B&Q has been on a rapid decline the past decade. Staff numbers have been obliterated, along with any bonus scheme, and also alongside the zone allowance received for working in Dublin. What this essentially means is that staff are being asked to perform the work of 3 people, for significantly less pay, often leading to staff becoming overworked and injured. So when other reviews here write "pay is good", it's a farce. It's not. It's marginally above minimum wage and well below a living wage.
In terms of health and safety, it seems that management pick and choose when they are bothered with it. If there are serious health and safety issues, they can be overlooked, whereas if they want to moan about minor infringements like stepping on the bottom beam of a shelf, they will. An example of this, I am led to believe that colleagues in another store were required to work until 12am at night with over 2/3rds of the buildings lighting not working, for roughly 6 months, while heavy machinery such as forklift trucks were being operated.
There's no consistency in the message sent down from management. One manager will say one thing, then 30 minutes later another manager will say the opposite. Their message isn't aligned.
There's no in store training. You're simply hired, you watch a health and safety video and are put on the floor to work and help customers. Previously new employees would have "buddied" up with an existing staff member to learn, but as there is such a shortage of staff, this is no longer the case.
This is the same for management too. When new lower level managers are brought in, they are simply put on the floor to do the job with no training or guidance whatsoever.
They seem intent on rolling out policies which look good on paper, but they don't actually implement. Recently spent millions investing in a new system to increase efficiency, and the managers are just not implementing it.
Recruitment of some management has also been poor. There's lots of lazy staff members but it may not necessarily be the staffs fault, but rather due to the incompetence of the managers they serve under, with a distinct lack of direction or instruction.
Store standards are appalling. Every so often there will be a visit from a director, in which case everyone is required to stay late and have the place spotless. As soon as the visit is over, the store returns to rubbish. Why are high standards not maintained?
There's a real lack of career progression also. I know people in the business 10 years, who have received essentially no pay increase, and no progression in position.
B&Q use to be a relatively good place to work as a part time job. There was a lot more staff, which made the work a lot more achievable and enjoyable, which created a better atmosphere in the store. Customers would be faced with friendly staff, easy to find. Now if customers are lucky to find a staff member, they're likely slightly grumpy (although typically not to customers) and overworked.
There's also issues with store equipment. Continually breaking down.
