The work itself isn’t particularly hard, but as usual the new people get all the “lousy” jobs, which isn’t really a surprise, and its not really a big deal, every employer does this, the problem is; at RGIS, the amount of work they schedule you for is directly tied to your productivity. If you can get them to talk to you at all about this, they will tell you that your schedule depends on your availability, this is a load of manure, I’m available 24-7 and still get less than 10 hours a week. It doesn’t matter who you try to talk to in management; they absolutely positively will NOT tell you anything about what's going on with the scheduling. Nobody will tell you everything, but if you talk to enough employees that have been around awhile, you’ll start to piece it all together and there is no way for somebody new to really get a reasonable chance to have decent productivity, and they make sure of it.
What typically happens is, you go into a store to count merchandise, and initially everything seems like its going to be fair, but here’s what happens. You arrive at the store with several other people, they pass out the equipment used to count the merchandise, a hand held computer, and a laser scanner, except that some people already have equipment, so essentially the new guys are getting the left overs, again no surprise. This equipment almost never works properly, they have to have close to a 100% failure rate, when it comes to the equipment working properly from the start,(
ProsCould be a good job if this district wasn't so poorly run.
ConsPoor communication, discimination or favoratism
everyone is exhausted but... flexible work schedule?
My time at RGIS has definitely been an... interesting one. I have a lot to say about it. The best part about the job is that you can set your availability to pretty much what ever. Although they will question some of your motives if you change it later on. The community is awesome amongst the employees. We are all in the shitstorm together and you form great friendships for that reason. At least in my district, the job security is fantastic. You have a pretty large margin of error before they will threaten your job. The pay (at least in my district) is pretty good.
The worst part about the job is the hours and the management. The hours are inconsistent. One day you may have go to work by 4 AM and end up working 12 + hours (beware of harmon's weekend. you do that 4 or 5 days in a row. they won't warn you about it.) other stores you only count for a couple of hours. Sometimes you go into a store expecting 6 hours and end up with 10. If you have night stores there are some that will go from the evening or late afternoon until 6 AM. It's a part time job, but sometimes it feels like an overtime job which is especially the case during harmon's and if you are available for day and night shifts. Don't do that by the way. they will run you absolutely ragged. All I saw was work and the back of my eyelids for about a year. Because it's officially part time, they don't give you benefits which really sucks.... I mean, you CAN get insurance, but it's garbage. The management is pre
ProsFlexible schedule, pretty good community, good job security
ConsNo benefits, the hours can be insane, they will take complete advantage of you if you let them
I worked on a two week schedule during which I was assigned to several different stores around Nassau County, and sometimes in Suffolk.
Once I'd get to the assigned location I would clock in and the Supervisor for the store would tell me where to begin. Generally I would work with a team of between 5 and 15 co-workers, depending on the size of the place, doing the store's inventory. My job basically amounted to scanning the merchandise with a portable scanner that recorded the totals of a given section before being transmitted to the Supervisor's computer which kept track of it all. There were two ways to do the job, which depended on what kind of merchandise I needed to scan: for clothing items I had to scan each piece individually. For other items, such as food or electronics, I could scan the products in bulk. That is, I would scan one item and enter the quantity of that particular item. The difference with clothes was that it was very common for differently priced items to be mixed in with each other, so counting each piece individually is the only way to accurately tell what products the store had in stock. Accuracy and speed were the most important things when it came to doing this job well.
I can't really say I learned much doing this job, other than what was necessary to learn to use the portable scanner. But there was something of an intellectual reward in how much mental math was required of you to do this job well. It helped keep my mind sharp during school
ProsThe job itself was easy. Good starting pay. Easy advancement. For me personally, I like to travel, so that was an extra plus.
ConsThere was no travel pay to speak of, so a generous portion of my paycheck went into my gas tank.
Terrible Company that doesn't care about their employees!
Don't work for RGIS unless you have to!!
One example of typical scheduling for me (I'm a "top gun"): One day they will schedule me from 8pm-2am and the following day they will expect me to work from 6am-1pm go home from there and sleep for 3 hours then head to another inventory for 2 hours.. You will have no life outside of work during the busy season. During the slow season from October-January you won't be scheduled for more than 10-15 hours per month.
Also there are many days where I'm expected to drive 45+ miles (one way) for 2 hours of work. After gas I would profit less than $5...
They cram as many employees as they can in their company vans and force you to go all over the state like this.. Some commutes are 5+ hours.
In Wisconsin where I work they aren't required to pay you for the first hour of travel to a scheduled inventory and the first hour home. So basically there will be 2 hours of being crammed into a company van that you will not get paid for... A lot of times the employee driving the company vehicle will not have slept for 20+ hours. Dangerous and scary
After you achieve the top gun rank you will never get a raise no matter how hard you work. I'm a top gun and have been at the same pay rate for 6 years and I know top guns that have been at the same pay rate for 20+ years.. It's not because they/we don't work hard it's because the top pay rate for our district is $13 an hour for inventory associates. You will never make more than that wor
ProsThe only pro to working here is the pay checks are always on time
ConsNo breaks, no paid breaks, terrible healthcare, no notice scheduling (they own you), crammed in company vehicles like sardines, minimal pay for amount of work performed, terrible management, no sleep
Good place to work for a very short time period or to keep on the back burner for extra cash when needed.
A typical day at work here is easy from a mental standpoint, but takes a tole on your body as it is very physical and exhausting work. I am sick of almost, literally breaking my back for a company that just doesn't seem to care about the health and well-being of its employees.
I learned how to count product using a 10-key computer, which does indeed, make the job much less tedious than having to count and record product quantities with a pencil and paper like the old days.
Unfortunately, I also learned that, there is much favortism within this company and those that are truly quick and accurate auditors, make less many than those who are simply, rushing through and even making up false quantities to get through the count and leave ASAP!
I literally take a hit in pay because of lazy people that don't want to do their job correctly because my work ethic means more to me than making the money I deserve, however, it is becoming too much and I am no longer able to live my lifestyle with this little and inconsistent pay!
The management here is not great as I and my coworkers, are constantly dealing with issues such as; not having adequate company transportation to inventory sites and sometimes, not being able to access vehicles or the office itself, as the managers do not provide us with keys and sometimes are nowhere in the vicinity to enable us access and so we are forced to wait making us look bad to our customers and significantly affecting company morale and cowork
ProsVery rarely, but sometimes, a customer will provide us auditors with a snack for break; i.e. donuts and drinks or pizza
Cons10 minute breaks only after 3 1/2 to 4 hours of work, 30 minute lunches only after working 6 hours with at least 3 more hours to work after lunch
First off, this job has a very unsteady schedule. You work as an inventory specialist and you take drives to store as a crew at very early hours of the morning to begin taking inventory before each store opens, usually piling the crew into vans posted at designated pickup spots. You don't work the same store twice Ina year and every store starts at different times. This can be kind of interesting but the under stimulating monotony of the inventorying itself kinda cancels out the joy. Their management is hectic and overall atrocious, I know I personally almost got sent to the wrong job sites because they were so unorganized, not to mention the management talks down to the staff and make no effort to personally know their staff. I was stopped at work and criticized by the branch manager for which hand I wore my device on while working before he even knew my dominant hand, for example. They have a system In place to pay for travel, they pay minimum wage for the time spent in the van, yet you get no pay for the 1st and last hours of travel. Considering maybe half your shifts are less than an hour commute each week, not to mention most stores take less than 4 or 5 hours, you aren't making hardly anything from travel pay, which puts almost all employees in the position of having to pull multiple doubles each week to make bills. Oh, and when you're hired on, you're asked if you can work double shifts, and regardless of your answer, you will have doubles pop up in your schedule. Anot
ProsLight travel, slight pay for travelling
ConsShort breaks, no way to leave jobsites, mean management, somewhat deceiving pay practices, bad hours
This is by far the absolute worst job I have ever worked. Interview and "training" happened on the same day which wasn't too terrible. You're pretty much guaranteed the job as long as you show up to the interview.
The real problem started on the first day on the job. The supervisor didn't seem too thrilled to have me. In fact, she rolled her eyes when I told her I was new to the job and just handed me the scanner I would be using to take inventory. Little to no effort was made to actually show me the commands or how to fix errors (things that I SHOULD HAVE been taught on the day "training" occurred, but wasn't) so I guess I couldn't blame her there. I pretty much had to learn the commands from other employees and supervisors who actually made an effort to be nice (the latter being few and far between).
There was no typical day at work. Some "events" as they call it would last anywhere from 3-4 hours and others would last anywhere from 4-6 hours. There just wasn't any rhyme or rhythm to their scheduling. You are expected to drive or carpool pretty much anywhere in Texas that they need you, regardless of how far it is and you'd never know how long you are needed. Some people were allowed to leave an hour into the job and then the supervisors would get angry with whoever was still there and complain about how long we were taking, how areas weren't being properly counted, or just generally belittling you in front of clients. ALL of which could be avoided by properly trainin
I loved the work itself, but despised what little human respect the company gave its workers.
As a project manager, way too many responsibilities to list. Most projects consisted of 10+hrs in a 4 day work week in addition to two days travel to and from locations out of state. Daily responsibilities included managing and training merchandisers, temp laborers and store employees. Unloading, building, setting and dressing steel fixtures according to floor plan measurements. Building cosmetic walls and merchandising product. Keeping track of budget and expenses. Following a project timeing and action plan and reporting to upper level management at the end of the day of progress or setbacks. Installing light fixtures, signage and wall graphics. Scheduling trash removal pickups and vendor arrivals.
I learned how to work in a fast paced environment and that it was key to hold everyone accountable for his or her task. I also learned the importance of how to communicate effectively, proficiently and address issues in a timely manner. Most coworkers are new on every job location, so you train new people all of the time. You are never given the same assistant, so it's necessary to train each one you are given on how best to support you while working together.
The hardest part of the job is receiving support from RGIS when its necessary and crucial to replace workers (team members, assistants,etc.) due to poor job performance. You don't receive the best help possible, just make due with what you have. From my stand point, this was never cost effective for the compa
ProsTraveling and seeing new and different places.
ConsVery little time to commit to outside interests or family, sharing hotel room, loss of bonuses, yearly pay reductions/cuts or raises put on hold, changes in contracts on short notice, poor eating and health maintenance
RGIS is a company that doesnt communicate within itself
Management is so corrupt in RGIS that DMs, AMs, AND regional Managers lie to their superiors repeatedly placing issues at the feet of either the auditors or the supervisors running events, when issues lie inside poor choices made by management in the scheduling process for events. Instead of taking recommendations from those in the feild, management ignored and ridiculed the supervisors.
I had an auditor working for me who would constantly clock out and leave during my events and instead of correcting/terminating the auditor for insubordination, due to the fact RGIS couldn't afford to loose employees, i demoted from supervisor back to auditor. Someone who refused to work for me caused me to be demoted, and now today has my position. There is EXTREME favoritism in each district, that unless you spend time in the feild, you wont ever see it, so management is unaware or disbelieving. They wont investigate any of their own for fraud. The conditions the auditors have to work in are EXTREMELY poor. Companies contract RGIS to inventory but dont prep backrooms that are unair conditioned, extremely dusty and compacy. RGIS will fit as many people as tightly as possible in warehouses and backrooms to get the job down as fast as possible, disregarding it being 120 degrees in backroom before shoving 50 people in the tight space to count for 5-8 hours. Most Mall stores that are counted are at night, and some of these places do not have bathrooms available for RGIS auditors
RGIS is the most unprofessional company that I have ever had the inconvenience and displeasure of dealing with! So we will ignore the fact that this company does not seem to believe that they have to pay people for there time! If you spend 3 hours going somewhere to perform a service that the company us profiting from you should be compensated for that time as you are working for the company!
My next point is going to be about the management if you can call them that. I personally think that there management In mobile Alabama is a 3rd rate at best. Let's talk about there "interview process for a moment.
The women conducting the interview not only had "us" waiting in the front office without saying anything and after just sitting there the women realize that we were there and invited "us" back. There interview is not a interview. Me and about 8 other people sit in a small room that doesn't even have enough chairs and we watch a hour worth of videos. Then afterwords she tells everyone that she will call us back for a one on one interview on Monday. She does not. She asked o bring photo id and our ssi cards. Which she did not need as we just watch a video. She asked for resume which she did not take or look at. After having my time wasted for no reason I felt like I should move on and keep looking. But then Me. Waste of time texts me and asked if I would come in for a interview at 12:15pm the following Saturday from when she was sappost to call, and I tell her that I could no
I advise anybody that doesn't work for RGIS already to avoid at all costs. I've encountered so many problems while working here. If you like the idea of being underpaid, overworked, undervalued and overall just treated like you're not human, then this is a great place for you.
I worked for the company for just shy of 4 years. In that time I became one of the top counters in the district - however, there are new hires getting paid more per hour than I am. The bonus program that was "designed to incentivise" us, is biased completely towards the less capable and new counters - I could potentially work more hours, count 10 times as many items, work 10 times as fast (doing 10 times more for the company) and still end up getting paid less for the day than a new hire barely able to tie their own shoes could.
There have been multiple occasions for me where holiday pay/time has been authorised, however, when the payslip comes around, there is no sign of it. When queried, I was told on one occasion that it would be paid on the next payslip, which unfortunately meant that I ended up taking a much lesser daily rate for it.
There have been days when the pay that was due to come into my account hasn't (including today as I write this), when queried one time I am told it's affecting everybody and it would be fixed asap with no real explanation.
The way pay works is - normal hours are paid as normal... Travel pay (for passengers) is paid after the first hour of travel, from your
Questions And Answers about RGIS Inventory Specialists
If you were in charge, what would you do to make RGIS Inventory Specialists a better place to work?
Asked Nov 9, 2019
Communication within management!!!
Answered Nov 29, 2020
Figure out a better way to organize and manage things
Answered Nov 21, 2020
What is the interview process like at RGIS Inventory Specialists?
Asked Jun 15, 2016
Phone interview was informative and quick.
Answered Feb 23, 2020
I applied online. After a few days, I had a phone interview then I signed documents and I am waiting now to start working.
Answered Dec 7, 2019
What is the best part of working at RGIS Inventory Specialists?
Asked Dec 22, 2019
Communicating with other employees
Answered Dec 7, 2020
Honestly, it's probably the experience. I've met a lot of people in RGIS who have been here for years and you can learn a lot just from your co-workers alone. The rest is still good, of course - Flexible hours, decent pay, solid management, good work environment, travel pay.
Quick thing - Travel pay starts at one hour out. So a 2 hour drive = 1 hour travel pay. Just in case anyone was wondering
Answered Dec 7, 2020
Do they drug test?
Asked Feb 23, 2017
Yes, they drug test and it will most likely be a urinalysis that you will have two days to complete.
Answered Jul 15, 2020
They only drug test if you wish to be a pharmacy counter.
Answered May 15, 2020
How flexible are your working hours at RGIS Inventory Specialists?
Asked Mar 13, 2020
Not very flexible work from 5 am-around 1pm from Monday to Thursday
Answered Dec 7, 2020
Fairly flexible. Obviously, don't be calling in every single day to change your hours. As long as you have an actual reason i.e. family emergency, sick (doctor note preferred), or something directly prevents you from coming in, they will usually work with you. Now, this can change if you have a lot of absences tallied, especially unexcused. (Unexcused means not showing note when requested, not showing up to scheduled event when confirmed, or just flat out not showing up at all.)
