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      K&N Engineering

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      K&N Engineering Reviews

      3.3

      54% would recommend to a friend

      (64 total reviews)

      Steve Rogers

      67% approve of CEO

      48% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      3.2

      Diversity and inclusion

      3.2

      Work/Life balance

      3.0

      Compensation and benefits

      2.8

      Culture and values

      2.8

      Career opportunities

      2.6

      Senior management

      K&N Engineering has an employee rating of 3.3 out of 5 stars, based on 64 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The K&N Engineering employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Manufacturing industry (3.5 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      64 reviews
      1.0
      17 Apr 2018

      Not as Good a Place as it Used to Be

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      K&N manufactures great products. Another big positive has been the people that work at K&N. There have been a lot of knowledgeable people with 5-20 years of experience at K&N to learn from but many of them have left in the last few years as new executives were hired from the food and clothing industries. The new executives put little value on long term employees and made it clear they could be easily replaced. The loss of experienced supervisors and staff is costing the company a lot of money in inefficiency. Rewards are few and management by fear is common.

      Cons

      Poor leadership and communication from the owners and executives. K&N was purchased by Goldman Sachs Merchant Banking Division (GS) from Gryphon Investors (GI) in late 2016. GI hired the current K&N CEO. He seemed to be a perfect choice for helping GI to sell the company. The problem is GS kept him on when they bought the company. He commutes from out of state to Riverside 3-4 days a month. He brought in quite a few executives he worked with in past clothing businesses. Running a manufacturing company has not been the CEO's strength especially over the last year. He seems to be really good at keeping GS content and in the dark. GI had people on site often and they spoke with supervisors and managers to understand the environment. You would think GS would be much better at managing the company than GI but that doesn't seem to be the case. The point to all of this is the employee environment at K&N is not good right now. There are quite a few new executives that come from outside the industry. They don't seek input from those that have experience and as a result many bad decisions have been made that are causing inefficiencies that are keeping the company from being as successful as it could be. Lots of money is being spent on contractors in an effort to grow the company but the efforts seem to be more to do with buying time. The company's past acquisitions have been declining as a result of poor marketing and vision. There's not much confidence the current management can get the company back on track. "Cost cutting" measures could be coming.

      3.0
      13 Mar 2018

      Used to be great

      Internet marketing specialist
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      The family feel of the team even though it was a bigger company everyone was very friendly and nice. The hours were flexible to a degree and my direct supervisor was very honest and valued honest feedback and encouraged bringing your ideas and opinions to the table and he would really consider them.

      Cons

      We had some organization changes in the higher ups and there were new people brought in that didn’t care to learn about the company or the people there they just want to do things their way without sharing their plans. This lead to a lot of miscommunications, lack of direction and how can you move towards a goal that only exists inside someone else’s mind?

      4.0
      16 Jan 2021

      Goldman Sucks

      Graphic designer
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      I came into the job position as a greenhorn graphic designer, thinking that the grass is really greener on the other side. Little to my knowledge, the grass is greener, because its been fertilized with manure. Nonetheless, as a junior graphic designer, I knew enough to be a desirable candidate for the job, but not enough to earn the market value of a full fledge graphic designer. Over time I was lucky enough to work with professionals in the automotive and powersport aftermarket industry, and this work experience is priceless. I was also given the chance and opportunity to polish my photography abilities by championing the product photography and attending racing events with media credentials on the behalf of K&N. All grueling work but necessary in the endeavor to polish my craft and to capture my own content. For 6 years at K&N, let's call that my apprenticeship, I mastered Print, Packaging, catalogs, and digital photography, however as technology changes, I had quickly learned the value of being adaptive. And again without hesitation I took on yet another role that would benefit me in the future, and that was the role of 3D modeling and Rendering. As the lowly graphic designer and product photographer who serviced 4 different Brands under K&N, I must say that I'm now a journeyman and a force to be reckoned with, Print Design is no longer a core focus as it should of never been, but I leave K&N with a wealth of knowledge, abilities and experience in the automotive and powersport industry.

      Cons

      Raises are far and few between, but once in a while you are thrown a bone to scrap over with your counterparts, which by the way is a terrible form of pay increase, and only it creates animosities with co-workers, and as the hourly employees struggle and fight over what little pay increases happen every year, I've seen unfit employees earn a huge pay increase just by be-friending and siding with the correct upper manager and that leaves those like myself who persevere in a honorable manner frustrated and confused. Should we just lie, steal and cheat our way to the podium, because that seems like is the only method to earn a promotion and pay increase. I may be naïve, but I have honor and will not bring myself to commit such an atrocity amongst my peers. And did I mention that Goldman Sachs had own K&N and its brands since 2015, under the ironclad rule of such a despicable financial bank. I will not ever trust the leadership and decisions of Goldman Sachs and as they bend and manipulate upper management to do their bidding.

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      ReviewsK&N Engineering reviews

      Glassdoor has 66 K&N Engineering reviews submitted anonymously by K&N Engineering employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if K&N Engineering is right for you.