Avon Reviews

Pros

Work life balance
Great co-workers
Competitive salary
Great mission statement and philatrophic efforts
Learning opportunities

Cons

Tactical
Employees are stretched too thin

Advice to Senior Management

Try to recognize employees to reinforce good behavior

Pros

Avon is normally very good about flexibility to meet work and life balance, depending on your position.

Cons

There is no rhyme or reason to their promotions. Management has become very political.

Pros

- Social mission to empower women around the world
- Flexible schedule
- Nice working environment
- Fabulous discounts to employees

Cons

- Lack of career planning
- Lack of guidance in the company
- Lack of training to employees
- Little feedback from managers

Advice to Senior Management

Hire a COO and fix the operational problems around the world, specially Brazil.
Make Global accountable for business results.
Bring a CEO asap

Pros

Cool and Novel Products
Nice Discounts
Brochures are nice

Cons

Unless you use Avon products religiously and pretty much sell for the discounts you get, your pretty much making lunch money. Look into Mary K, at least you get a pretty pink car with them for your hard work lol.

Advice to Senior Management

Your an Independent Contractor, you don't work directly for the company...your self-employed, tell Avon to go pound salt if they pressure you to work more hours etc. Their not going to do squat to you if your moving product especially if your the only warm body in your area...lol.

Pros

Unlimited income potential.
Wonderful recognition program and sales incentives.
Great employee discount.
Company is very socially conscious.
Research and development on the cutting-edge.
Globally recognized brand.

Cons

Start-up takes dedication, committment, and drive.

Advice to Senior Management

More sharing of tip for success from leaders within AVON.

Pros

The company has a prestigious history and an entire department dedicated to community outreach. Applaud the efforts of the annual Breast Cancer Walk. Dedicated coworkers. Paychecks were regular.

Cons

-Senior management is horrendous. Each year employees are encouraged to take an engagement survey and to speak candidly about their experience at Avon. Each year the results are disasterous. Employees do not feel appreciated, are overworked, underpaid, often made scape goats for percieved mistakes. As a result, each year senior management requires employees to participate in meetings about how the culture/workplace can be improved. Just don't say anything. If the employee actually suggests how any of the various categories can be improved, they will be punished. So, in the end, it's all a dog and pony show and a huge waste of time. Status quo as always.
-Creativity is not welcomed. PhDs are recruited and promised the opportunity to work in an intellectually stimulating environment. As a PhD, I can say that this is not true. Once there, I was given work that a talented high school kid could complete. To work there, one only needs to know how to jump on cue and follow directions from a recipe. Also, management doesn't understand the fundamentals of General Biology/Chemistry yet expect for the earth to be moved to create the next groundbreaking product that will ultimately fall apart or break you out.
-Workers are expected to work more than 10 hours per day or are said to "lack motivation". In those 10 hours, employees should expect to be worked like a dog, yelled at, and degraded. Once one "high priority" project is completed, don't expect to be rewarded or even thanked.

Advice to Senior Management

A serious overhaul is needed. Start with Product Safety and Integrity. Departments are understaffed and forced to work under a tyrant whose understanding of organization and general science is lackluster, at best.

Pros

-They have wonderful products and a great selection of them.
-You get a discount on the products.

Cons

- Management would not email me back when I emailed them with questions I had.
-The chances for being scammed are very high so you have to watch it.
-Unless you place an order that is over $50, you don't make any money at all.
-Campaign deadlines are every two weeks so you don't have time to get orders in for every campaign.
-It can be demanding if you plan on making any money at all.
-You get charged for the littlest things.
-They make you pay a deposit (which is usually high) to place an order.
-They will hound you about collections over and over.

Advice to Senior Management

Sales leaders need to answer their representatives as soon as possible when they have questions. Also, please change the rule about only getting money back from $50 orders.

Pros

You can make your own hours (big deal, you can do that with any of the other direct selling companies out there, too, and they treat their reps a LOT better).

Cons

1) You have to pay for returns. Which means that when Avon ships you crap and your customers hate it, YOU have to pay to return that item, in addition to of course refunding the customer.
2) Customer Service is people in another country (India, perhaps?) reading off of a script. They can't help you with anything but the most basic of questions. E-mail help is even worse, since you have to read all the script blah blah they're trained to cut and paste. USELESS. Oh, and you also have to listen to some weird foreign hold music when you're on endless hold with them.
3) There are CONSTANT back orders that your customers will be nice about at first, but then they'll start buying less and less because they, like you, are totally sick and tired of having to deal with the back orders.
4) Don't think you'll be drumming up any business online. You basically can't do ANYTHING online, other than have the website they give you. No blogs, no other websites, no nothing. You have to sell like a 90-year-old grandma, basically.
5) Many direct sales companies treat their reps like gold. Avon is not one of them. Direct sales can be great -- IF you choose a company that treats you well. Avon is not one of them. Visit the DSA's website (direct selling association) to find a more suitable opportunity.

Pros

The people are great, hard working and very committed to doing an excellent job with very little support. If you are in the field there is a good deal of flexibility as long as you are delivering results

Cons

The hours are unbelievable, the company expects 24/7, and if you are not working evenings and weekends it affects your prospects. If you are not one of the chosen ones in terms of a senior management favorite you may as well look for another job now. HR is one of the worst I have ever seen, they are manipulative and are constantly looking for reasons to "build a file" they cannot be trusted.

Advice to Senior Management

Get the old boy network out and start fresh. Senior management is promoting friends from the past that are inept

Pros

Good image. They know how to say the right things.

Cons

Bad management. Do not care about workers.

Advice to Senior Management

Resign.