Integra LifeSciences Reviews

Pros

Some of the best reasons to work are: Not bad benefits, good location in Irvine, friendly people, people are generally helpful

Cons

Some of the downsides of working at Integra are: must be cautious as to who you spread news to as it may come back to bite you, you actually have to review yourself and possibly others every year, politics.

Advice to Senior Management

It seems company morale waxes and wanes depending on top level management decisions. It may help to actually share some of the wealth they are getting with the average employees.

Pros

1) PTO 18 days the first year but you lose 10 days for plant shutdowns.
2) Great Team Work
3) Great Hours
4) Great Product

Cons

1) Very little OT, if any
2) No room for growth, if any higher position comes open they hire outside the company for the position.
3) Makes you stay a temp for over a year maybe two
4) Raises of less then cost of living, around 1 - 2 %, which is average 0.12 to 0.30 cent more on the hour. But after insurance goes up every year your making maybe $3.00 more a week or $150.00 a year.
5) 40 plus weeks of no OT, won't let employees save money on Gas and time by going to 4 days a week 10 hour days.

Advice to Senior Management

1) Production jobs have always needed OT to make a decent living.
2) If you can't give people decent raises, help them save 20% on there gas cost by working four 10 hour days.
3) Look inside the company for people that deserve the chance to move up in the company

Pros

Flexible hours, good environment to learn med devices, excellent space to learn how not to do things (it actually is a positive). M&A exposure

Cons

1) Advancement - Do not expect to be promoted within this company. I was told my promotion was 12-24 months away for 3 years, after exceeding all my MBO's each year.
2) Expect little praise for hard work - If you are the type of person who needs to hear "good job" even once in a while, keep looking past Integra. If you find a $1 million cost savings opportunity, management will wonder why it was not $1.5 million and make you feel like a failure
3) Speaking of failure, dont expect to see new products launched. All new product launches are late and never meet expectations. Management continues to stress meeting timelines, but did not meet one in the time I was there. In fact a product set to launch when I started, was still a year from launch after I left (3+ years).
4) Integration of newly aquired companies. Growth by aquisition is the strategy and you will be expected to integrate, while keeping up with your current role. Wihout praise or compensation.
5) Speaking of compensation, dont expect much. Raises are non-existant (2% in 3 years) and bonuses are offered, but rarely paid. Mangement has the audacity to send out talking points to managers for them to explain the reasons why raises were so low. Clever things like 1% is industry average! Or my favorite, "our peer companies are not giving raises" when my friends at peer companies are telling me about the great raises they have gotten

Advice to Senior Management

Maybe things will change now that the SE has left and a leader with large company experience is coming in. But this company has a LONG way to go to become the company it thinks it can be.

Pros

I enjoy working with my teammates. Despite the uncertainty that comes with the acquisitions, we are maintaining a positive outlook and are striving to complete our work on-time.

Cons

Poor communication from upper management.
Acquisition and integration process leaves employees with a great deal of uncertainty in the direction of the company and the length of their employment with Integra.

Pros

Making a product to save lives. The common people on the floor are nice and do not look down their noses at you. Good PTO.

Cons

The college people there mainly in the front office, especially the plant manager who looks down his nose at the floor people like he is so much better than everyone else with that country twang of his. It was actually embarrassing when he got up to give a speech. He was not a good speaker anyway and that country twang does not help at all. Also, the only decent benefit is the PTO.

Advice to Senior Management

Wake up & start letting your employees have some input and start paying them what they are worth. Quit acting like the only reason you are in this business is to save lives. You are greedy & You are making millions and want to make billions but don't want to give the little guy any of it. The only reason people are staying is because the economy tanked. When it picks back up, you will be back to a high turnover like you were a few years ago.

Pros

As a consultant I get PAID! They don't mind paying our high consultant rates either!
As an Consultant you will always have a very high paying job here.

Cons

I got an job offer to come full time, sad to say that is not to market rates. My guess the annual rasie and bonuses are the same.

Advice to Senior Management

Outsourced the entire company to a third world nation!

Pros

Constant change and opportunity result from our many acquisitions. The work that we do is important and really matters to patients.

Cons

All companies are resource constrained, but Integra deals with such constraints without acknowledging its impact on employees. Many believe that the CEO's exhorbitant compensation package relative to industry averages creates much of the austerity felt at lower levels. Integra pays its employees below market, and appears willing to bear the expenses associated with employee turnover rather than make the right hires. It is not a happy work environment.

Advice to Senior Management

Integra's management philosophy appears to be based on an inherent mistrust of its employees. As a result, goals are set and changed top-down, not collaboratively. As a result, the degree of micromanagement is beyond belief. As a result, expense reimbursement policies are extremely tight. My advice is invest in our people, and to delegate both responsibility and authority. Let us decide the best way to do our jobs, and be responsive to the need to change goals if we need to cut resources.

Pros

flexibility and work/life balance
great products

Cons

lack of autonomy and focus on people

Pros

Given a lot of responsibility if you show you can handle it.

Cons

Poor executive decisions.
Poor compensation.
Poor benefits.

Pros

- Work/life balance
- Diverse product lines
- Quality products
- Nice people

Cons

The management philosophy, particularly with lower level employees, is to "burn and turn". Meaning they are not inclined to promote from within at all. They'll pay an Associate Product Manager $40K for 2 years until they leave and then bring in someone new at the same salary, rather than promote that person and increase their salary.. This is done to keep costs low and profits as high as possible for the shareholders. It makes the company's finances look good on paper, but it creates a toxic environment to work in.

Advice to Senior Management

Occasionally reward high performing employees so that others are at least somewhat motivated.