Great for Training but lacking in opportunities for progression, and stale Senior Management
Pros
Business dynamic The business are keen to Grow through organic growth or acquisition. In the respect of ambition, AG Barr strive for success which is great to see. Training & development Coming from a sales based role, AG Barr invest heavily in their sales personnel to ensure they are equipped to drive the business forward. This is a mixture of both internal and external delivered training. The training & development lead continues to build a program that caters for all. Overall, there are some great people working for the business with passion drive, and ambition, and I was lucky to work for some very good Managers. If you want great training, join the business, If you want career progression at lower level sales to gain experience; LBDM, RBDM, BDE then Barr's are a great business to join
Cons
Culture There has been a massive dip in the culture and a clear ‘lack of knowledge for what motivates people’ and ‘rewarding effort’. From a family feel company some 10 years ago, Barr has now become very transactional. They business don’t seem to lack appreciation for their staff. Senior management are very out of touch with what people do, who is delivering what, and reasons why when some internal roles become available they see limited submissions. There are no reward for sideways moves, and minimal reward for upward moves. In some cases some roles are not filled internally due to people not wanting to work for certain managers (which again certain key senior management are clueless to). Diversity and inclusion In the respect of inclusion, It was positive to see a sign language person at the last conference for some of the staff with hearing disabilities, so a massive well to Barr on that one, in terms of diversity the business are 1 out of 10 in rating. They struggle to recruit people from an ethnic background which is something they need to review internally. The split of male to female staff has improved over the years with a number of female senior appointments (again a massive well done to Barr on this), but unfortunately that is where it ends for Barr on diversity. Bonus Structure It is openly admitted by senior management that the bonus structure is outdated and does not work, yet nothing has been done to change this. Example: If 10 people exceeded expectation in the same team throughout a financial year, you would likely see only 3-4 achieve this in reality, this is due to Barr working off a bonus structure where they work their overall bonus pot based on a set amount of investment versus what people have actually achieved in the year. So if there isn’t enough money to go around you could be one of the unfortunate ones to be downgraded with some ‘creative thinking feedback’ from your next higher manager to attempt to justify the rate. Progression opportunities Strangely, my first section talked about Barr investing in training (which they do), however they are now more than ever training staff to a high standard to then see them leave for other organisations which seems very strange. Senior management are highly paid, on a different bonuses structure to others and clearly riding the wave in their positions with little to no change. The business state ‘360 feedback is a gift’, and how important two-way feedback is, however senior management do not take feedback on board, and are very adverse to challenge. If you are ambitious at mid/senior sales level and have the skill to further progress, I would strongly suggest considering your options as you could be stuck in the same role for a significant period of time with a development plan that has no clear direction.
