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Reynolds American Reviews
845 reviews
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Approve of CEO
Ricardo Oberlander
80 Ratings
Pros
"Flexible with a great work-life balance" (in 74 reviews)
"Great benefits, car, vacation days more than many companies" (in 113 reviews)
Cons
"At busy times work life/balance can become a pattern" (in 40 reviews)
"My biggest qualms with RJRT is that without Territory managers the company would be sunk" (in 35 reviews)
- Featured Review
Helpful (11)
![Reynolds American Logo]()
"Territory Manager"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Reynolds American full-time (More than 3 years)
Pros
An exciting time to be in the ever changing tobacco industry-constantly changing environment
Working is never boring or repetitive - something new and different every day
Make your own schedule/independent work
Very good training programs
Coaching environment where weaknesses can be turned into strengths
High level of transparency
Company car
Employees treated well and cared aboutCons
Depending on who your manager is could change your experience with the company
Sometimes initiatives can change too quickly and can feel that they didn't have enough time to take rootAdvice to Management
Continue with a transparent and employee focus culture.
Reynolds American 2018-10-02 14:16 PDT Helpful (8)
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"Trade Marketing - TM San Francisco Region"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Reynolds American full-time (More than 8 years)
Pros
These reviews seem like a popular forum to blast RAI for 2 groups of individuals:
1) Disgruntled former employees who didn't like to work or weren't cut out for CPG sales.
2) A small contingent of disgruntled current employees who are more interested in complaining than mustering the courage or fortitude to do something to change their "unhappy" situation.
Frankly, both are a sad and pathetic lot.
That said, Is this company perfect? NO! However, I assure you the Utopia many of these negative reviewers are looking for exists NOWHERE. Are there some constructive recommendations and legitimate issues raised in some of the more balanced reviews. Absolutely! And Management seems to be wise to these and has taken some really reasonable steps to address them.
What you will get RAI is a network and team of really passionate individuals (as well as great people ) to call your work family. I say family because many of my most important friendships started at Reynolds. You will also get outstanding benefits, strong pay for the industry, and a free car. Before all the $180.00/month complainers get started … Where else do you get a fully loaded SUV, Insurance, Gas, Registration, and Maintenance for under $200 month? YOU CANT, because this is probably and extra $1,000 in your pocket every month.
Also, the many of the personal attacks on leadership are totally baseless. I read the negative personal attacks and it makes me cringe. Sad when the anonymity of a keyboard makes you courageous enough to speak your mind. The record needs to be set straight: I have been in this Region for a long time and SR Management has never been anything but personable, fair, professional, and accessible.
Don't buy into the overly negative reviews or don't believe their claims that the positive reviews are fake. THIS IS A GREAT PLACE TO WORK!Cons
The many positives outweigh anything negative I could say. I am thankful for having a great DM and working with such great people.
Advice to Management
Keep listening to the fair and balanced feedback!
Reynolds American 2018-12-05 20:24 PSTHelpful (18)
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"Territory Manager review"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNegative OutlookNo opinion of CEOI worked at Reynolds American full-time (More than a year)
Pros
I'd recommend this job for someone right out of college to gain outside sales experience or a rural candidate. You will gain good experience dealing with customers face to face and having a sales territory to manage. A good resume-builder. Depending on your manager, you will have a lot of flexibility and freedom to make your own decisions and schedule your day to day.
- Good work Life-balance and benefits
-Great sales training (They fly you into home office twice your first year for week-long training sessions). They also have online sales/customer courses and exams for TM’s to complete. You can add this to your resume moving forward as most companies will value this experience.
-Company car with Gas card (They take $175 a month out of your paycheck)Cons
Reynolds seems to invest a lot into training new TM's, however not so much in retaining them. I understand they had a recent salary adjustment which is a move in the right direction. The promotion process seemed to be pretty slow as most TM’s I knew of that did get promoted were in the position for at least 5 years. Once you did get promoted, you had to relocate to wherever they needed you…
Despite being a “sales job” sales number don’t really matter. You are not held accountable for this which can be a good thing if you are not an effective TM. They do track your coupon and name generation numbers though. You are more held accountable for how nice your stores look in terms of merchandising, signs, and brand presence. It was a pretty labor-intensive job requiring the TM to constantly re-merchandising the cigarette fixtures, adding/changing signs, and installing counter displays. You will spend most of your time getting your hands dirty instead of having rational business discussions with decision-makers.
CE’S: Consumer Engagements are not fun as you required to approach tobacco consumers at gas stations/convenient stores with the goal of converting them to try one of Reynolds brands. No other tobacco company does this, which I’m sure there is a reason for. These can be risky as you are approaching random strangers in public. TM’s should get paid more for conducting these.
-Managed to death: I had one of the better Managers in my region but it felt like at times I was being micromanaged and bullied for not having everything perfect. This over-complicated the job for me instead of keeping me motivated to be a better sales person.
I left Reynolds recently and took another outside sales position that pays much better and practically no heavy-lifting (merchandising, changing signs) is involved in my new role. I thought this was a better option for me as I would have to wait a couple of years with Reynolds in order to get promoted and be relocated to a random location with a minimal pay increase. Plus, the outlook for the tobacco industry is not looking great right now with the potential menthol-ban on the radarAdvice to Management
Reynolds don't seem to care about the TM's point of view so I’m not going to waste my time.
Reynolds American 2019-01-04 12:17 PSTHelpful (1)
![Reynolds American Logo]()
"Good Job / Good Company"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsNegative OutlookNo opinion of CEOI have been working at Reynolds American full-time (More than 5 years)
Pros
-Work hard / play hard company culture
-Job stability: competitive tobacco companies have had several layoffs in last 5-7 years while RAI has not
-Reasonable flexibility as long as you get the job done and your performance is in check
-Opportunity for advancement if you are talented, work hard, willing to move anywhere and are very patient
-Fair compensation and benefitsCons
-No advancement opportunities if you are not willing to relocate
-CE’s: great way to get informed trial on our brands that fit consumers while we are in stores. Name generation is great as well. However, now some of the management team seems to think we are 3rd party coupon reps with no other responsibility. Now it’s all about chasing numbers and not focusing on the consumers. The company has set reasonable quarterly goals, however, region and division managers have gone rouge and set their own goals way above and beyond this. We are told we have no chance at a high rating if we don’t blow the company coupon goal out of the water and do as many CE’s as our peers. This leads to lots of wasteful spending and negative attitudes regarding CE’s (used to be fun).
-Peer Rankings: things you can not control outweigh the things you can. If you are in a rural low income market you can work your tail off but will still be towards the bottom most years, meanwhile if you are in a premium all-edlp market you will fair well even if you don’t get out of bed all year. It’s frustrating these are used in performance panels to evaluate performance.
-Declining Industry: with city Menthol bans and industry decline many TM’s worry how much longer their jobs will be around.Advice to Management
-Be as transparent as possible regarding company performance (don’t feel like this has been the case with our Vapor performance)
-Reward high performers
-You would get a much better results for your spend on CE’s if quality and consistency were bigger factors then quantityReynolds American 2019-01-17 17:47 PSTHelpful (16)
![Reynolds American Logo]()
"Under Appreciated"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendI have been working at Reynolds American full-time (More than a year)
Pros
Wonderful Benefits (car and gas paid, help with phone and internet bill)
Independent/ daily freedom to make your own schedule
No cubical!Cons
My biggest qualms with RJRT is that without Territory managers the company would be sunk. TM’s are the workforce that keeps the company alive and, in general, we are treated like crap. They recently did a salary review but couldn’t even match our direct competitors pay. We are expected to do the impossible on a daily basis while our superiors sit at home all day barking out orders via email.
They will tell you it’s not a difficult job, and if you are just looking at it on paper it’s not. But, trust me, it is. It’s physically, mentally, and emotionally tolling and we don’t even get fairly compensated for the abuse.Reynolds American 2019-01-08 11:54 PSTHelpful (5)
![Reynolds American Logo]()
"The position wasn’t horrible but the supervisor was."
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendPositive OutlookNo opinion of CEOI worked at Reynolds American full-time (More than 3 years)
Pros
Company car, good benefits, mostly flexible hours
Cons
Track you every move, supervisor was micro manager and was just a abusive person
Advice to Management
Take a very close look at who you have running teams. Ask your self why there is such high turnover
Reynolds American 2019-01-17 05:12 PSTHelpful (4)
![Reynolds American Logo]()
"Territory Manager"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Doesn't RecommendNeutral OutlookNo opinion of CEOI worked at Reynolds American full-time (More than 3 years)
Pros
Great Flexibility
Company vehicle and benefitsCons
Consumer Engagements & coupon policy
No real upward mobilityAdvice to Management
Rather than making your representatives work against each other, strive to make a more collaborative environment where everyone is working together to achieve the companies goals. This way you will see more growth. Your stronger reps will share information and will support those with more challenging territories.
Reynolds American 2019-01-01 16:34 PSTHelpful (9)
![Reynolds American Logo]()
"Trade Marketing"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsNeutral OutlookDisapproves of CEOI have been working at Reynolds American full-time (More than 5 years)
Pros
Where do I start.....based on the amount of negative reviews , I must say that if you were to compare their benefits and pay compared to other CPG companies. RAI would be at the top. Sure, they take $175/month for your car. Did anyone mention that you have unlimited gas & miles? Or did they mention that both your domestic partner or spouse can use this car ? Well the answer is yes ! Additionally, many people are complaining about pay. If making 65k your first year with health benefits, 6% 401k match, company car, and freedom to do your job is something to complain about, you need a reality check. Additionally, in 2019 our new parental Leave policy allows 4 Months off with full pay. Did I mention 85% tuition reimbursement for MBA? Again, I could go on forever, but the reality is the packages at all level are fair .
Cons
Inconsistent direction from home office is at an all time high, which is causing turmoil in the field. We are expected to read a internal communication to guide us through our brands. Sounds simple ? The issue is that it changes each week, and Winston Salem employees are not on the same page as the field. At times , it feels like everything is important, which causes stress, turnover, and anxiety. CEs are not the future, as most TMs would tell you they hate conducting them. No one likes to interrupt a tobacco consumer to talk about brands, it’s not fun.
Advice to Management
Both of my experiences in the West have been amazing. The SDR group is one that leads together , and allows feedback. The negative reviews regarding CA are completely false, and are not anywhere close to the truth. My advice, please have the brand teams check themselves by spending a week shadowing a TM. Once they see this, they will understand how much they are killing the moral of the field.
Reynolds American 2018-12-09 16:01 PST![Reynolds American Logo]()
"Great place to work, great team and improving benefits."
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
RecommendsPositive OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Reynolds American full-time (More than 5 years)
Pros
Company car, 401k match, enhanced benefits, recent increase to pay structure, enhanced career path outline (including international positions), opportunities for advancement, challenging and rewarding work., opportunities for advancement. Like most other places, your boss and your team play a large role in how you like a company or your job. I have been on multiple teams in different parts of the country and have enjoyed working with each team.
Cons
Work life balance can be stretched at times with multiple initiatives running at once.
Advice to Management
Continue to evolve and keep leadership solid, especially at the local level, where it matters most for trade employees.
Reynolds American 2018-12-24 05:20 PSTHelpful (1)
![Reynolds American Logo]()
"Fortune 500 Employer"
StarStarStarStarStar- Work/Life Balance
- Culture & Values
- Career Opportunities
- Comp & Benefits
- Senior Management
Neutral OutlookApproves of CEOI have been working at Reynolds American full-time (More than 10 years)
Pros
Pay scale and benefits are good
Cons
Work/home life balance is talked about but not necessarily the case.
Reynolds American 2018-12-19 15:48 PST
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Reynolds American Response
Oct 4, 2018
We are in a time of significant change and we’re glad you’re energized by the ride! Thank you for the advice, we intend to stay focused on making sure our employees feel like a valued part of our journey.... MoreLess