Halfords Employee Reviews
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United Kingdom1,177 reviews
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Loved every minute i worked there fun place a lot to learn loads of opportunity's would reccomend to anyone looking for a part time career or full time
Pros
Discount on clothes bikes services etc
Cons
All good enjoyed every bit
I worked for Halfords for nearly 9 years. Having worked in multiple stores. The store level management are fantastic. Once you get above that, it’s a mess. Area managers not actually feeding information to teams with divisional managers being almost ghosts. The executive team seen to only care about figures rather than colleague health and well-being.
Pros
Trade discounts and 25% staff discount
Cons
Completely useless upper management who expect everything for nothing
All depends on what management team you end up working with, some are decent, many are really poor. My personal experience was really bad many sleepless nights.My advice if you are thinking of joining this company, make sure you join a union.
If you can put up with ego of management, Im sure you'll do well here. If not this job isn't for you. The tools/equipment are so old and not in any way fit for purpose. Nobody knows where tools are, what's going on etc
Pros
Discounts
Cons
Management
Amazing staff and great management (at least in store that is). It has been the best place I’ve ever worked. So many skills to take through life. Hit a hard spot in my life and was sort of expected just to be fine but I understand from an employers point of view. They did more than enough. Chance after chance, they want their employees to do well. Over all a supportive and encouraging team. And will miss them dearly.
Pros
Family like presence
Cons
Mental health awareness
Some things are great and others not so. Working environment got worse and worse to the extend that it made me physically sick. You are ultimately just a number to them and restructure after restructure means that they have stripped the skills out and left a very poorly trained overworked and underpaid team to pick up the pieces. I enjoyed my time with the company for 5 years but more than 50% payroll cuts means it’s unbearable to do any type of job in the business. Most stores run solely on the good will of the team working extra hours for free to support you due to loyalty towards the management team over anything else. Real shame. The company Could be amazing. It’s absolutely not anymore. If you have w supportive Area Manager it’s great. Unfortunately the good ones left when they saw what state the business had become. Avoid.
Pros
Weekend working 1 in 1 off
Cons
Long hours, over worked, highly stressed
M. O. T's are booked in for the tester every 40 mins! Does not matter when you have to test a 20 year old rotton vehicle and it takes you an hour to complete. You can end up being 2 M. O. T's behind so that's you not having any break until the end of your shift. M. O. T's should be booked in hourly slots not every 40 mins. Rota system is terrible, work 6 days get 1 off then 5 days with 2 off then back on 6 days again. You work every Saturday all day and the word Holiday does not exist in the Halfords dictionary. There are a lot of better companies to work for that understand how a garage should be run and understand family life.
Pros
None
Cons
Quite a lot.
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Treated very unfairly by management and they dock your wages behind your back.None of your own tools are safe and they are stolen on a daily basis so they have to be taken home every day.The managers can't manage the place at all and they're is no team. Everyone is out to get each other.
Pros
None
Cons
Management, own equipment isnt safe, no team, get treated unfairly
Overall the job itself was amazing. Management could have been a bit better but overall the team worked really well. Numbers were easy to hit due to the scale of the company and so not much pressure was placed on any colleagues.
Pros
Fun colleagues, short shifts
Cons
Management
Worse company to work for. Constant problems with being paid correctly, even when supposed to be paid SSP. They some how find a way to deduct extra money from SSP or furlough
Pros
Staff are nice to work with
Cons
Paid unfairly
I have had lots of jobs and Halfords is one of my favourites. Colleagues are lovely, bosses are lovely, work is varied, busy and quiet times. Lots to learn and advance on e learning. Pay is not great, but if you work hard, you can get extra hours. I enjoy working here very much.
Pros
Family
Cons
Waste produced.
I worked for Halfords autocentre for 6 years. Always work very hard to reach targets and not always getting nothing out of it. Bit of a kick in the teeth. Every year they put there targets higher to make you work even harder just so all the big boss’s upstarts profit from it all and give you nothing out of it. Head office do nothing if you’ve got a problem and IT haven’t got a clue how to work computer. We were open seven days a week. Sometimes having to work over 14 days straight because HR couldn’t sort out a rota that worked. We hardly every got a lunch break due to so much work and never ever got payed for that hour extra we worked. I used to leave to go to work and the kids would be asleep I get home in the evening and the kids would be in bed. No work/life balance. If you ever work for Halfords be prepared to never see your family.
Pros
No pros
Cons
Long hours
Some off the people I work with are fantastic Halfords family, but your under appreciated its a fight to get hours around school times, stupid 3 hour shifts, given a job title and then you told to do the complete opposite,
Pros
Discount
Cons
Under paid, over worked, short staffed constantly
I haven't even worked at Halfords for six months yet it's put me off wanting to work in such an environment ever again. The team were mostly amazing and very supportive - only if you did exactly what they wanted when they wanted it. Yet if you make a complaint about someone it is ignored. There's little to no training, you're thrown in at the deep end.Store manager was and is awful, you never know what mood he is in and if he was going to shout at you in front of customers. Not a good place to work if you want to feel supported from higher up.The positives weren't enough to keep me going.
Pros
teamwork
Cons
store manager behaves like a child
Great place to work to earn extra few quid, would not recommend as a main source of income as its minimum wages. On bonus staff discounts is great for retail shops. Working in high living cost area like Reading 19k was not enough to support a family. Was not alloys to use own torque wrench and doing some jobs they didn't have specialist tools needed. 19k pay 44.5 hours a week working nearly all Saturdays. Sundays off at least.
Pros
Good laugh with management
Cons
Pay and hours
My time spent at Worksop was most enjoyable but due to home commitments I had to leave my post there unfortunately it was a challenge which was enjoyable in every sense whilst learning other parts of the shop practices
Pros
On going learning
Cons
Poor rostering always short staffed
Vans are a disgrace, no tools, most of the equipment does not work, no work home life balance, you won’t see your children on the days you work, if you are a good technician you will get a lot of work, if your a poor technician you will get easy days
Pros
Discount, some of the team are great
Cons
Long hours, broken tools, no one listens
I have worked for Halfords for over 18 months now and since starting I have loved every minute. I progressed to manager in a matter of months and since becoming manager I have pulled my centre from the ground and turned it in to a good place of work. Everyone is friendly and gets on well. Higher managements good and they let us get on with our job.
Pros
Good discounts good wage. Bonus scheme
Cons
Long hours. But worth it !