Holt Renfrew reviews

1) No Leadership - executives have no clear direction, they're reactionary, the strategy is never more than a couple months out (max 1 year out) because they're not strategic, they don't care about the people they manage, and they are so severely out of touch with what's going on from the ground level up that if they do come up with a strategy it's irrelevant. 2) Toxic Environment - having worked at companies rated "Best Place to Work in Canada", I know for certain this is not. There's no collective "team", nobody has anybody's back, it's sink or swim even when you first start, everyone is so focused on themselves that scapegoating and throwing each other under the bus is the most successful development strategy, and the gossip is everywhere (starts from the SVP level and trickles down) 3) What is Development? - this is not a learning organization at the center; so it's difficult for them to implement strong training programs, encourage real development plans that actually help employees grow, never mind having a mentorship program (because nobody wants to be mentored by anyone at the leadership level anyway). They don't even train you on your job when you start, no manuals (not even on technically tools), no buddy-system, if you're lucky somebody will be voluntold to teach you something for a couple minutes while they rush through the steps because they've got their own bum to cover. At the end of the day, because they don't empower their employees, everyone's work is much more basic and less-elevated than you'd think it would be. You don't even need a high school diploma to be successful here, just an expensive wardrobe paid by your parents and a shady social game. 4) Poor Business Model + No Growth = No Hope - whenever you pick a place to work, it should offer have a strong business model, and show signs of growth. The problem with private companies is you can't find this information easily, let's just say you can ask anyone in this industry how the company is doing and they'll tell you it's hurting. They've taken an amazing brand, with deep roots in Canadian fashion, and have quickly made it irrelevant and incapable of growing or even competing with the new brands online or new stores coming in from the US or internationally. This once treasured brand is in the hands of poor management and it's only a matter of time before their mis-managed expenses cost them the little profits that they are even able to make. PS. What kind of retail plans for Sales = Purchases? 5) People - the reason everyone says they love where they work, and often times the reason people stay longer than they should. Well let's just say people aren't staying, ask whomever is interviewing you what the turnover rate is, or how many people have quit in the last 1-3 months, this place should apply for the Guinness book of world records for how poor their retention rate is. Some many people warned me about this place, but I unfortunately ignored. Each one of those people said to me the day I quit "told you so".

Management leads by intimidation. Human resource dept does nothing to stop toxic culture and mistreatment of employees, instead enables executive management to continue behaviour. Business strategies are reactionary and constantly changing without proper communication and management uses scapegoats to cover themselves first.