Reynolds and Reynolds Reviews in Houston, TX Area

Pros

Steady, albeit low, paycheck
Fun coworkers
paid holidays
401(k) matching pretty good
fairly easy to get hired - if you have a pulse, you're in

Cons

Creativity is stifled
raises are non-existent
low salary
no training
we lie to our clients on a daily basis
our product is subpar

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees. Morale is the lowest I have ever witnessed in my career. You cannot pay an entry level salary to smart college graduates. You need to stop hiring people who are not marketing-minded.

Pros

The only good thing about working at Reynolds and Reynolds is this job is a good resume builder.

Cons

The employee morale was extremely low in the department as was the pay. I was told by recruiting and management during the interview process that there would be opportunities to earn bonuses. The bonuses were to bump my pay up 10-15k a year. This was and is a complete falsehood. Everyone was told this when they were hired. Don't expect to make more than a few hundred dollars more than your base salary. Truly incompetant management with ZERO marketiing experience. Nearly everyone is fresh out of college and misrepresent themselves to clients as "marketing professionals" (not the employees fault; just an example of the shadiness of the company to sell a product backed by non-existent marketing professionals).

Benefits take a full 5 months to go into effect. You cannot use vacation days until a full calendar year has completed. VERY BIG BROTHER. Video cameras everywhere. You are tracked by “locator” all day long. Management absolutely runs reports on where you are spending your time during the day.

Reynolds is a horrid company. Read the reviews and take them to heart. Every word is true.

Advice to Senior Management

A. Try actual management/ leadership training outside of Reynolds classes. I have never seen a more incompetent management force.

B. Give the poor employees working there a little respect. They are working so hard for very little pay.

Pros

Extremely marketable job title and "potential" skill set, although you will have to be able to sell this to another potential employer. Because you will be responsible for very little, you will not actually learn new skills, technologies, or marketing approaches. However, if you are capable of painting a picture in an interview to someone unfamiliar with Reynolds that makes it look like you actually perform challenging tasks and have some marketing competency, you might be able to use the title as a means to trade up quickly.

Cons

Horrible, horrible company morale. Since the essential job functions are mindless (there is no actual strategy development- upper level managers have little idea on how to execute it) which results in minimal pay, employees do not even have to try to care and this mentality is only evident after you start. Couple this with the lack of training (and the dismal quality of what IS included in "training") and you have a recipe for career suicide. You will work for inept supervisors who have little idea of how to do your job, let alone their own, and will gain little marketable experience while pushing yourself further into career irrelevance. As your Reynolds tenure increases, your chances of finding something elsewhere decrease exponentially.

Advice to Senior Management

What's the point? Here is my advice to new/young employees:

Take this job only if you need a job now, and cannot delay a dependable bi-weekly check. If there are other opportunities available, take them. Even if there aren't, you may be better served to be patient and wait it out.
Apply to other jobs AGGRESSIVELY. Even though you have no vacation time, you will be able to take "unpaid" time to go to interviews if you make up the time during that week and you still get paid. It's worth it.
If you have been there for 6 months, try harder. If you have been there for 1+ year, your time is running out. 2+ years and it's probably time to move to a new city and try something else.

Pros

Decent benefits (was one of the biggest pluses 6 months ago, but have since changed)
Good job security
Extremely easy workload

Cons

Company that is intent on the sure dollar with no desire for improvement
Miserable dress code, no tobacco, random drug tests, poor salaries

Advice to Senior Management

From a company perspective much makes since to keep cost down and profits high. Not sure how this company survives when the economy is decent though.

Pros

-Somewhat okay health insurance coverage

Cons

- Too much micromanagement. Bosses would be upset if you worked less than one minute and not exactly 8 hours
- give too much work to those who do a good job
- do not show enough employment appreciation

Advice to Senior Management

Go back to school and learn how to really manage a company

Pros

They are one of the few companies that actively recruits recent college grads, and their training program is very thorough.

Cons

Management seemed more concerned about making sure I worked more than 40 hours a week rather than ensuring that I was working effectively. The company is very bureaucratic and concerned about buy-in. Employees are "strongly encouraged" (read: required) to attend monthly birthday parties after work and to eat in the company cafeteria rather than bringing their own lunch or eating at a restaurant nearby. Vacation days for the first 2 years of employment are pathetic (none for the first year, and one day for every month you worked in the previous year for the second year).

Advice to Senior Management

Improve vacation compensation for new employees.

Pros

Friendly environment, sports leagues, low insurance costs

Cons

Mediocre pay, hostile employees from the Dayton office

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to work on improving the relationship between Houston and Dayton associates

Pros

They pay on time usually.

Cons

The management, all the way up to the owner.

Advice to Senior Management

Try reading a book sometime.

Pros

it's a job. it's better than McDonalds...half the time.

Cons

the healthcare sucks, the pay sucks, the job sucks.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop treating your employees like babies

Pros

The highly structured method of training at R&R allows you to gain competence and confidence in whatever department you work in. They have a very high standard when hiring thus most of the co-workers are very capable people.

Cons

The pay is not great compared to other companies. It is not bad, per se, but about average. However, the pay raise is only a small amount and it is not guaranteed.

Advice to Senior Management

Offer your employees more opportunities to get better raises. Also, allow the workers more freedom when they have to spend time with their family.