employees to the back burner and ignores that some of their employees are severely unhappy. Having asked for over a year to be moved to the floor instead of being on the register I was told multiple times to just 'wait it out' and have never been able to leave the register. Truly they just need to focus on the internal workings of the company and the people who are making it run. We're not getting the opportunities to better ourselves.

You can't have great customers if you don't have great employees, so please actually take care of your company and not just the customers.

Pros

Benefits, Managers actually care about the employees, while my position is going away, none of us are being fired, but integrated into other positions, slightly more pay than minimum, but just barely

Cons

Not enough hours, my position is going away, mean customers

Pros

Employee Discount
Fair Benefits
Good 401 (K)
Fairly Flexible work schedule.

Cons

Poor Management
Hard workers do not get the hours
Truly the more popular workers get promotions
Horrible Communication
Pushing Credit Solicitation.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate better, quit hiring herds of people that really don't want to work and terminate those managers that dont know what is going on. There is too much one manager telling you this and another telling you that. Truly one of the managers who has been there for quite a long time didn't know what they were doing. I would actually have to complete this managers work because she had no clue what to do. I was there for several years and was promoted to an Area Supervisor position. The sad thing was that I knew more than most of the Manager's. They always came to me when they had a question. When picking up the slack for the others you fall behind and then you really hear about it. You try to explain why and you are berated. They would say just tell that manager no. I guess they don't know about the hierarchy of command in any job. You never disobey a command unless total ridiculous and then you go to the Store Manager but most of the time you can't see them until the next day. The inefficiency with which this store is run is unbelievable. When snapbacks are completed on the dock (set by a corporate directive) one manager will not like it and have it changed back. Please don't think I am bragging, but one time I was approached and asked to help another supervisor complete a task specific to their job because the manager didn't believe this person was capable of completing it themsselves when that is their specific job. This snapback took several weeks to complete. That was 2 weeks I was away from my job. Finally, when interviewing for supervisor positions they never tell you what the wage is until after you accept. I was already a department supervisor and to accept this higher position I only earned a little over a dollar fifty more. So after several years with Kohl's I accepted another position outside of retail that was more relevant to my college degree. The sad thing was the first two years I was there I couldn't wait to get up everyday and go to work. But after the cycles of new employees, seeing the hard working employees lose hours, seeing people put into positions they had no right to be placed in and finally after years of miscommunication I was more than happy to leave. I know it is retail but let me give you fair warning, the general consensus throughout all of these posts are poor wages compared to competitors, lack of communication throughout the store and upper management that has no right to be where they are at. These are all true and you would think that corporate would have heard all of this from employees and made changes, but they don't. So just be wary and only go here as a last resort. They will pound into your head that credit is first and foremost. Yes they make quite a bit of money off of the company charge card, but have they ever heard of market saturation. They push and push and thats all you hear. If you don't make goal look out. They give you unrealistic goals like 45 credit apps and when your market is saturated do you really think you can make that. Come on Corporate Cubicle workers coming up with these goals. Do some research and look at the demographic. If you live in a poor area do you think people want to open a card and save the 20% or even if its 30% more then likely if they are approved they can't pay off the entire balance so you theoretically lose your discount when you pay the interest back.
P.S. All of the stupid contest's Kohl's puts on is insane. For the most part if they promise you prizes for soliciting credit, emails, etc... you probably will never see it. Good Luck and happy job hunting.

Pros

Can make your own schedule (sometimes)

Cons

Store management has no idea what LP does and doesn't care to

Pros

if you enjoy standing in one spot for hours, then this job is ideal.

Cons

management is rude, and unprofessional.

Pros

*Co-workers
*Pay (buy anyone can tell you respect and appreciation are always at the top of any employee's list of what is most important in a job.)

Cons

*No common sense in decision making
*Lack of respect from upper management

Advice to Senior Management

*Put people first
*There is no point to We're Listening because upper management does not listen at all

Pros

-Flexible hours (in general)
-Okay discount

Cons

-Too pushy about credit
-Poor management, does not listen to anything you say, have to tell them 3+ times to get through to them

Pros

Nice benefits in retirement programs
Can take unpaid time off in addition to vacation time
Fellow associates were nice overall

Cons

Management reactive instead of proactive
Management pretends to be concerned, but really, they're too overwhelmed to address much
Safety hazards brought to managements attention were never addressed
Supervisors in DC's are chosen, not based on actual experience within company, but are almost always chosen straight out of college with no prior work experience
No cost of living increases, and annual payraises are insulting