Indigo Books & Music Reviews in Toronto, ON Area

Pros

good pay, location, nice people

Cons

old technology, no process or planning

Advice to Senior Management

upgrade technology, have better process

Pros

Great employee discount
Great people to work with

Cons

Company is top heavy so salaries for mid and lower level employees are lower than others who do the same job in other companies
Raises are minimal
No corporate culture and employee morale is low
Terrible systems
No opportunity for growth or development

Advice to Senior Management

Develop, grow and retain employees
Have a clear organizational structure

Pros

Great perks and benefits. The work environment is fantastic - being around books all day is great. The people who work at indigo are generally friendly and fun to be around.

Cons

The pay is not great. The company is not competitive in this regard. However the extra perks and discounts that one gets, usually makes up for the lack of adequate compensation.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire managers that know what they are doing. Alot of the times the CER's know more than the managers. This creates tension.

Pros

Good work life balance and discount

Cons

Zero opportunities for growth and development

Advice to Senior Management

Develop a program that will help get people promoted

Pros

- People are great to work with
- Very involving projects
- Many company events

Cons

- Hard to progress in ranks
- Not too much variation
- Compensation is "okay"

Advice to Senior Management

Wasn't there long enough to get a good idea of the leadership

Pros

a very friendly work environment, not too stressful job, management (not very senior) treats their employees very well, often interesting and kind customers

Cons

Some management level individuals are incompetent, pay is not good, many managers are extremely anal and fake

Advice to Senior Management

Communication is very good, better pay and benefits needed for employees

Pros

Great atmosphere to work in, get to work with friendly people. Enjoy working with customers as well (for the most part.)

Cons

Career opportunities, promotions, job progression are not very well handled. Often the least competent people seem to be promoted. This issue has been raised many times with the company, always with the response "we're aware of the issue and will work on it" but they never do.

Advice to Senior Management

None.

Pros

Survival job; good perhaps if you're just starting out in your career, but wouldn't recommend that anyone stay there beyond a year.

Cons

Constant management turnover with resulting changes in direction, often conflicting. Poor compensation unless you're in senior management. Usually incompetent staff in senior positions. Long hours are expected, time off frowned upon.

Advice to Senior Management

Enforce employee goals and career paths on performance reviews. Very often management wants these left blank, because they themselves have not set goals - but this harms employee development and engagement.

Pros

Indigo is a great company to work for because of the people. The employees of indigo are generally fantastic. it is great fun coming to work and it is easy to make friends. The managers are also very competent and friendly. The discount on books is also pretty great. There are a lot of perks for employees such as the I thank you program which basically gives you a 5 dollar gift card every time you do something exceptional. Be it a positive customer comment or you staying a couple of extra hours. There are competitions and prizes almost every month.

Cons

The downside of working at indigo is the pay compensation. The job would have been absolutely perfect if the employees had decent pay. The customer service representatives start at minimum wage basically and the people who are supervisors who could have been with the company 3-6 years maybe get about 40 cents over. The raises are ambiguous. it is hard to understand what needs to be done in order to get above target. Most people even if they are exceptional cannot receive above target, unless they do the job of a manager but get paid minimum wage basically. It is very disappointing.

Advice to Senior Management

Come up with a way to compensate employees that are exceptional better.

Pros

The best reason: both stores I worked at had friendly staff, and we quickly became close-knit. There are also good discounts, and if you work at one of the big stores, you can get promoted pretty quickly and given more responsibility. And even if you work at one of the smaller stores, the name Indigo has good weight within the industry, and you can make some great contacts, very quickly, in publishing. Which can lead anywhere from free books to jobs.

Cons

Employees at the biggest stores, particularly flagship locations, are the ones who usually get promoted. Otherwise, you'll probably work through the ranks within your particular store, but nothing further. Also, the company has moved so far from the culture of 'booklovers' that they try to promote -- there's absolutely nothing in terms of training or knowledge-sharing on books, beyond what individuals do on their own time.

Advice to Senior Management

Put the emphasis back on product knowledge, because that is what drives sales.