Rain Bird Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Rain Bird full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Good benefits and compensation.

Flexible work hours and personal time.

Opportunity to design commercial products from concept to customer.

Many very good engineers on the team.

Have read several complaints about succession planning causing problems. I've never experienced ANY pressure to release a team member because they didn't pan out as a manager. Corporate guidelines SPECIFICALLY provide recognition and advancement separate from "management" so I'd strongly resist any pressure if it came. Technical, non-mangement positions up to principal scientist are available (and really exist in the building).

Strong emphasis on quality. Willingness to sacrifice budget for schedule.

Opportunity to visit customers, understand needs and wants, design products to fit.

Cons – Employees are "ranked" against other group members which increases competition.

Communication between business areas can be difficult. Concerted effort is needed to break "silos".

Production distributed across several facilities in multiple countries can increase effort during release of new products.

Vacation benefit based on *Rain Bird service*, rather than previous job benefits. If you presently get 5 weeks of vacation, RB does not match when you join.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Rain Bird full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – High caliber employees (best I've ever worked with)
Good compensation (salary and bonus)
Good benefits (health, dental, 401K, ect)
I like working for Rain Bird because I'm always challenged to find a better way to do my job. I'm never bored and have the support of my management. If you have a good idea the management team will listen and you have the opportunity to effect real change within your sphere of influence. The structure of the organization allows potential for promotions in other business units if there is no immediate position available in your business unit.

Cons – The environment is not for everyone. If you are not an intrinsically motivated individual you could find the results based environment challenging.

Advice to Senior Management – Continue to listen to employees. Many good ideas come up from the people in the "trenches".

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Rain Bird full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Focused on growth, willing to try new approaches, performance based, opportunities are frequent if you are willing to move

Cons – Political, male dominated, lacking in technology

Advice to Senior Management – Hire more females, invest in technology to improve operational performance

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Rain Bird full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – lots of challenges and opportunities to grow

Cons – heavy workload; unhappy former employees cast a shadow

Advice to Senior Management – address glass door

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Rain Bird full-time for more than a year

Pros – Hmmm not much to mention.

Cons – Management is very secretive, like a fraternity

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Rain Bird full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Makes you appreciate your next job.

Cons – Does not help your career. Common lie to suggest people who leave go on to better jobs for having worked at Rain Bird. People leave and get better jobs because they are good caliber people other companies recognize and genuinely value. Simple question, if Rain Bird is such a great business environment, and the talent acquisition process so thorough, why does turnover remain so high? Simple answer, deceitful managers and senior leadership prostituting the value of the company for personal agendas and self preservation.

Advice to Senior Management – Quit capitalizing the "M" in Management. It's insulting to true professionals everywhere.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Rain Bird full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Not a bad work/life balance
The best and most talented people I have ever worked with...bar none.
Good wages for Tucson.

Cons – -You will not retire from here. Less than 20% of all hires makes it to five years.
-You can go from star to goat overnight, through no fault of your own.
-Once you are on the target list, there is nothing you can do to fix it.
-There is no career development. No one will ever give you accurate information how to succeed. Your manager will not spend any time to help you develop skills needed to become more valuable.
-Their stated goal is to have average benefits. They fall somewhat short.
-A word about succession planning - All senior staff members (there were 24 in 2012) are required to have one approved backup. Some are required to have two. So, conservatively, they should have about 30 people in their ranks ready to move up. As of Q1 2012, that number was 0 (ZERO). Company-wide!!! What do you think your chances are of moving up?

Advice to Senior Management – I doesn't matter. Sooner or later, the talented people of the world will realize that this is not where they want to spend their career. Tony will be dead by the time that happens, so he will never feel the need to change.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Rain Bird full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Good salary, got to live in Birmingham and had my boss's support

Cons – Offices are very aged...There is not a lot of room for advancement unless you are an engineer

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Rain Bird full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Products are fairly good, although clearly a lack of differentiation to competitive products. They are no better on a quality or feature set comparison. Slow to evolve products to features that are needed to expand share. The real talented, progressive leaders leave very quickly.

Cons – After many months removed from a management role, in which I always scored very high by the Rain Bird standard, I feel a need to offer my views of the organization. As a past leader for several years, I feel it is my responsibility to objectively comment on this organization.

Unfortunately, I cannot offer and post many positive comments.

 I have seen many talented people put on a corrective action program, and then be told that their performance was wanting in a number of professional areas. I was shocked knowing the work ethic and the level of contribution these so called underperforming professionals contributed. They are very creative, passionate professionals who cared deeply about the job they did for Rain Bird.

Being on the "inside" I watched management at the director level and regional level review these people and trash them with virtually no information regarding their performance. They took it down to the personal level and were completely unfair. The front line managers were basically there to remove them and create ficticious issues with their performance level. Disturbing is the only way I can describe it.

The industry as a whole is well aware of the Rain Bird Corp negative culture and the "go it alone" strategy they have implemented over the years. As the business evolved to an independent national distribution model with enormous influence on buying decisions by the end users at all levels, they chose to ignore it, and not work with it to their advantage, severly impacting their market share and sales. They went from a founding, dominent manufacturer/supplier in the marketplace, to a middle of the road, follow the competition to market, strategy. Slow to react to market needs, clearly lacking creativity and as a result, adopting a follow the competition to market strategy, mimicking the creative robust feature sets of the competitive product line, which were generally introduced several years before Rain Bird copied them (and then presented them like they were new breakthrough feature sets).

After all these years in the business they continue to struggle and clearly do not understand the customer / enduser base and what motivates them to buy the products. They clearly do not understand them, while the competition understands them and has a very effective strategy with end users and distributors alike. The market share of the competitors in some areas is alarming.

The directors of the company are ineffective, lack creativity at all levels and have no clear vision to move the company forward. They are one dimensional, with a lack of overall market/business experience and leadership. They are safe as the ownership seems to be happy with their ineffective management of the business. If only the ownership knew how bad these so called company leaders are, and the devastating impact they are having on Rain Bird market share, business and sales.

Advice to Senior Management – Notice to ownership: Bring in agents of change at the director level, people with experience steering organizations effectively and understanding markets and what motivates customers to buy. Rid yourself of current directors and long standing sales managers, who incredibly, continue to thumb their noses at distribution. Adjust to current market realities, not what they were 35 years ago. Finally, recognize employees who deserve it, for the commitment and contribution they have made to you business. Stop firing good loyal, people for so called performance issues. Bring people in from outside of the landscape/irrigation industry. Try to repair the Rain Bird image in the marketplace, and understand that it is a pressing issue that continues to grow and get worse.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Rain Bird full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Competitive pay
Decent benefits
Good people
Technology upgrades for all (I just received a new top of the line Dell)

Cons – No career advancement opportunities unless you are willing to be a "Yes Man"
Management fears LaFetra so they won't make waves
The company is stuck in a 1980's mentality and management styles
Very myopic leadership from the "Directors"
People leave or get fired and their positions are not filled. The remaining skeleton crew is forced to take the new responsibilities but do not receive compensation. This leads to a domino effect of resignations.

Advice to Senior Management – None. They won't take any advice

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company