Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Reviews

Pros

The best reason to work at Ritchie Bros is having the opportunity to work with some very knowledgeable, experienced people from the heavy equipment industry. There is a fun an exciting social aspect of working in the field. If you like working in a 100% face to face environment with continually changing expectations it can be very satisfying.

Cons

There were customer service issues that would consistently arise and the outcome would always heavily favor the corporation. Regardless of the successes or failures employees would have, management led sales staff with an overbearing tendency to micro-manage the day to day activities. There are some major ego’s in management that have been in place for many years that would be difficult to communicate field information to if it’s not what they wanted to hear. The bottom line is that in a business where the employee has little control over the market conditions and the volume of available equipment to consign, the pressure to generate revenue growth for shareholders is constantly fueled with unrealistic expectations for its employees.

Advice to Senior Management

If the company is to grow moving forward, listening to what customers are saying and don’t just hear the parts of the conversation that align with the programs you offer.

Pros

RB has the best name in the auction industry.
Exciting auction atmosphere.
Team building when prepping for an auction.
Free Company vehicle with credit card.
Benefits were horrible.

Cons

Ludicrous budget plans pushed on to TM's: you must do "x amount of millions" or you get no bonus. This is insane. I turned a nothing territory into a 2 million plus territory in the 1st 14 months and I received nothing in return. Nothing! In many cases new TM's are taking over sales area's that have never been called on by RB and your expected to make miracles happen or else you are ridiculed and again...no raise and surely no bonuses.

Never and I mean never obtain your job through "networking" i.e come in through the back door. This only leads to resentment by your DM because he is mad because he didn't make the hire.

Last, but not least: the travel requirement. When I was hired I was told the travel requirement in my territory was 2-3 days and during auction times more. This was fine with me as I could handle a lot of my territory from my home. Over time, this "policy" changed. My DM wanted me to travel 5 days a week.....not what I was hired to do. My numbers were fine. New consignors all over the place and success stories everywhere, but he wanted me gone wasting company money, sitting in useless hotels for nothing.

In a nutshell, he never wanted me and couldn't wait to see me gone.....Oh and guess what??? Since I have left (3) very interesting things have happened: (1) DM demoted. (2) Ops Manager demoted. (3) Magically they never backfilled my territory......If you wanted to downsize why didn't you just say it??? Why put people through such misery????

Future employees beware.

Advice to Senior Management

Look very hard at who you make DM's.
Completely overhaul compensation plan--pay your TM's by the deal instead of on a "bonus plan" and you will see results improve.
Again, look very hard at who you make DM's---just because someone is buddies with a VP doesn't make him management material.

Pros

The company offers outstanding healthcare, comparable to that of Canadian healthcare. The office is located in a beautiful building with comfortable offices and offers a great work/life balance attitude.

Cons

The company's salaries are far below market standard. They value their healthcare packages at over $10K and therefore reduce your salary by such. As the world's largest auction company with sales in the billions, employee bonuses are less that 100 dollars per year. No possibility for job growth, less than 6 managers within corporate for the entire United States division.

Advice to Senior Management

For a company to grow in the right direction it must be lead by people who are passionate about their work, people who are skilled in recognizing inefficiencies and eager to develop upon that. For far too long Ritchie Bros as worked to obtain "cheap labor," this attitude has lead to much of the demise that the company currently sits. For an international, publicly traded incorporation to hire applicants with only a GED or associates degree to foster operations in the billions displays an obvious disregard for growth in the "right direction." It's no wonder employee turnover is so high, why over 80% of employees are over 30, and why hired college graduates only stay [on average] less than two years.

Reconsider the type of employee that you're looking to attract, and then build your human resources and benefits policies around that desired individual. Great companies not only have employees work for them but work for their employees as well.

Pros

good pay; good bosses; great people

Cons

lots of travel; away time

Pros

Senior management are excellent at communicating to their employees on all things Ritchie Bros. They also really believe they are doing well by their employees and seem to geniunely care about them as people.

Cons

The biggest frustration working at corporate headquarters is the lack of business accumen by many staff and lack of management's knowledge of best practices in business. To top it off, they seem very unwilling to call in expertise from the marketplace to help with this. Overall, this makes it a very challenging place to work because I know how much better it could run but am powerless in my position to make serious change.

Advice to Senior Management

You are a great bunch of guys but seriously, there are some areas need a major rehaul to be brought into the 21st century. It ain't 1960 anymore.

Pros

Laid back atmosphere, everyone gets along, fun environment.

Cons

Work alot of hours around sales, pay could be better.

Advice to Senior Management

Put yourself in your employees shoes before addressing issues.