save sequire enviorment with taff handpicked beeing part of a family
The day would start being at work before door opening to the public so we can make sure all demo stock (coffee/ popcorn) is clean for use, all computer's are switched on and my undelivered is up to date, stock is safe and secure and no obstructions in between ills, giving duties/ instructions to co-workers in smalls department, as clients come in during the day - to make sure that each and every person is greeted friendly and served timelessly with friendliness, advice and the best product suitable for there needs and in there prise range, always offering all KPI's to each customer, including finance. Handling any returns or complains answering phone calls and queries, while making sure that all other staff is performing there duties for the day, encouraging co-workers to perform there best and help were needed. Receiving and checking stock in warehouse distributing it to the floor and putting away in warehouse what is not needed on floor, checking on stock to re order, following up orders that has not come in yet, following up stock that was sold that was not received yet, contacting customers to pick up stock that was payed for and now received. cashiering when needed, Reporting to management if needed, e-mailing suppliers, housekeeping, merchandising, cleaning all demo equipment for the day, make sure all equipment used is turned of, shutting down computer's. The most enjoyable part of the job is serving people, interacting with them and to make them smile- enjoy there sho
While only a short time at the Preston store I found my time their very enjoyable.
The staff made me feel very welcome as I came from the Coburg store.
Warm and friendly staff.
A team which is great and you could always depend on someone taking care of a problem if you were not there.
Customers sense negativity and lucky this was not the case there.
My proprietor was amazing to work for and very inspiring in the way he addressed the staff in our meetings.
My typical day at work would be to arrange customer orders so their stock would be delivered on time.
Answering the phones.
Merchandising.
Resolving any customer complaints promptly.
Attending to customers and assisting them with their purchases.
Keeping updated with new products and promotions with our suppliers.
The most enjoyable part of retail in general is meeting people.
I am very much a people's person and love the interaction.
I always aim to create a good rapport with my customers and have made a lot of friends.
Receiving awards for great customer service is an achievement that I am proud of.
Also seeing a final result of a kitchen that you have helped the customer design and selection of products is very rewarding.
(when they invite you home you know that you have made a loyal customer come friend).
Prosfamily enviroment
Conslong hours and issues with damaged stock or goods not being delivered on time.(ANGRY CUSTOMERS).
The commission system does not favour casual workers in any regards, often paid sub-award because you receive incentive payments. These incentives are facades for performance boosts, full timers pawn off bad sales to casuals so you end up remaining under the award so they have to give a monthly top up to ensure they don't violate fair work. When I realised this, the incentive nature of a commission loses all value. The amount of blood, sweat and tears I'd poured into this role just to see that I was being paid the same either way, it opened my eyes. The workplace culture is fake team work and absolute ruthlessness and competition, of course management loves it because it increases GP despite the morale being the most toxic I've ever experienced. I tried my best to get out of sales because I am passionate about the industry and it was a job, but there was no flexibility in the role so I resigned. There's so many more dodgy things that happens within this business, but the bottom line is this isn't worth your effort or energy if you have an ounce of humanity in you, my only exception to this would be if you were friends with the proprietor or offered a full time position and had no other options.
ProsProduct knowledge gained for other jobs
ConsToxic culture, casuals are 2nd grade citizens, business structure doesn't favour mental health
4.0
Customer Service Manager | Auburn NSW | 28 Feb 2013
Heavily focused on customer service, face paced enviornment.
This job on a daily basis focused on solving customers concerns with the products they had purchased. My job was to rectify the matter asap and have the customer satisfied with how i dealt with the matter. I would be dealing with companies outside the store who would be able to assist me in solving this matter, this information would be passed to the customer to keep them up to date with the procedure. Management would assist in providing feedback to me as well as support in dealing with difficult situations where the issue may require higher management to step in. I was diligent in my role and determined to solve the matters before they escalated to this level. I learned from this role that listening to a customer and hearing what they have to say is the most important part of customer service, not to butt in and to ignore there concerns.
This job was challenging and allowed me to broaden my knowledge of this avenue of work. I enjoyed the variety the job gave to me, but wanted to spread my wings to a new company and develop even more.
I will be looking forward to hearing from you and discussing my previous history even more.
Kind Regards
Brad Dawes
Prosgreat working enviornment, structured learning, support.
I left HN after 4 months as the whole structure and philosophy of commission-based selling did not sit well with me. It was OK under my first boss but not the second. Employees were expected to reach sales targets that were not realistic and the only way to get there was to pressure the customer, be unethical with your explanation/sales pitch or to lower prices. By lowering prices, you may sell more but you get less commission. My boss lowered the price so much on an item that cost nearly $5k that I earned about $7 commission on it. Employees also argue over whose customer it is so they get the commission. The ethical ones will find out if a customer has been with another salesperson on a previous day or earlier that day and will give the sale to that person. However, some see a simple "hello, how are you?" to the customer as making them their customer. You should be working as a team, not competing against each other. Thankfully, the people I worked with were generally good people. The base pay is terrible and it's no wonder some people stoop to unethical stuff to make a bit more.
A family environment, every employee could feel at home and thrive.
A typical day at work consists of opening the store, store float is counted and checked, everything is then turned on ready for customers.
Serving customers, credits, returns, general cleaning as well as moving stock to and from the floor are also parts of a typical work day.
This job taught me how to multi-task efficiently, making the most of my time at work to complete multiple jobs at once or help multiple customers at once.
I have found that co-workers in Harvey Norman are all professional, hard working and extremely driven. Every day is a challenge to better myself and to better each other, an extremely fun and competitive work place.
The most difficult part of the job, for myself, is customer complaints and resolving them will always be difficult but I know that I am more than capable of resolving almost any problem a customer could have to their satisfaction.
Being able to open and tinker with the newest products on a day-to-day basis is by far the most enjoyable part of the work.
You can’t have ethics in this department, you must point the customer to the product that give you the most commission.
If a staff allowed a customer to return a product, that stuff would have to pay the loss.
FT - 38 hours any more and you will not be paid extra... that is no time in lieu, no over time, no penalty rates etc. because you earn high commission it’s expected you’ll make more than penalty rates... (lies).
However you are working 48hours a week... therefore one day unpaid..
for a new person this is an absolute joke as you got minimum wage, worked the most hours and got little commission due to knowledge.
No training, expect for an imbecile of a man on a video trying to ‘teach you how to sell’. Thrown into the deep and expected to ‘butterfly’ within the hour.
If resignation notice is handed in within the 6 months of probation, the manager will have a meeting to say you failed probation therefore not having to tell HR why you left...
It is not busy until holidays periods otherwise dead af.
ProsSale staff nice, discounts on products
ConsUnethical, not to fairwork standards, long hours with no pay
a company with massive potential that needs to keep finger on palse.
I worked for Harvey Norman and in a few months I saw that most of the staff were over worked and miserable. They didn't get a balance at all. I have managed other busineses for many years and had extensive training in bedding sales , furniture etc. I found it to be very poor on this side as most staff sat on computers cheating or wasting valuable customer service skills not to mention loosing money as they tried to finish modules that they didn't find interesting. The management drove an unrealistic approach to a very different market and due to this approach I saw the old fashioned pride in service and product slide to barstardisation. I think you should with they way online shopping has had an effect on retail, be the ones to stand talk by your product. Choose only quality items and re train your staff properly on the value of correct product knowlege and its availability.
Prosfun with promos and encouraged personal skills to a pont.
Consno two days off to keep balance or even rotating roster.
I worked for the company for 4 years. Management took pride in making you aware that you are being watched every second of the day. Little to no room for failure. Competitive industry, so all of the sales staff are deceitful and money driven, they will happily undercut you just to make a buck. I found management to be sexist, and they guilt trip you for taking sick leave.
I was young when I started there, and felt like they took advantage of that.
Some of the other proprietors made numerous attempts to get me in trouble with my prop, because they were in disagreement with my friendships with warehouse staff.
I made some good friends along the way, some honest genuine people.Seeing them go through the phases of starting a job, learning about what its actually like to work for people that do not respect you unless you are profitable and seeing them lose all motivation and eventually getting fired was pretty upsetting.
I honestly believe this job was a large contribution to onsets of depression.
I have had many experiences with harvey Norman, from being a Sale Specialist in the Bedding department, to Managing an Electrical Computer Store in a Small country town. I believe Harvey Norman is an amazing company in the way it looks after it's ppl. If you really want to make money, in Sales then Harvey Norman is the way to go. You get out of it what you put in, if you want a 9 to 5 Job, then Harvey Norman is not for you. It is busy, and you have to learn your stuff, the Harvey Norman way. I would love to be able to work at Harvey Norman again but due to illness I have retired very early. If Customer Services is for you Harvey Norman is a great place to start as you really can build a great business for your self with HN, and even Travel overseas to work in their other stores.
ProsGreat Income, Stable Enployment, Career building, Travel.
Cons7 days a week operation, but I don't really think it's a con, as that weekends are when you make your Money.😁
I started years ago when we had 15 to 20 minute morning meetings before work every morning. These were unpaid meetings and you were expected to be there. If you weren't there the proprietor and management thought less of you and that you didn't put the company first! They still haven't paid out the thousands of dollars they owe us for this time. They have just swept this under the carpet! Especially after it left the headlines after Smith's City paid out their staff!
In my 10+ years there I was promised several times that I would be looked at for management but that was just to keep me there interested while making them millions in profit over that time.
There's no such thing as a pay rise."If you sell more you'll make more" and " there's a wage freeze" are mentioned every time you bring up your pay rate. We were all told by the new electrical proprietor at Moorhouse Ave Harvey Norman in 2018 when he arrived down from the Manakau store that " we were all paid too much for our hourly rate and he had too many of us on the shop floor and wanted to thin his numbers down" so he could pay less in wages". We all felt worthless. He has since reduced staff numbers by one way or another.
Then there is the target system put in place to make them massive profits.
We all had job threat's that if we didn't sell extended warranties or product care as they now call it then they would get new staff that could sell it, even though the consumer guarantee's act states you don't need them!
A Typical Multinational Corporation cares more about money than giving back to society
I would go into work ten minutes earlier than expected as the computer in which I operated took a long time to boot up. Then I would scan through my emails and also prioritise anything in my todoist. I would start ordering stock for the twelve different stores in the Republic of Ireland and also try get some offers off suppliers if a certain quantity was bought. The management was ok, I felt that because I was the new guy straight out of college they would give me a ridiculous amount of work to get done therefore I ended up staying back to get all my work done even though I did not get payed an extra for this. My co workers had no time for a newbie, they were also very busy which was unfortunate as every day I like to learn and unfortunately there was no one willing to push me on in this company. Eventually the job became mundane and I didn't feel that this job was going to develop me any further. The tasks carried out became routine, therefore I decided to apply for an American visa and left Harvey Norman. As a new chapter in my life begins to unfold here I am ready to develop myself further and I want to work for a company that appreciates the hard work you put in. To summarise I learnt that everyone is interested in their own interests and to be something in this world it is up to you to push yourself and this company is a great company but it wasn't for me.
I Was told I was hired full-time starting in September. Then after Christmas I was told I was only needed for the Christmas. Management found it amusing when I got angry about this! the time I was there Management would constantly talk as if I would be there for the future and told me all the different things they would like to try me out on next year all the while knowing they were never going to keep me on past January. I was informed this is common practice in Harvey Norman to keep Christmas staff happy and working hard! the problem with that was I turned down another job thinking I was secure in Harvey Norman. Again Management found this VERY funny.
Other then that It was a nice environment to work in, the money was good and the staff are nice. However management is extremely lazy. You are thrown into the deep end from day one, no training, no support from management. Management change rules, procedures and hours constantly and never inform you and so many staff get caught out by this and get in trouble for not showing up for work. For example you could be off on Tuesday, you double check your rota before leaving on Monday and your still off, but then management would change it up to 4 hours later after closing and not inform you but expect you to somehow know to show up the next day. This happens a lot.
You will be stuck at same position for years no progression
I have been working for the company for over 10 years in all honestly I wasn’t expected to stay but some time when your young and dumb you tend to get comfortable in this kinda environment, when I was interviewed I was told company appreciates hard worker and want to get up in the company, I ended my employment with them because I knew I had no future with them if you don’t know someone at head office then you will not get anywhere in that company, the structure of company is great team are great, management I have went through four manager there have been only 2/4 who I considered great people to work with but the last one. He only got the position because he knew someone at head office and managed to the previous manager fired because he Made several complaints against him. If you manager in that company you can hire your wife to be your PA and do what ever you want.
It was very difficult work with a manager who had no business sense most of the time he is in the office watching YouTube videos or not there at all he would be there maybe 2-3 days of the week and most of the day he will leave early with his wife to do launch or shop around the area.
The shot story of this if you want to go up in the company you need to Mary the manager or be his/her Friends with benefits.
A typical day would involve collecting the float from admin, set up the two tills, clean if needed and check supplies for the day if a cashier was not in. Otherwise I would immediately turn on my computer and check my emails, deal with any customer issues, which might involve ringing suppliers for etas, answering phones and serving customers. Where needs be I would help put stock out on the floor or merchandise the accessories.
I learned from that environment that I was a very friendly hard working team player who is a natural leader, quick learner, good communication and problem solving skills and who has good initiative.
I enjoyed working with the many managers I had over the years in the Furniture and Bedding department they were all very supportive, approachable and open to new ideas.
My co-workers and I were like a family who were very supportive of each other, proud of our store and really wanted the company to succeed, we were a great team.
The hardest part of the job was dealing with some very irate customers but at the same time I enjoyed finding solutions to their problems and giving the customer a professional, friendly and courteous experience.
One thing I am highly disappointed with was the lack or communication from the senior staff. All they care about is rising sales numbers and get it done somehow. The “Training Coordinator” was an absolute useless person. He says one thing and practices the opposite of what he says. Neither the manager or the Training Coordinator bothered to conduct the training I was promised, one on one. Being a novice in retail sales, I needed that. Thanks to other few sales consultants who were very helpful and cooperative. A typical day at work starts at 0845 am and ends at 0530 pm. Weekends are busier. We can have three breaks, very short ones though. We have to be on the floor walking around, interacting with customers or tidying up the floor and not allowed to sit down unless we are working on computers. I found it a bit challenging and inhumane. Top management guy struts around the floor like a rooster in the hen house, asking us randomly how much sales did we do today!! Not a very welcoming personality, I must say. I barely lasted there for a month and I did the right thing by leaving there.
ProsGood staff discounts for furniture. Flexible rosters. Very spacious floor area.
ConsLongs hours of walking and lack of EQ. No training provided. You are on your own.
Questions And Answers about Harvey Norman
What would you suggest Harvey Norman management do to prevent employees from leaving?
Asked 21 Mar 2017
Pay warehouse workers Warehouse wage. Not award wages or Retail wages. It’s a physical job.
Answered 3 June 2021
Where do i start?
1. Pay decent wages - either put everyone on a higher base and then give bonuses for good salespeople or make commission % higher
2. Stop franchisees setting unrealistic targets for their salespeople
3. Treat employees with respect - don't talk down to them and accept that they are not 5 year olds getting a lecture
4. When getting a new employee, give them time to train and learn the system rather than throwing them to the wolves
5. Be positive - look for the successes employees have rather than criticising any small thing.
6. Care for them. If franchisees show that they care about their employees, the employees will accordingly try their hardest and are more likely to bend over backwards for the franchisee. Carrot, not the stick.
Answered 30 Oct 2019
What is the interview process like at Harvey Norman?
Asked 6 Apr 2017
Relaxed & casual as they will take anybody that will work for nothing pays is garbage
Answered 28 Dec 2019
For me it was a relaxed process. I had the initial interview then a week of training on the systems before training at two stores before going to the store that I would be working at.
This won't be the same for everyone.
Answered 25 June 2018
What should you wear to an interview at Harvey Norman?
Asked 18 Mar 2018
Professional attire
Answered 14 Dec 2018
You can never under dress for an interview.
Answered 23 Nov 2018
What is the minimum age you will have to be to work as a Computers Salesperson, and what are the hours for that particular job?
Asked 15 Sept 2017
8am to 4 pm
53
20 to 60
Answered 4 Mar 2020
I would recommend 16 because it is a tough job and alot of people will depend on you, the hours for this job are long because they depend on you for this certin job.
Answered 5 Aug 2018
What are the benefits and perks of working at Harvey Norman?
Asked 20 June 2017
I was casual but I loved it. Definitely helped me get through uni. The people become a work family and its great working with them. Our boss was fantastic! Always treating us to a trip or concert tickets and would give us the arvy off.
