Reynolds American Reviews

Pros

Benefits, that is the only reason.

Cons

Tobacco, when I was there riddled with good ole boys, promoting everyone they knew. Yep they failed as quick as they were promoted.

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

Good salary, benefits, and community to live in.

Cons

No future, no leadership. The current management is caretakers; the cigarette volume continues to decline the management is hoping the smokeless business will offset the decline in the cigarette volume. For the senior management to continue to receive their bonuses they will need to continue squeeze cost and that translates to continue to outsource and eliminate jobs. The only hope is for British American Tobacco to take the company private when the ownership restrictions from the merger expire.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep squeezing the cost and eliminate as many people as you need to make the stock an attractive purchase.

Pros

great benefits package are offered at Reynolds

Cons

communication about the business to all employees

Pros

Great Pay
Great Benefits
Great work life and job
Very great at training

Cons

No pick in city you will be sent to
Constant change

Advice to Senior Management

Give employees a chance to pick what state and city they would like to live in

Pros

Some regions operate like a family, they make sure that all of their people are in a position to succeed.
- Benefits
- Car
- People (Excluding Denver Team)
- Bonus
- Training

Cons

These were my negative experiences working with the Denver Region:
- No coaching
- No positive feedback
- Minimal Development
- Incompetent Upper Management
- Unrealistic Expectations from Upper Management
- Have to be 100% mobile for promotions
- Rule by fear
- Micro-managing
- (3 AM's in 3 months quit in 2011)

Advice to Senior Management

Take a look at some of the people you have in Region Director and Senior Management positions. My experience in other regions was much more positive than in Denver.

Pros

The lifestyle of the job is great since it allows you work independently and not have to go to an office.

Cons

The culture is one that involves management by fear. You hear more negative than positive which is not a motivating factor.

Pros

If you want to learn how to work, work for Reynolds American. You have to work hard and organize your time to get the calls made by frequency and amount. You don't have to worry about having nothing to do. The problem is getting it all done.
Great benefits and yearly bonuses if the company makes goal. The company/region/division always makes some of the goals so there is always a bonus of some sort. Anywhere from $4000 to 10,000+. But those that make the big bonuses are about 3%.
Good Pay. Not Great, Good.

Cons

A few things:
1. You get a good boss (Division Manager). You work hard for him, a great motivator. Life is grand. The division looks good, he looks good, you look good. He is promoted within 2 years and then you get a jerk for a DM and he stays there FOREVER, and upper management ignores his insensibilities, arrogance, micromanaging or his overall inability to manage and they will keep him in that position. Upper management people don't seem to realize that there are 2 ways of exerting pressure on the grunts making the call: pulling up (the good managers), pushing down (the bad ones).
 2. If you don't have aspirations to move up, don't take the job or at least don't mention those feelings at your interview. They want young aggressive people who are willing to marry Reynolds American and go whereever. If you are a hard working Joe that has roots and don't want to move, for example, you want to stay in sales and you like your area and don't want to go to management, but you still want the job, keep it to yourself and decide that after you have proven yourself on the job for awhile. You MIGHT change your mind.
3. Don't EVER give your idea that something that has come from above is a bad idea. Trust me, if it gets to you in written form at a meeting it's already etched in stone and any ideas not corresponding with corporate ideas are viewed as an inability to change or inflexibility. It doesn't matter that: You work the area. You know your competition. You know your accounts. Who in the world came up with this crazy idea. KEEP YOUR MOUTH SHUT AND SMILE WHILE NODDING VERTICALLY.

Advice to Senior Management

Too much change of direction coming from corporate. Almost seems like someone upstairs is trying to justify his/her job without a thought to those that have to implement his/her idea. But that's not his or her problem. Look, the truth is that the idea that you have come up with has been tried before with either success or failure. Talk to a group of veteran field reps (20 to 30 years experience) that are not yes men/women and get their input. I know, you do this, but the people you get are afraid to nod their head any way but vertically. I'm not talking about malcontents, I'm talking about good reps that if asked a question will give you an answer. But you have to be willing to listen and take the ideas into consideration without getting upset or reprisal.

Directors, talk to the seasoned veterans of RJR out on the trade about the effectiveness or ineffectiveness of their DM, and how the DM is affecting morale within the division. Is he promoting cohesiveness, is he showing favoritism, does he pit one against another. Competition between peers is great as long as all those who really put forth an effort are noticed as well. Stress (for those that are really working hard) the team and that all have a part to play AND YOU APPRECIATE THEIR HARD WORK. Does the DM exert pressure by pulling up, or by pushing down?

Pros

Benefits and opportunities are very good. They will challenge you. You may have to go elsewhere to get a promotion but you will get the work experience here.

Cons

The outsourcing of certain functions has entiled a new level of acceptable risk.

Advice to Senior Management

Be careful of who you are picking to implement your plans. You need to check back on their performance once in a while.

Pros

Benefits, Compensation, and Opprotunities, but you must be patient, turnover is low.

Cons

It is tobacco and the political environment is against the industry.

Advice to Senior Management

Allow the supervisors to spend more time with the employees.

Pros

Great money.
Pride in company.
Fair.
Great benefits.
Reward hard work.

Cons

Since the merge the company says that the joint workforce is one happy family. RJR employees are disappearing and former B&W employees are being kept even though some are not qualified to be in the positions that they are in. The company wants you to be a "china breaker" and proactive, yet if your ideas differ from the person you report to, you are berated and not heard. They want you to do your job and what your manager tells you to do. Don't different ideas and opinions end up brining the best results? If you keep trying to bring up your ideas in a positive manner for purely the right reasons,(most efficient, proven, respected, credible) they will make you disappear because you look more intelligent then your boss. Then once you leave they wil take your ideas and call them their own.

Advice to Senior Management

Excellent company if you are applying for an entry level position. Great pay, benefits and ability to gain experience in a difficult business. Get all you can and then move on within 5 years. Goal oriented, not people oriented.