Blackhawk Network Reviews

Pros

Good technology and getting better
Really hot market - payments and in the middle of it
Always looking to add the right people
Expectations are high
Never a dull moment

Cons

Never a dull moment - But if you like a startup like environment, you'll like Blackhawk
As with any startup environment, management sometimes checks reality at the door
Infrastructure with respect to development needs some work

Advice to Senior Management

Avoid to many shiny objects

Pros

BHN is recognized as the leader in our category.
Senior Management team is supportive and adopts a team attitude.
We have a supportive culture and most people in the organization are working together

Cons

Allocation of personnel resources amongst departments can be improved.
Project management can be greatly improved to enable us to go to market efficiently.
Too many times phone calls and emails go unanswered without any consequences.

Advice to Senior Management

We need to improve processes to make us a better and more efficient company. More exposure to the leadership team and sharing of industry knowledge will make us a better company.

Pros

The gift card industry is growing and it is an exiting opportunity to be a part of. There are many people trying to do great things here.

Cons

Senior management needs to recognize their employees for all the great things they do and stop treating their employees like robots.

There is no real work/life balance here. Senior management prefers to strain every ounce of time out of their employees without regard for their personal lives.

The pay is way below market and don't expect raises above 2% because unless you're senior management, you will not get anything higher than that.

Too much smoke and too many mirrors here. Senior management makes too many promises and never delivers.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior management needs to take a long hard look at the overall morale of their employees and realize that a simple "thank you" can go a long way from time to time. Don't take people for granted because without people, the company is nothing.

Pros

Fast-paced environment with collaborative people!

Cons

We all need to remember to play as hard as we work!

Pros

Something new to learn every day. Lots of ideas and opportunities to grow.

Cons

Weird politics and favoritism. But as long as you do not play those games this is a great place.

Pros

Good industry to be in right now, financial services and prepaid products have a lot more growth potential. Work with some of the smartest people I have ever met in my career.

Cons

Strategies change like the wind, the most successful are the ones that can multi task and side step. What you are working on today will change within 30-60 days.

Advice to Senior Management

Limit the stategies to the things we can do exceptionally well. Hold the executive team accountable for leadership, not just MBO's. Show senior managers and business leaders how to do simple ROI.

Pros

Solid business model, growing business, smart and hard working staff, location of the workplace,

Cons

IPO has been delayed, quite a few times; Continuous pressure to meet really stretching goals. Benefits, especially vacations were below market.

Advice to Senior Management

The company is growing really strong and fast; Employees are working really hard to make it happen. They deserve to get a little bit more recognition on their achievements.

Pros

Blackhawk Network provides a platform for me to reach my career goals and be part of a growing team that offers challenging yet rewarding work. I like to compare my work at BHN as that of an Artist with a blank canvas. Although I have no artistic ability--aside from creative communication talents;-), I'm able to manage my workload any way I see fit, make recommendations for improvements, question ineffective methods, persuade management when I have a good idea and feel accomplished when I see the finished product. It's nice to work in a casual yet progressive atmosphere where you can always escape for a quick round of pac-man, ping-pong or even take-off early to run some errands, hit the driving range, or to blow-off-steam at the gym. I also enjoy working for BHN because I'm able to have input across a wide range of important functions within the company--not just one small piece of the puzzle. There are many bright professionals across all departments including IT, HR, Sales, Marketing, Finance, etc... From the product to the people, BHN offers something interesting and stable that employee's can believe in. Those who are experienced, adaptable, motivated and passionate about their work will enjoy working at Blackhawk.

Cons

As with all employers, there's always a bad seed or two within its structure, and not everyone will fit the environment. For example, if you're looking for established structure, lots of red-tape, extensive processes and clear direction every step of the way, this may not be the place for you (for me this is more of pro than a con). For a company experiencing the type of growth and expansion as BHN, they handle it well, have talented professionals in the right spots and the Pro's far out-way the Con's.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep empowering your people to make a difference by offering a blank canvass of sorts.

Pros

The major software was acquired from outside vendors, there is not much internal development work.
Management is ignorant of the software even though the company rely on software to run the business
and bring in income. So the development jobs are more like operation jobs....

Cons

Since the ignorance of the software by management, engineers who play expert wins, the bigger
bullxxxx artist win bigger role of architect.....

Advice to Senior Management

learn some engineering things other than management, verify what the architects say.......

Pros

Fundamentally BHN is an outstanding company and delivers a great product hitting almost all of the “6 rights” Early on there was an open door with management for new ideas, process' and the means to achieve them. There was an extremely fast pace to meet new goals, initiatives and challenges that came seemingly, weekly. Teams supported their management because they believed in them and the companies objectives and were willing to do the hard work and long hours - most of us thrived on the success.

Cons

As the company grew its infrastructure and process’ to keep up and support it; didn’t. Sales teams were not effective in selling the companies portfolio, strengths and resources and as the pace of earlier years slowed and success was measured with smaller achievements the company’s dirty laundry was more apparent. A change in leadership left dysfunction and confusion between teams and a lack of clear roles, responsibilities and accountably with circumstances was relegated to finger pointing and blame.

Advice to Senior Management

Your senior title doesn’t always make you right. Stop pushing what you know is wrong down hill and utilized the great people you hired for input. Set goals with roles and responsibilities defined and then hold those responsible, accountable.