Terrible place to work, will never recommend again.
Right from the get go I was a co op student who eventually got in to work part time, part time meaning that we work even more than full time employee's do during winter rush. I was never set up for my first 24, only finishing it the month I was "laid off". The storage system for tires and rims was absolutely horrible, I would never ever recommend storing your tires at this location, we lose about 5-6 sets a month while I was an employee there. The used tire bin was so bad I was actually written up just stepping foot inside and having stacks fall on me. There was never any real effort to train or stay within the rules, we were often overstocked which resulted in a very crowded shop environment. During the winter while I was told gloves would have been provided for me while in the shop this didn't prove to be the case and I had to pay out of pocket for my own, the drainage grates were poorly placed below the hoists and occasionally we lost customer's lug nuts inside of them. Our parts room was not clean and we were often missing lug nuts from sets, mainly lug nuts for aftermarket rims. Management wanted to sell aftermarket Core Racing rims that came in bent. Management itself was a mess, it soon turned to having more managers in the shop than actual employee's, mostly managers in training who each tried to give out tasks. Our change room beside the upstairs tire racks had a massive drop off that I fell through and twisted my ankle in, was never fixed to my knowledge. I was work
Points positifsgreat employee's - Always fun to be around and joke with.
Points négatifsEverything about this company and specific location, management, safety precautions, storage system and shop work.
I’ve worked with kal tire for almost 5 years in two locations, and can safely say I have respected only one manager I have had in that time. Kal tire has a system where they fast track train a new employee to manager and “sell” them to another store for profit. This system results in people with NO TIRE EXPERIENCE having authority over people who’ve been with the company for years working towards/waiting on career advancement. Not to mention that these fast track managers are quick to gain a huge ego and start pushing the tire techs to hurry up when they themselves can’t even do the work efficiently and quickly. Safety standards are shoved down your throat until it gets busy and all safety gets thrown out the window in the name of sales and profit. If you’re not a mechanic or a tire tech in this company then you’re nothing but a disposable asset, they promise wage progression and career advancement but always have an excuse as to why it isn’t happening yet. Kal tire will use you and push you past your limits until they don’t need you anymore and they will fire you with no remorse. The turnover rate within this company is so high that more often than not I don’t even know all the names of the people on my crew.
It’s also no secret that if you’re an attractive woman you will be catered to above and beyond that of any other person, as at least one of the managers at the west edmonton store LOVES to chat girls up while on shift even though he’s married, and was actually caug
Points positifsStrong bond with other tire techs because of the way they’re treated by management
Points négatifsTerrible management, only care about money, manager objectifies women
I worked for Kal Tire for approximately 5 years. Over the course of the 5 years I saw management and the company as a whole take a nose dive.
The way the company treats its employees is probably the worst I have ever seen.
Each month the store will have a staff meeting, mid-week, after the work day. These meetings generally last from 6:00PM to 7:30 or 8:00 PM and attending employees are not paid for the time. The "incentive" to go is the company purchasing cheap meals for the attendees. Additionally, if the meeting happens to fall on an employee's day off, the company still expects the employee to attend and once more, will not pay the employee. If the employee does not attend they will often be taken into the manager's office where the manager will "advise" the employee that a third of their profit share can be taken away and mention layoffs.
Additional unpaid meetings consisted of one 15 minute meeting per week, fortunately employees that had the day off were not required to attend.
The company has a 50/50 and profit sharing program where store profit will be split amongst the company, good program, but at the cost of one evening per month. The company also offers decent medical and dental coverage.
Higher management also decided they no longer wanted their employees to have any facial hair (including neatly trimmed). Store management then required all employees to shave any facial hair they may have initially been hired with.
The company has far too many
Points positifsFree dinner once per month, Profit Sharing & 50/50, benefits
Points négatifsUnpaid meetings, "mandatory" overtime, no respect between management and employees, over promising and under delivering.
Career Tracker / Management Trainee program is horrible AVOID AVOID AVOID
As a Career Tracker I was on a $40k salary working 57-60 hours a week. It nearly costed me my relationship, I had no work/life balance and the worst part was- I had nothing to show for all my hard work. I was often used for cheap labour so the company wouldn't have to pay their employees overtime. I have a bachelors degree in business and 5 years prior management experience in the automotive industry but I was almost always put in the shop changing tires to save the company on labour. It felt like a giant scam towards the end.
Kal Tire is known for having a very high turn over rate and it is almost as though they like it that way- they don't have to give employees raises. To add to this, after the winter rush, almost all the employees get laid off for a few weeks or permanently.
The profit share is a joke. The company is continually expanding it's number of stores. Each store cuts into a nearby stores profit share.
They promise everyone that they will be in management one day making over $100,000 salary and some can do it in under a year. It's so far from the truth it's not even funny. Nearly everyone I went to Sales and Service training with one year ago has already quit because of the same reason I quit.
What really set me off was how my shifts did not start until 7:30am although I was required to be there every morning for the mandatory 7:00am sales meeting- this made it difficult to collect overtime. Besides this, I had to "volunteer" a half day of my own pers
Points positifsNothing
Points négatifsEverything about the place
3,0
Sales and Service Technician | Edmonton, AB | 19 mai 2020
Kaltire as a company is great but can be stressful on which locations you get
I have worked in 5 different Kaltire store locations in Edmonton. Great place to work during winter and spring season since they will hire a lot during these times to cope with the increased workload and you get your worth of 80 hours per pay but the overtime is another story I am not gonna get into. after the busy season they will pick the ones that stand out from the new hires and they will either keep them or send them to other stores that needs more people to keep each stores with adequate number of team members. Then you get to the off season some days are okay, you get decent amount of vehicles to work on and some days are not. During this time that's when they will give you lesser work days, to the point that having barely any hours, you're lucky to get 60 hours per paycheck. But what i personally think that can make or break a company depends on which store and the mentality of the management. Each and every store has their own plans some stores stick with said plans and some break it in couple days. most of the time they expect you to finish a truck the same time as to finish a small sedan. i think the hardest part of the job is if your job title at Kaltire is sales and service that no matter how much sweat or tears you give that has no value whatsoever "Do a million things right and people only see the one thing you did wrong". Best part of the job is having that team building experience with people that you work with. The friendly competitiveness of who can finish
Stressful, Under paying, Cut throat company first environment.
Unobtainable expectations for employees, outdated, beaten and broken equipment not fit to provide adequate completion of the needed task let alone the exceptions, including work trucks and facility functions such as heat. Management has complete blinders to any issues or concerns regarding equipment but don't dare get caught without ear plugs in the completely empty shop.... After having a concern with a work truck and phoning my manager he replied with "what do you want me to do about it?"... not confidence in stowing to the employee out of the yard with a possibly broke truck. Overall, after putting everything I had into trying to reach the expectations of the management team including family sacrifices and loss of work life-home balance, I was laid off after being told that i had cleared the lay off periods. I was paid marginally more then a road tech, and expected to act as a manager and give my entire life to a company to jump, stay late, and abandon my personal life whenever they saw fit yet somehow when it came to the other way there was zero flex My time with Kal tire was the most stressful employment I have ever had, and frankly am happy to be gone to better things. The company is only looking out for its best interests, and not in an acceptable way. They would simply prefer to constantly hire, train, and lay off employees. It is a constant revolving door.
Points positifsQuitting time
Points négatifsEven after quitting time, they would still call my personal phone, so truly no rest or respect for personal time.
A typical day at work consisted tire changeovers/balances, wheel alignments, visual mechanical inspections, various mechanical services (i'm a registered apprentice automotive technician), Kal Tire has a well designed training system that teaches you all of the knowledge that you need to succeed in your workplace and how to do so in a way that is safe for you and your teammates (Kal Tire always puts safety first. my knowledge base of tires and vehicle components advanced quite significantly while working at Kal Tire due to the importance they put on training, one con I would say is (at least in the nisku area) was that wages were not that competitive with other businesses however Kal Tire does have an excellent benefit system along with a profit share system and a RRSP the is set up for every team member after working there for 2 years plus one day. My team consisted of a group of great people who often got along great with each other which spending time with my team i would say was the most enjoyable part of my job along with the knowledge gained, however there is a high turnover rate when it comes to tire techs, the hardest part of the day I would say are when the tasks start to become VERY repetitive it tends to become hard to keep your mind stimulated that and long nonstop busy days during the winter rush however those days always go by fast.
Points positifsBenefits, Profit Sharing, RRSP, Good People, Great training
Points négatifshigh turnover rate of new employees, low starting wage, repetitive tasks
Once a month they have a mandatory after work hours meeting that last 1-2 hours which is unpaid. Not sure how they still get away with that with the hourly paid employees seeing as its against alberta labour regulations. These guys are really good at bringing young people in and giving them the Kal Tire brain wash. Super hype you on being part of a team and potential earnings but it’s all to get more than 100% out of you daily. Coffee breaks are discouraged and they will accuse you of not being on the team the first time you don’t work ot. Management and long term employees are so focused on their profit share that they’ll step over $100 bills to pick up the $5s meaning shop tooling is missing, outdated or worn out and they’re too cheap to get new. Mechanical booking/parts department has zero ability to forward think and really properly plan and organize. But they will try every day to give you 10 hours of work to finish in an 8 hour day if they can. While I felt it was a realatively safe place to work once again they are so focused on not spending money to increase profits that they could be better. When I left Kal Tire they still had an employee that had left the company 3 months prior on the designated first aided list on the wall in the office which I had pointed out to the head safety person 6 weeks prior to me leaving the company. His exact words were he was too busy to change it.
Points positifsFree meal at the mandatory unpaid meeting
Points négatifsThey will try to make you feel bad if you don’t show up for the unpaid meeting
2,0
Sales and Service Technician | Edmonton, AB | 7 mars 2018
high turn over rates & cut hours
I was at Kal Tire and my ambition was to start as a tire technician and enroll through their apprenticeship program.
The Good
:Tire guys were fun to work with
:you learn alot from the journeyman mechanics
:free meal at partners meetings
The Bad
:high turnover rates so expect to see alot of new faces
:The company hires ANYONE so expect to see unskilled temp workers
:alot of miscommunication between front counter staff and technicians
:Unrealistic expectations [Setting you up failure]
:in the winter you'll work 60plus hours a week and after the rush youll be lucky to get 20hrs week
:many fake promises by management for advancement
:only one half hour break for a 10 hr day, not paid minimum 3hrs for mandatory store meetings [This Company breaks labour laws]
:no clear direction and or training, one tech will say one way to do things and another tech will say another
Overall my experience was poor... When I started many of the senior techs had left and only after a month and a half I ended training new hires for winter rush. Management ignored my suggestions for efficient work and refused to sign my blue book. the final straw was when my hours were cut to 20hrs a week. In my interview I was told 40hrs a week all year round.
If your intention is to pursue mechanics then start here and get experience then move on to bigger and better opportunities. This company only cares about its management and not its technicians.
5,0
Sales and Service Technician | Edmonton, AB | 29 févr. 2016
Fast paced, hard work, Great environment
A typical day would be Greeting customers, providing thorough inspection of breaks rotors and wheel well's of vehicles reporting my findings on an inspection sheet, communicating with customer of possible work that needs to be done or considered, changing, rotating tires, or installing new tires. workplace safety and training for advancement,
I learned a lot from this job. working in a fast paced team based environment, planning and co-ordination between team members, working with a deadline and a goal, keep safety a big priority, better customer service, and how to work under pressure,
Management was great, personable, friendly, reassuring and rewarding. Made everyone feel like a team member and welcome to the team, very understanding.
My co-workers were all hard working friendly individuals who i enjoyed working with a lot, made every day easy and fun, there was a proper understanding that to much chit-chat makes your work ethic suffer, good productivity, provided an upbeat atmosphere that made working there very enjoyable.
There were many hard parts to this job, but none that were stressful or easy to overcome with proper training and time management. The only part that was difficult was working on big diesel trucks with dual axle's in the back.
This job was all around enjoyable
Points positifsGreat environment, room for advancement, Fun work.
management needs improvement. front counter needs to get there head in the game and leave egos behind. and stop screwing up work orders.
here's a honest review for location 72 5 road RICHMOND,
i left for multiple reasons
1 being lack of respect for workers. The main zone manager and head manager where the only respectful ones towards there workers.
* assistant manager is chill nice guy but needs revamping and to loose the ego sorry bud but its honest *
2nd, if you expect someone to be there approx. 1H earlier / 1H after business hours. you better be paying them overtime or time x1.5 (NOT REGULAR PAY)
better pay in general. in todays times 20$ is just barely breaking even... fountain tire starts at 25$ and more time off.
this company in my mind is only good for a stepping plate unless they provide something for you to move up with Right off the bat. otherwise unwise to work for them. there's better out there if you look hard enough.
keep in mind i was a previous worker returning back after 3 years previously (same location)
if you review there google reviews you will get a general idea on what this location is like.
3rd, management needs to seriously get there head in the game with shop workers. missing lock keys, showing attitude to shop workers when there jobs are MUCH harder then yours.
mechanic division relies on PROPER INFO being transferred to customers and not leaving them high and dry, forgetting to order parts when asked is a great example.
4th. when a mechanic is going to school and wants to go to school and work at KALTIRE at the same time, you respect this and work around HIS sche
Questions et réponses au sujet de l'entreprise Kal Tire
Comment se déroule le processus de promotion chez Kal Tire?
Posée le 8 nov. 2022
Terrible and almost unattainable
Réponse du 27 sept. 2023
Get trained, do performance review do certain amount of work orders.
Réponse du 20 sept. 2023
À quelle fréquence bénéficiiez-vous d'une augmentation de salaire chez Kal Tire?
Posée le 25 oct. 2022
Dependent on role advancement which has a high barrier to entry. Never got a raise.
Réponse du 27 sept. 2023
Usually Once a year but if can go for mechanical courses,after each course
Réponse du 26 sept. 2023
Quelle politique est appliquée par Kal Tire en matière de congés? De combien de jours de congés disposez-vous par an?
Posée le 27 févr. 2019
10 days
Réponse du 26 sept. 2023
No vacation time
Réponse du 13 sept. 2023
Quels sont les avantages proposés par Kal Tire?
Posée le 18 févr. 2019
Paid
Réponse du 26 sept. 2023
The ability to browse your phone when you like and have many paid lunches and breaks
Réponse du 13 sept. 2023
À quelle fréquence les salaires augmentent-ils chez Kal Tire?
