Bonneville International (Utah) Reviews

Pros

Pension after 4 years of service. 40 hours a year of Community Service encouraged and can be taken during the work week. Great workspace and good people. LA office is small enough to be comfortable but big enough be a strong competitor in the industry.

Cons

Corporate health insurance is run out of Utah and can be a bit tough to stay with your current doctors. Extrememly conservative leaning policies and a lot of medication not covered.

Advice to Senior Management

There are not very many women is upper management positions...Actually, there aren't any that I've seen that are above a "Sales Manager" title.

Pros

They consistently award generous performance bonuses that are NOT part of the union (AFTRA-SAG) contract. Bonneville has made efforts to keep workers on the payroll who have had personal, medical and performance problems. They are communicative and forthcoming in regard to company profits. They are generally respectful of employees and attempt to accommodate personal leave, etc. Bonneville is expanding even as other news/broadcast outlets decline and lay workers off.

Cons

Employees are worked very hard. They are required to perform in areas outside their expertise. There is no (or little, or perfunctory) training for these extra duties. It's a treadmill, a friendly, compassionate sweatshop. Little effort is spent in training, allowing workers to catch up and breathe. Equipment is provided with no instruction; the equipment and additional duties (Twitter, Facebook, mobile phones, digital cameras) extend work-related duties into after-hours, weekends and vacation time. Work expands to crowd out personal downtime.

Advice to Senior Management

Please provide training when additional duties are mandated! Please understand that some departments (on-air, Web, editorial) work MUCH harder than others (program logs, some administrative). Admirable company percs such as catered lunches, etc. are never available to many on-air workers who are consistently assigned out and work unpredictable schedules. Realize that some workers (not sales) have difficulty finding time to file expense accounts, let along gauge what they are owed. Realize also that many Bonneville workers appreciate management and feel believe that its shortcomings are not intentional, but are merely lack of oversight and insight. Broadcast organizations (including Bonneville) may have been more "employee-friendly" in the past , but none approach Bonneville's standards currently.

Pros

There's some brilliant people within the company, and Bonneville absolutely has the right idea moving forward in terms of embracing the internet.

Cons

Truly terrible communication from upper management and no rules in terms of how to treat employees, i.e., yearly reviews, etc. Almost like the wild west.

Advice to Senior Management

If something smells fishy at one of your clusters, most likely it is fishy. Upper management does not work well together, and there's an insane amount of tension and back stabbing fed by a lack of strong, fair leadership.

Pros

Bonneville International is a great company! They have great benefits.

Cons

The Cincinnati market and the way the top managers treat their employees are not good. They are very OLD School and have the "churn and burn" approach to their sales department instead of "grooming" and teaching them. They are more concerned about you being there by 8:30 and not leaving until 5:30 than the results you produce! They paint a really pretty picture and then they get you over there and its a different story. There are only two people there that make decisions and thats the top two in charge. They do not have the confidence in their managers to allow them to make decisions. They pit their sales teams against each other instead of working as a team!

Advice to Senior Management

Stop churning your employees and train them. If you have to offer a "reward" for a referral of an employee...do you not see something wrong with that? You have the reputation in town for the churn and burn. I wish I had known that before I let you talk me into coming to work for you. I went strictly on the fact that Bonneville is a great company...but you guys in Cincinnati are giving the company a bad name! Good luck on recruiting Great Sales People and keeping them! You may have to up the reward a bit! Trust your managers and let them make decisions otherwise why have them? Stop pitting your sales departments against each other and work as a team!!!!

Pros

Great Coworkers, they do have some nice benefits like a pension, but once you get passed that their isn't much else...

Cons

Coporate let's each market operate independently and if your local management is bad then you are doomed and things won't change if they are showing bottom line profit regardless of how bad the economy is.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop streamlining your processes adopt new products and services that are coming out with your medium to grow revenue streams.

Pros

-You get to learn about all aspects of the radio broadcasting business

Cons

Disrespectful management and most of the employees are not very bright.

Advice to Senior Management

Read some books and watch the news.

Pros

The majority of the people that work at Bonneville are great. The sales people and DJs are some of the best in the industry.

The health insurance, besides the not-so-great prescription plan, is very good and very affordable. Dental is included as well (even out of network, dental visits were only $25). The retirement packages are very competitive. The vacation plan is above average as well with people having over three years with the company receiving 15 days off.

The location of near downtown is convenient and there is free parking.

The non-sales people do enjoy a fairly casual atmosphere.

Cons

Management, especially Jim Bryant, is a dictatorship. If they like you, everything is great. If they dislike you, you're out. In the sales department, they have no problem taking accounts you've built relationships with for years and giving them to a new salesperson.

There is no career advancement. Besides some part-timers that are hired full-time, very few people advance in their positions. The industry overall is low-paying, with the exception of a handful of on-air personalities and the sales managers.

Account executives are required to wear a suit every day.

The days are an inflexibly long 8:30 to 5:30 with a mandatory hour for lunch.

Advice to Senior Management

Learn to listen to your employees.

Pros

There is opportunity in the industry for creative salespeople. There are a lot of good people in the company. Executive management is very good.

Cons

No security for pay. Commissions being changed after sales are made. Disrespectful treatment of employees. Unfortunately, the wrong people make it into management. Great salespeople aren't necessarily great managers.

Advice to Senior Management

I would say that they should have more respect for their employees since they are the ones earning the company's revenue. The sales staff has very little job security, whether it be termination or a mix-up in commission structure & clients.