Grainger reviews

4.1

81% would recommend to a friend

(4,992 total reviews)
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DG Macpherson

87% approve of CEO

80% positive business outlook

Grainger has an employee rating of 4.1 out of 5 stars, based on 4,992 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Grainger employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail & Wholesale industry (3.4 stars).

Reviews by job title

5K reviews
2.0
Feb 12, 2014

Good, but should be great!

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

AGI is the leader in the market, with only 8% of market share. The room to grow in unlimited. There is a lot of good people (not all). Solid growth, double digit, from 2009 through 2012. Very profitable margins. Amazing if you compare it with CPGs. The power of scale, international presence and a strong financial position makes AGI a hard competitor to beat if can align those factors to its favour. It can grow forever through acquisitions.

Cons

AGI lacks of a solid and homogeneous HR policy, everything is left to your boss. Because of it, in departments with a bad manager key talent with years of experience is either moving on, taking early retirement or leaving without a job. This is being specially notorious in the logistics area now (2012-2014) and AP before. Bad results due to bad managers can go for ever where no sound resolution is taken. A SVP of HR was replaced but nothing really improved. AGI is being 'taken over' by its owner Acklands in the US. In the mist of excellent results the president (Sean o'Brien) was let go and a new American president is in place. More VPs are American every time there is an opportunity and the executive team is becoming a figure on paper. To get promoted or supported it is more important your relation with your one up and who you know than your results. Your one up has total power over your future.

2.0
Feb 4, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

For experienced, full time,warehouse or office grunts-- typical mediocre, corporate benefits that do provide some protection from health issues; somewhat laid back vacation/sick call policy. Cash pay, for low ranking workers, depending on department, is marginal to sub-standard. For experienced, higher ranking managers, with a well placed crony system that can sustain longevity, pay/bonus look much brighter. Warehouse DC Directors, Divisional VP's, CEO, CFO, HQ's people is where it's all at in terms of lion's share of worthwhile compensation. The Grainger fad for the last decade is to hire ex-McMaster Carr/McKinsey managers to fill senior DC slots and senior VP roles thru out the company. At the DC level, the common areas are fairly clean, the decor is tidy, but corporate cheap. As a matter of fact, always think cheap and stingy when thinking about this company's policies.

Cons

Everything revolves around manipulating contrived numbers in this company. Those numbers are sliced/diced and fudged thru out the chain of command. Finally, they reach corporate royalty in Niles, where the final touches are made, and another quarterly number is produced for Wall Street consumption. With the stock price successfully inflated for the year, senior management will feast on an orgy of stock option selling, where the usual millions are made. At the concrete floor, warehouse level, it's wall to wall everyday dysfunction. Top management could care less--they don't work there. Warehouse operations are just another number to manipulate.

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