Terrible internal customer service! The only good service you'll get internally is from the HR department. They often times don't pay bonuses, or expense checks. The DMs and Regionals discourage management communicating with corporate so that adds an additional layer to the usual red tape. Not very conducive to operating effectively. Simple things like getting AC fixed in the summer often times take weeks.
The IT work is partially outsourced so the things that are handled in-house aren't taken care of. For example, mandatory corporate directive with a deadline posts with an attachment in docx. format and your PC doesn't have the docx. reader, you call and email your in-house IT person and never hear back. This has happened to me several time and still no answer or resolution.
The Store Operations leadership at Vans is a mess too. They try to roll out big changes like changing the debit/credit pin pads and new computers in 3rd and 4th quarter. Bad idea to roll out major company initiatives in the middle of Back to School and Holiday. Projects requiring employees to be present in the store (above and beyond regular operating hours) aren't announced until the day prior and the payroll to support these project is not allocated. They really drop the ball when it comes to project management. At the end of the day the people that work in the stores and the customers ultimately pay for it.
From a work/life balance standpoint bVans leaves a lot to be desired too. They still have that old-school thought that management will become stale or the store will go to s%&# if you have 2 days off in a row. If an assistant manager can't be trusted to run the store 2 days in a row they probably can't be trusted to run it for 1 day and should be trained or replaced. Again, Vans created a crutch where they should train and coach. On top of that stores are required to have a mandatory manager meeting every Tue and managers are required to work a set schedule. Which means that every other week you only have one day off. I bet that if DMs, Regionals and other Corporate employees had to work that schedule there would be a mutiny. I get that managers need to be at work when business happens but they should also have 2 days off every week and maybe 2 in a row some times.
From a development standpoint there is no training path above and beyond store manager. The training programs that are available are amazing. However, there's no way to manage the process (or hours to use the programs). The resources developed are great but there's no central way to pull them all together and use them. Tragic if you ask me. Someone put a lot of work into developing the tools but the delivery falls flat on its face.
Vans is as ethnically diverse as one would expect an action sports retailer to be. Good balance of men and women too. The catch is that they want to avoid people with tattoos. It's sort of okay to have one or two people with tattoos as long as they're not on the neck or hands. The leadership actively tries to avoid hiring tattooed people. You know, because Vans supports skateboarding, music BMX, Surf, art and street culture...things typically not associated with people with tattoos. They pander to the tattooed community but don't want to treat them the same as everyone else. Weird part is that this attitude is only present at the stores and not the corporate office. Many people at corporate have full sleeves, knuckles, neck etc tattooed. Call me crazy but I think passing up great talent because they have tattoos seems counter productive to conducting business...especially in an environment where tattoos are no big deal.
Benefits are decent but compensation is sub par as. Pay is fairly competitive as a store manager but your assistants and floor supervisors get terrible pay. Only the Store Manager and Assistant get benefits. Heres what you get: 2 weeks vacation, 6 days sick, a couple paid holidays, no personal day, medical, dental, vision, matching 401k and a sweet discount of 50% on full price and 30% on sale merch. Medical, dental and vision will cost $60-$100 per paycheck for an individual and $300-$400 per month for a family. Bonus program is pretty lame. $250-$350 per month but it doesn't scale. If you make goal by $1 you get the same as if you beat it by $40,000.
