River Island reviews

3.6

58% would recommend to a friend

(2,970 total reviews)

Ben Lewis

66% approve of CEO

41% positive business outlook

River Island has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 2,970 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The River Island employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Ventas al mayoreo y al menudeo industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

3K reviews
1.0
Dec 2, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

free uniform (but only at every 3 months)

Cons

Poor hours - either work more than contracted hours or they just give your hours away to "favourites" uniform - gets chosen by managers, only allowed to have a uniform that costs £60 every 3 months - expected to buy new uniform if needed management - very poor, harsh and clearly had favourites, managers bullying staff, managers making you do meaningless non-work related stuff such as ordering mcdonalds!! work rules - unclear, some rules for some but those who were favourites got away with everything - Managers never played by the rules pay - sometimes underpaid and late, holiday pay never paid unless chased up holiday - always refused for ridiclous reasons yet favourites got holiday whenever, holidays needed to be "booked" in advance of 3-4 months (but could take the holiday off of you whenever they felt like it), Holiday was rare! Penalties - penalties given to you for ridiclous reasons such as being in the shop (on your day off or after your shift!) and not being allowed on your phone bag searches - random bag searches whenever they fewlt like it, would give you penalties if your phone was on or if you had loose change or spare clothes in your bag (would not listen to you as to why you had them)

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River Island Response
10y
We're sorry you felt this way. Thanks for your feedback.
2.0
Nov 28, 2014

dissatisfied

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

no pros, at the christmas time as a temporary sales advisor, you are there to clean all that mess.

Cons

discount benefits, working with young people

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River Island Response
10y
We're sorry you felt this way. Thanks for your feedback.
1.0
Nov 11, 2014

Don't bother

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Discount - 30% is lovely. But they also have 4/5 student events throughout the year which offer 20% or 30% off. So not really much difference. Also, sometimes when you go to buy stuff with your discount, the manager will tell you no. They hate you getting uniform and discount and used to make it so difficult for me and my staff. So most of the time I didn't bother because all of them used to refuse and say "we're too busy". Staff were lovely because we were all new and in the same boat, so working with lovely people is definitely a pro!

Cons

Management - degrading, belittling, unhelpful. Sometimes they made me so upset I would cry. Lack of training - I used to get told off for not having knowledge of how to use the tills simply because no one taught me and I used to have the "If I get time or "I don't have time" card. Lack of respect - My train home was 4 hours (Studied at Uni of Nottingham and live in Swansea). I told them I could not work Christmas Eve because of trains I could not get home for Christmas Day. Their response? Get a hotel. They were unwilling to change my 4 hours on Christmas Eve last year so I had to leave. When I'd told them previously I knew I couldn't work it.

avatar
River Island Response
10y
We're sorry you felt this way. Thanks for your feedback.
Viewing 2836 - 2838 of 2,970 Reviews

Glassdoor has 3,211 River Island reviews submitted anonymously by River Island employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if River Island is right for you.