Deluxe Corporation Reviews

Pros

Deluxe has a very strong business model, building on their relationships with small businesses and financial institutions to provide them with new products and services as their traditional products (checks and forms) decline. They are getting into the online marketing space at the right time through a number of key acquisitions. They have some great employees who really want to make this company transformation work.

Cons

The senior leadership team is not equipped to motivate and drive the change needed. The CEO, when brought in, was a super fit for what Deluxe needed at the time: driving a turnaround, cutting costs, streamlining the organization and putting a clearly defined business strategy in place to transform the old check printer.

It is now time for someone to take over that can inspire and motivate change. The current method is through fear and threat. Unrealistic demands on revenue growth without the support and time needed for new businesses are put on new leaders as they are brought in, setting them up for failure. This has unfortunately resulted in declining moral and constant churn at very key leadership positions.

I really liked working at Deluxe, and feel they have a real chance with their strategy. They just need to do some cleaning at the top.

Advice to Senior Management

See my comments above. I would say that leadership needs to change. It could be as simple as replacing the CEO, bring in someone inspiring that gets the digital space. More focus on living up to the culture of Deluxe - one that is connected to both customers and employees; and more aspirational in its reach to move quickly to deliver the value its customers expect.

Pros

- Great colleagues who are universally helpful and supportive

- Deep-pockets support for new ideas, as long as the right business case is made

- Good benefits

- Overall commitment to serving the needs of customers

- Willingness to make tough decisions and move forward

Cons

- Lots of change in many areas of the company, which makes people uneasy

- Hard to be entrepreneurial in such a big company, lots of "process" in the way

- No sex appeal in the market at large

- Hard to get $$ support for marketing, branding or overall corporate image

- Monovision from senior leadership; everything is viewed through the lens of "make more money"

Advice to Senior Management

- Communicate more about the high-level vision of what we're trying to do and be as a company, and tone down the "make more money" messages to employees - we get it, really we do

- Recognize that change is hard and appreciate the many people who are fighting to turn the ship

- Pay more attention to the outposts - it's easy for the little offices to feel left out

Pros

Good benefits and generally nice facilities.

Cons

Very frustrating place to work as it always seemed that a change in the wind would cause a new strategy that would not be carried out or given a fair chance to succeed.

Advice to Senior Management

Allow the motivated tenured employees in mid-level management to think and act on their ideas. The lack in belief in these employees is demoralizing and destructive.

Pros

good pay and benefits
easy to get time off
paid weekly

Cons

no room to grow or advance, management does not listen to feedback from customers or those on the phones, outdated business practices: company allows banks and customers to take advantage by not setting up any rules regarding consumer or business products, also management pushes upselling as people use fewer checks which creates a lot of tension for the phone associates as they are castigated if their sales performance in certain categories does not meet benchmarks...there is a corporate culture here that they expect you to engage in fully or else you get sideways glances and a poor review-doesn't matter if you do your job well and are professional and respectful...they also use fear of losing your job as a tactic to garner increased performance

Advice to Senior Management

Stop the favoritism based on who you feel is sold out to Deluxe, listen to your front line people and customers, stop insane business practice of giving customers and bankers everything they want and then lashing the whip at your employees to sell more goods and services to make up for you giving away the farm...stop closing down facilities and be honest with your people about cut backs.

Pros

Deluxe provides a good benefit package and senior management is making big strides in changing the image of the company from a check printer to a company that provides marketing options for small business'.

Cons

Opportunities for advancement are reserved for a select few. Many talented employees in mid level positions find it difficult to receive opportunities for growth or add'l career advancement. Most opportunities are lateral, or job expansion. Many in Finance stay at same grade for 5+ years.

Advice to Senior Management

Contradictory to the previous Con, mgmt does a great job of pulling talent from the call centers to provide intern opportunities within the office. Deluxe does a good job to recruit those who take advantage of the college education reimbursement, but lacks for those who've joined the company further in their career. Mgmt should also focus on creating a more team oriented environment as there is little team unity.

Pros

Benefits and salary are great. On site cafeteria. Flexible work hours. Travel arrangements. Free checks for all employees. Co-workers are well-intentioned.

Cons

Leadership lacks experience in the industry the company provides products for (financial services). Inexperienced management and no effective coaching for those managers. No confidentiality between human resources and direct managers when there are issues. Product development process very poor for a process-oriented company. Company culture very unforgiving to outsiders. Average length of employment for Deluxer is 20 years so change is highly unlikely.

Advice to Senior Management

Not everyone is designed to immediately fit in to a closed culture. If you hire outside with the stated expectation to bring in fresh thinking and approaches then coach and hold your leadership team to that expectation. Establish a no tolerance policy for retaliation and breach of confidentiality between HR and management when employees notify HR of any issue. Not everything should have to be submitted through the compliance hotline to make senior leadership take this seriously.

Pros

Time off is great, but still work on days off
Community giving programs
Comfortable routine
Activities at work with friends

Cons

Unethical managers
Inexperienced managers
Promoting of friends, not best qualified
When you need time off for youself or to care for family, expect a fight

Advice to Senior Management

Practice what you preach in your ethics classes that you make us sit through each year. Do the right thing. Follow your own policies even when you don't want to. Try being honest with us.

Pros

Pay
Friendly People
Health Benefits & 401K Plan

Cons

Very Low Morale
Lack of Communication
Hard to get days off
Nearly obsolete industry in today's economy

Advice to Senior Management

Decide which way to take the company, and stick with it

Pros

friendly people who are sticking with the company, good benefits

Cons

Not much life left. Not many people use checks and if they do, they can get them cheaper elsewhere.

Pros

Commission in certain areas
Chance to work on an outbound campaign if you're good at your job

Cons

Not family friendly
Not understanding of uncontrollable circumstances
Hard to get days off
Under payed for the amount of work done by some employees

Advice to Senior Management

Supervisors need to learn how to communicate with their employees and be available to talk with their employees if there is a problem. Also the upper management should listen to their employees and customers when they have repeated people asking for certain products.