What is the hiring process like at Orkin?

Easy interview process, some of the technicians were nice.

They offer extremely low salary with promises you’ll make a lot in commission but do absolutely anything to not pay you. Very disorganized management. Constant, pointless meetings and unrealistic expectations where they give nothing back. Micromanagement. Training is basically you watching random videos with no help or guidance beyond that. Sometimes it’s videos that don’t even pertain to your position. Lots of driving to other offices that could have been done remotely. Some technicians would just say no to doing jobs or do them so poorly you lose the customer. Also claw back on commission for reasons out of your control. Just an extremely negative experience.

Its a job- so you have somewhat of an income while you look for something better.

During the ungodly long interview process they promise you all this money you are going to make in sales commissions.....when I say ungodly long you will be asked all kinds of nonsensical questions for over an hour- a lot of the questions are redundant. Then you get hired and go through a decent training that holds back facts about KPI that you will be harshly judged on later.... You go to nesting and try to follow the process and of course everyone you speak with is not going to buy that day-- but you do your best. Then somewhere during nesting you are going to start to be bombarded with 'coaching' sessions- which are cool when they come from the trainers- but once the trainers are no longer involved and the 'coachings' are coming from the sups or leads that's when the real fun begins. They are unrealistic and often come across as harsh and many have ugly attitudes. They believe bc a rebuttal sounds good in a meeting it will work in changing a person from looking for a quote to a sale. Sure it happens sometimes--but their suggestions are not the magic conversion makers for ppl that really are just shopping the market for quotes or just getting basic info before they make a decision. At this point you will be wondering what the KPIs and tiered commission payouts actually are. You will ask for the several times. NO ONE WILL GIVE THEM TO YOU. I was there a little over a year and continued to ask for this and left the company and still didn't have it. Its a highly graded secret they keep from you. I asked multiple ppl multiple times and was left on read or the subject changed. I left training thinking the goal was a conversion rate of 40% or better was the basic KPI. I was then put on a dead end spreadsheet to work bc my KPI wasn't 50% and above. Then put in an ongoing group meeting series to attend when my KPI wasn't 60% and above- cuz yeah taking a person off the phones is gonna really help that persons conversion rate. Another KPI they cant agree on is calls per hour. It when from 10 to 12 now 15 or so. If you have a sales call they don't want it to be over 10 minutes-- then they put me in 'coaching' with a lead that had a sale call that was 17minutes-- my sales calls were 15-20 while still nesting..... so if the lead isn't in your target 10 min sales call range-- why are they even a lead? And why are you chastising me for not meeting goals your leads are not hitting? Somewhere in this time you will find out that a lot of things you have no controll over are being held against you with the KPIs. There are certain services a virtual agent cannot sell and have to go to the Branch or Franchise closest to the lead-- if you don't sell these leads another service while you have them on the phone this call will count against you. Example: Mrs Jones calls in because she has a raccoon in her attic-- if you don't sell PC or Mosquito control to her while she is trying to get her raccoon issue taken care of then that call will count against you. Wildlife is a service that has to go to the Branch or franchise to be quotes/sold/sched. I started tracking all the issues that I dealt with daily that counted against my KPI and over 80% were issues that were literally out of my control. Like when there are no lead in the system to follow up on-- then you are just sitting there waiting-- and of course you don't get credit for that-- the clock is running and your not making calls or sales so your calls per hour is crashing and so is your conversion rate. Or you wait for over an hour to get released from a case bc the system is glitchy. Eventually you will grow tired of the nonsense, system issues and moving targets. Everyday you log in its an adventure. Appreciate you have a job- but don't think this is gonna be a long term place for you unless you thrive with a lack of transparency, daily chaos and like to listen to customers complain about how you are too pushy.

Everyone I worked with were great people, stuck in a bad situation like me, and some were thrust into roles they were not suited for, but were trying to make the most of it.

The branch (local office) I was a part of was suffering the results of years of mismanagement. They had just hired a new manager who was attempting to turn the branch around and was doing a good job. But that meant all of the painful changes fell on the technicians to sort out with customers. The hardest part of working for an unorganized branch was that I could do my best to schedule my route for the following day, be diligent to stay organized, but anyone in the office could damage up my whole schedule at the click of a button, and not inform me. I was told I'd be home after 8 hours of work, but then my route was split between 3 cities that were 36 miles apart at the longest. Most of my days became 12 hour days, with several hours of unpaid traffic time. Most nights I didn't see my family until they were going to bed, or not until the weekend, but we were required to work every other weekend. Training was subpar and spotty. There were many times I looked incompetent to customers because I hadn't been trained on basic procedures (I had 10 years of professional corporate and warehouse experience prior to this job). For the better part of 5 months, a fellow technician was milking the system, so they punished the entire team to sort out who was stealing company time. They froze all of our apps (the primary way we handled all paperwork legally required by the state and dept of Agriculture for each stop) removing our control from fixing our own routes. When our routes got messed up, it impacted the customer feedback, which messed up our reviews, and in turn lowered our compensation and ability to get higher raises come evaluation time. We were expected to have full responsibility for our routes, but had no tools, means, or ability to organize our routes efficiently to manage the routes. It seemed that the harder I worked to keep my route stable, the easier things fell apart. I never had working equipment (phones, printers, apps), and corporate sat on their hands for months while I waited for my new equipment to get shipped. I understand that I had a special circumstance experience with this company, and this was all during peak cvd, but that doesn't change the fact that my young family didn't see me for 9+ months, and that my stress levels were through the roof.

-Friendly work environment -Benefits -401k match -Schedule flexibility -You get your own car, IPAD, and phone

Throughout the interview process, I was lied to. They promise you the world, but it is simply not true. You train for two entire months for a job that is entirely dependent on where you are located. In my territory, I barely got any leads at all. I had almost no support from my branch manager regarding how to do my job. I was continually told to foster my leads for myself, but this is nearly impossible to do consistently. In my first 30 days on my own, I was not given one lead from the branch. Some days there was nothing to do. I felt genuinely lost without direction throughout my tenure in this position. I quickly learned that to be successful at Orkin you must have the correct circumstances surrounding you. AMs in more profitable areas make a killing. However, this is very rare. You must work your way up for years to start seeing this position be worth your time. That is if you meet your goals for the month and can stay. There was a serious lack of organization in my branch. Everybody constantly seemed very confused about what they were doing. I even had a situation where I made a sale and then was told I was not allowed to do so over a week later. Making a sale is an extremely long and arduous process. You need to get approval from sometimes 3-4 different people for a 15% commission percentage that is taxed afterward. If you sell a one-time job, this gets bumped down even lower to 10%. Out of over 40 AMs in my region, less than 15 make good money doing this job. However, these high earners have almost no work-life balance. I felt a lot of discomfort about generating revenue for a company that gives so little back to you. In my area, you would genuinely be lucky to make over $55,000 in a single year. With all the stress that comes along with this position, it is simply not worth it.

Good work environment. Decent benefits. Local managers are easy to work with. Get to take work truck home.

Have to pay each check to take work truck home. Pay is production so if you have been there 10 years you get paid the same as someone day 1 on a route. Recently we had a snow storm hit the area and couldn't work for a week. We weren't compensated any of those days. Instead we were asked to use our vacation days (couldn't use sick days) to get paid. So now I only have a week of vacation left for the entire year! After this, Co-workers have told me they are looking for new employment.

Truly passionate people, in an otherwise high overturn job

Constant new hires from people leaving. Branch running out of materials: both chemical and equipment. Management under cutting technicians and sales to “grantee a customer” resulting in low commissions.

Everyone I worked with were great people, stuck in a bad situation like me, and some were thrust into roles they were not suited for, but were trying to make the most of it.

The branch (local office) I was a part of was suffering the results of years of mismanagement. They had just hired a new manager who was attempting to turn the branch around and was doing a good job. But that meant all of the painful changes fell on the technicians to sort out with customers. The hardest part of working for an unorganized branch was that I could do my best to schedule my route for the following day, be diligent to stay organized, but anyone in the office could damage up my whole schedule at the click of a button, and not inform me. I was told I'd be home after 8 hours of work, but then my route was split between 3 cities that were 36 miles apart at the longest. Most of my days became 12 hour days, with several hours of unpaid traffic time. Most nights I didn't see my family until they were going to bed, or not until the weekend, but we were required to work every other weekend. Training was subpar and spotty. There were many times I looked incompetent to customers because I hadn't been trained on basic procedures (I had 10 years of professional corporate and warehouse experience prior to this job). For the better part of 5 months, a fellow technician was milking the system, so they punished the entire team to sort out who was stealing company time. They froze all of our apps (the primary way we handled all paperwork legally required by the state and dept of Agriculture for each stop) removing our control from fixing our own routes. When our routes got messed up, it impacted the customer feedback, which messed up our reviews, and in turn lowered our compensation and ability to get higher raises come evaluation time. We were expected to have full responsibility for our routes, but had no tools, means, or ability to organize our routes efficiently to manage the routes. It seemed that the harder I worked to keep my route stable, the easier things fell apart. I never had working equipment (phones, printers, apps), and corporate sat on their hands for months while I waited for my new equipment to get shipped. I understand that I had a special circumstance experience with this company, and this was all during peak cvd, but that doesn't change the fact that my young family didn't see me for 9+ months, and that my stress levels were through the roof.