Shaw Communications Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Shaw Communications part-time for more than 3 years

Pros – An ok starting office job
Nice coworkers

Cons – -Toxic/stressful work environment.
-We are expected to live the company's values - "Integrity, Loyalty, Positive, Can Do Attitude, Team Player, Accountable, Balance, Customer Focused". But one rarely sees such values in action while supervisors/management deal with us, front line reps and addresses our concerns.
-Financial and Career Instability: Shaw will reduce our, all part time employee, hours nationally to save money which shows that they are more concerned about their bottomline rather than their us, which also simultaneously results in higher call volumes in the ques and leads to disgruntled customers. Also, there's not much career advancement opportunities available.
-Supervisors/management aren't supportive.
-Wage isn't competitive. Telus starts their customer care positions at $19.98/hr while Shaw starts with about $17.25/hr and lesser.
-Pressure to sell even though it's not a sales position.
-No tangible/substantial compensation to outperform in our role.
-To move up and get advanced training opportunities one needs to buddy with one's supervisor.

All this has resulted in a culture of high turnover in the call centre.

Advice to Senior Management – -Live your values. Don't just expect us, front line reps, to live it. Think from our perspective too.
-Think from our financial perspective too, not just your own bottom line.
-Ensure that you are have regular feedbacks from us regarding supervisor/managers.
-Ensure equal opportunities to all employees for promotions/advanced training rather than keeping that at the discretion of supervisors who favour their own buddies in the teams.
-Make the wages competitive.

All this will help in reducing the high turnover currently prevalent in our call centre.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Shaw Communications for less than a year

Pros – -Flexible working schedule.
-Individual contributors are generally good at what they do.
-Varied and interesting technology exposure.
-Willingness to adopt new tools depends on the lead.
-Ability to 'coast' is present and exploited by many.

Cons – -The most political place I've ever encountered, pervasive throughout all budgetary, hiring and project decisions.
-Extremely immature processes.
-Constant reversal of direction means projects that would take 6 months elsewhere are still ongoing after several years.
-Middle management is extremely ineffective at communicating direction or motivating staff.

Advice to Senior Management – Shaw does not have unlimited resources. Providing focused direction and funding that isn't removed mid-year will have a positive outcome on the ability to deliver.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Shaw Communications full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Great People to Work with
Decent Salary

Cons – No Job Security
Not much opportunity for advancement

Advice to Senior Management – People Powered is a Lie, be honest and open with your employees

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Shaw Communications full-time

Pros – Good base salary, co-workers were pretty good.

Cons – Stressful, and always understaffed due to high turnover, and long hold times for customers so this resulted in more angry customers.

Advice to Senior Management – Hire more people , and try and keep them.

Current Employee – been working at Shaw Communications full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – -Genuinely seem to care about the people that they have working for them.
-Low level managers especially seem to value the people working for them.
-Senior leadership sets a strong direction.

Cons – -Mid senior management seems to have a difficult time marrying what the most senior leadership wants, without understanding how it will affect front line.

Advice to Senior Management – Quit making promises that are impossible to keep. You say or do things in a market reaction that are impossible for low-level staff to accomplish without killing themselves.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Shaw Communications full-time for more than a year

Pros – Stable and Rewarding working environment

Cons – Not country-wide company. Business focuses on western provinces.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Shaw Communications full-time for more than a year

Pros – -Option to work at home some of the time
-Good peers
-Pay was above my expectations

Cons – -Zero training opportunities. It's a sink or swim mentality. Even if you sink, no one will really notice or care.
-I didn't really believe the reviews about the Shaw environment being cliquish. It is. It is truly a high school popularity contest.
-If you don't work at head office, generally you are on your own. Don't expect help or mentoring of any kind.
-The work areas are all open (unless you are a manager). It's like being a cow in a pasture, except with lots of noise.
-Career postings do not appear to be real and opportunities are limited unless you are at the managerial level or want to work at head office. Using talent in other regions is uncommon.
-There is no cross training or cross pollination between similar roles.
-Performance reviews are nothing more than lip service and a way for a manager to make him or herself look good.
-The overall skill level (technical, managerial, or otherwise) is marginal. It's like a 50 person company grew into a 14,000 person company, yet still tries to operate as a 50 person company. No one has caught up. This applies to most not all. If you are highly skilled with some common sense and business experience, don't work here.
-Internal promotions *sometimes* result in the wrong people being in the wrong positions.
-The culture is purported to be "family oriented". It's a business, so it should be "business oriented". It is more about blaming the wayward brother than finding workable solutions.
-The strategic direction of the company is not communicated effectively.
-Best practices are non-existent.

Advice to Senior Management – -Make performance reviews count
-Hold people accountable for what they do
-Drive efficiencies within
-Adopt best practices
-Fire a few managers
-Leverage talent
-Make training meaningful

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Shaw Communications full-time

Pros – High Level of stress, Confused Management, Micro Management and high expectation with very low pay. Broken promises and working on stone age software. Management deals reporting analyst as if they are call center agents. Detail progress report every other day. Very tedious process of creating a report. Too much work with little time given to complete a task.

Cons – Great Benefits, Good Team and Manager.

Advice to Senior Management – Please motivate team with some promotion.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Shaw Communications

Pros – -Can surf the internet, text, etc between phone calls

Cons – -Felt like i was being brainwashed during orientation
-Don't follow their own values ex. stress a work-life balance but schedule you only on evening and weekend shifts

Advice to Senior Management – -schedule fairer shifts

Current Employee – been working at Shaw Communications as a contractor for less than a year

Pros – The company does recruit good people. The team I worked in was very qualified, experienced and effective. The downtown location is fantastic for those using public transit.

Cons – The management on a senior level isn't very good in that conflicting decisions are made, it takes ages to get approvals due to the number of people that need to sign up (up to 30!) for a single document.

Advice to Senior Management – Reduce the number of delegates you use when insisting on approval involvement.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend