Customer Service, Head Cashier (Former Employee) – Antigonish, NS – 5 August 2018
Kent Building Supplies is a great company to work for. Specializing in your "everything store under one roof" is a way of saying this store has everything you need for building projects, DIY projects at home, and more! The majority of the staff is highly dedicated, friendly, and passionate about customer service. They always work to approach the customer instead of the customer having to chase down an associate for help. It was a fantastic place to learn, and grow in the customer service sector. Plenty of room for career growth. It is not a place to go and make a lot of money at, but it is a great place to build on your experience in the workforce.
starting is roughly $11, with only a $.25 raise after a year of doing a good job. Managers don't make a lot of money at this place for the responsibilities they hold. Store manager makes less than $50K per year
continuous cross training great company customer driven high standards set by GM to his associates monthly standards inspections balanced scorecard per period, quarter, yearly etc. continuous improvement safety driven daily, weekly, monthly meetings
It has been too long since I last worked there so I can't properly review the current situation with the company. They did have a strong emphasis on safety.
worker (Former Employee) – Nova scotia – 26 June 2018
Kent is easily the worst place to work. The management doesn't care about you, through they claim they do on paper. God forbid you get hurt, they won't support you they will basically force you to quit or fire you if they can. The pay is terrible and you don't get raises
as a cashier, you are expected to come in and count your till before the shift and count your till down at the end of your shift, after you are scheduled to be there. if you're closing you're expected to stay till all the customers leave and then count down your till regardless of how far past your scheduled shift you are and you only get paid what you're scheduled and not what you work. you get an hour lunch but they tell you ahead of time that they will cut it short at any time without warning. you really don't get any training except for what your fellow cashiers tell you and you are expected to memorize the skus for most of the products. if you are the cashier at the lumber yard there are typically only two of you throughout the day so your lunch in the morning doesn't come until nearly 2 or so when the next lumber yard cashier comes in or is relatively early if you're the second shift.
Pros
hour lunches
Cons
high turn over rate, long hours, no training, terrible atmostphere
I Liked working there did not mind the work but would prefer not to be out in the weather all the time. Heavey lifting and wet and cold but good people to work with.
A typical day consisted of checking in customers and organizing inventory. Most other employees were great to work with, but management was inconsistent and did not seem to understand how to manage the front staff appropriately. It was greatly understaffed most of the time, particularly evenings and weekends. I did learn about the importance of customer service, which was also the hardest part of the job because you can't make everyone happy.
yard supervisor (Former Employee) – Grand Falls, NB – 27 May 2018
I loved working with people again outside but the management weren't the very best, we were overworked and shorthanded so it made us kinda hate the job and to add to it we was under paid.
Lumber Yard Labourer (Former Employee) – Charlottetown, PE – 16 May 2018
Working at Kent was a good experience given that I had not previously worked and was a good starting ground. Though it took time to discover the whereabouts of products and how to work with customers, I got more comfortable over time. There was never a lack of shifts to work and I was able to get many hours there.
Customer Service Rep (Former Employee) – Dartmouth, NS – 25 April 2018
Working at kent you can learn a lot about different trades. Very flexible with hours. Great for part-time work. If trying to figure out which trade you want to get into a great starting point, working in different departments.
Safe and Reliable work with good staff and customers
Lumberyard Worker (Current Employee) – Mount Pearl, NL – 24 April 2018
Typicals days are reviewing Lumberyard safety practices, sorting and cutting Lumber, assisting customers with products. Learned how to drive a forklift
Pros
Friendly staff and outside work
Cons
long hours, lots of unnecessary garbage being thrown out
Project Desk Associate (Former Employee) – Riverview, NB – 17 April 2018
Great company to work for. Excellent people to work with. excellent training provided to all employees I fully enjoyed working for Kent and would have loved to stay with the company. I would return there anytime.
Yard Worker (Current Employee) – Fredericton, NB – 16 April 2018
Kent Building Supplies is a team based company that very much works along the lines of safety and teamwork. Many oppertunitys for advancement if you desire to do so.
Cons
Hours often cut in winter months, associate to associate conflicts
Assistant Store Manager (Former Employee) – Halifax, NS – 30 March 2018
I had great opportunities with Kent, but worked hard to earn every one. The co-workers are the best part of the job. I really enjoyed the chances I had to meet wonderful people around the Maritimes. The individual store managers are over-stressed and underpaid. The upper management is quite disconnected from the store staff.
The most recent pattern of hiring and promoting only young white men is disconcerting. The opportunities for advancement for women and minorities are almost non-existent. With the recent acquisition of Central Building Supplies, there have been a few more opportunities for women but these are rare.
Pros
great peers and good growth opportunities
Cons
pay scale, DMs, focus on promoting men, lack of diversity
Front End Department Head (Current Employee) – Halifax, NS – 26 March 2018
Kent is a reliable work environment. It has reliable work hours but very little in the ways of advancement and it runs on a who knows who when it comes to applying for jobs within the company.
Project Desk associate (Former Employee) – Fredericton, NB – 15 March 2018
Working here was pretty good. I worked nights and weekends. They let me have saturdays off because i had another event. They were easy to get along with, they just needed to do some things differently and either hire more people or cut down on the operation hours.
Pros
work with good people, some activities for workers.
Sales Associate (Former Employee) – Mount Pearl, NL – 14 March 2018
I enjoyed the people I worked with but found that management would not be as supportive.
We would be told in certain senarios that credits would not be given which we would tell customer then the management would reverse the decision and I always felt that they made us look idiotic.
Productive environment to work in, help employees and good management. Very accommodating to schedules and very supportive to university students. Overall really enjoyed my summer there.
Flooring Sales, assembly of display units (Former Employee) – Saint John East, NB – 6 March 2018
free iniforms. definetley learning new things daily. great staff. steady customers. not to far a drive to work . also bus goes right by the store. it is in the most poular part of town. very busy in the area its located. all very popular shopping spots amd eateries next door. a definite place with a lot of customers, and private contractors buying there stock also.
I work for Kent Building supplies several times, the only issue was the inability to be able to voice concerns. The opportunity of advancement was difficult.
The work place at kent was ok it semed as if managment was not very caring about the employees. i leearned alot about materials and lumber and gained good experience but i just didnt enjoy working there. seemed like no matter what you did or how long you worked there they didnt want to help with pay or health bennifits.