Pros

Extremely diverse work environments (In Life Science division especially). Very technical work incorporating electrical, plumbing, and programming troubleshooting. Workers report directly to customer sites, no punching in and seeing your boss everyday! A company vehicle is provided and allowed for personal use. Cell phone, laptop, and air-card are also provided to be used on the job. STERIS is in every hospital in the country and in most laboratory applications. Roots of the company are over 140 years old. STERIS is a world leader in infection control technology. When the post office in Alexandria, VA was contaminated by anthrax spores, STERIS VHP technology was used to clean the facility. You deal intimately with customers, involved not only in maintenance, but in account management and parts requisition. It is almost like running your own business.

Cons

You do not get paid like you run your own business. All the knowledge that you are expected to have and acquire, you are not compensated fairly for it. Yes, you do get a vehicle and have a flexible schedule (a flexible schedule really means that when you are done with your service calls you can go home), but there is very little room for advancement and salary scales seem to be kept at Fort Knox. There are a lot of people that work at this company for over 20 years and less than 5. There are not too many in between. They either go to work for a customer, or leave the industry entirely. Both reasons are for more pay.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop worrying about cutting costs so much and get back to focusing on taking care of the customer. With happy, satisfied customers, the profit will come.

Pros

STERIS is a growing company in an emerging field that offers many opportunities for personal development while maintaining the security of a large organization. The FDA regulated environment is a highly marketable skill. The offices are located in potentially overlooked cities, but this yields a greater opportunity to stretch a salary while still enjoying the benefits of establish communities.

Cons

STERIS has yet to evolve into a cohesive company. While it 20 years old, it does not act like an established company in many respects, and lacks infrastructure to support running efficiently. The different locations each have different cultures, and act like the companies they were before STERIS purchased them. Employees will still complain and say the old days were better, or corporate has no idea how to run things, and only care about the stock price. Recent changes in upper management have contributed to a culture where no one is sure what will happen next, and while the changes may be positive and solve some of the above problems, it is difficult in a tough economy to wait and see, and this can cause the best employees to find jobs elsewhere, and the ones with less marketable skills to remain.

Advice to Senior Management

Address underlying differences in the culture between locations. Explain changes more effectively, through honest communications of good and bad results direct to th employees. Don't compare the company's benefits to only old style rust-belt manufacturers, or modern medical companies, as neither is an exact match. Recruit past the stereotypes of the locations, and make people want to join the company for positive reasons, not just because they're unemployed from a downsizing.