SMART Technologies Reviews

Former Employee – worked at SMART Technologies

Pros – Good product, a Good place for people right out of school looking to gain some experience

Cons – No engagement from management, No professional development, Field units are very much siloed, No best practices established, Little to no training on product or procedures, Unprofessional business acumen.

Advice to Senior Management – Upper Management, Increase engagement by ensuring that middle management actually engages with their teams. Listen to your employees and set some "Best Practices" for your business. Terminate ineffective managers as soon as possible.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at SMART Technologies full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – None. Company is primed for either sale or gutting. Penny stock. Enough said.

Cons – Quality control. Defective products. Weak leadership and that being generous. Outdated modes of thinking around marketplace. High turnover. Bring in a completely new batch of employees every 3 years so no one knows where the bodies are buried. The list is endless.

Advice to Senior Management – Cull the entrenched parasites feed off of the company. They've all for each others backs and its never anyone's fault when things go wrong.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at SMART Technologies full-time for more than a year

Pros – interesting products with lots of projects possibilities

Cons – unfinished products and no organization within the company
company not driven to business

Advice to Senior Management – change your ways or you'll just hit the wall

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at SMART Technologies full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Interesting technology, both hardware and software; have geniunely changed the way students are educated globally; very bright and enthusiastic colleagues; flexible working hours; nice, open plan offices in a modern building; gym on site; private childcare facility onsite; underground car parking (At a charge and long waiting list though); near Brentwood C-Train.

Cons – Poor leadership right from the top; lack of stability i.e. restructured twice in 2012; revenues in steep decline since 2012; facing an uncertain future; high attrition rate 33%; very low levels of trust especially inter-department; many departments badly managed; poor co-ordination between functions; Director's/Senior Manager's not open and receptive to suggestions to improve; most seem to spend their time managing up and not down; can be very political. How can a company full of so much talent, get it so badly wrong?

Advice to Senior Management – Don't rely on the Director's who presided over many of the previous years mis-management to make decisions about a restructure this large and do it so quickly with so little thought; Never ever restructure a company without involving the line managers of the functions you cull, unless the whole department is going. With the challenges SMART faces, how could you cut 25% of the workforce globally and not do it in a way that would put the business in a better position for success. Don't do it in a way that humiliates those who are leaving and creates even more suspicion and distrust among the remaining employees so that an estimated 5 to 10% more leave.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at SMART Technologies full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Good place to get 2 years experience, after that get out. It was reasonably good 5 years ago when I started but went downhill rapidly just before the IPO. Seems like they are trying to turn it around but the executive needs to put a wrecking ball through management.

Cons – No career progression in the company. People are rewarded for butt-kissing and not results. Micromanaging. Management is more concerned about not having staff that will outshine them than producing or developing. They also don't know how to schedule. They cut staff and keep the schedule the same.

Advice to Senior Management – I hope your days are numbered.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at SMART Technologies full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Modern office space
Flexible hours
Work life balance
Generous time off
Some creative people

Cons – Mediocre compensation
Top heavy
Poor leadership
Lack of direction
High turnover
Limited career growth
More of a marketing company than a technology company
Poor product quality
Rapidly declining business

Advice to Senior Management – SMART needs to focus on fewer opportunities and execute more effectively. The current organizational structure is geared towards pleasing the level above it and not much more. The growth in the business pre-2010, masked much of the disfunction and employee dissatisfaction. Most concerning is that SMART's technology is obsolete and the company has not been pro-active in developing the next big thing. A large number of employees are demotivated, disengaged and looking for work elsewhere.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at SMART Technologies full-time for more than a year

Pros – - Nice culture
- Great work/life balance

Cons – - Terrible compensation
- Bad management and vision

Advice to Senior Management – Change CEO, and stop micro managing. Lose dead-weight and empower your employees. Increase salaries by 25-75%. Employees don't feel valued.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at SMART Technologies full-time for more than a year

Pros – Old technology continues to prop up sales at this once promising company. There is a lot of talent working at SMART, however the direction given by top management is misguided and lacks a clear direction for success.

Cons – Core technology has issues and is not as good as more recent competitors. Innovation is stifled as the company tries to deal with spiraling debt and reduced revenues overall. A recent cost-cutting effort will not be significant enough to have any substantial effect on performance and will probably hurt upcoming product releases.

Advice to Senior Management – Cut way back to core technology and focus on less products.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at SMART Technologies

Pros – To gain education experience and job experience

Cons – The company lacks communication between teams
No reward or recognition/retention

Advice to Senior Management – Need to treat your employees like a human, not machine

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at SMART Technologies

Pros – I was able to work from home and had very good training program set up so I could ramp up quickly. The product is very recognizabe.

Cons – Very poor communication and the pay is below what other companies pay. Never would get back to me when I had questions. The people I dealt with had very poor ethics and integrity. I was let go by the company in a hotel lobby on speaker phone. My boss as present.

Advice to Senior Management – Treat your employees better and realize that you need to pay them more to keep them around. You preach integrity and ethics in the interview process but fail to follow them afterward. Practice what you preach, if you find good people try everything in your power to keep them.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend