TELUS Reviews in Calgary, AB Area

Pros

excellent community, great job satisfaction, excellent pay if you are union. however, if you are management, prepare to work for peanuts.

Cons

low wages for management, unionized environment, as management, if you like recognition, you will not get it.

Advice to Senior Management

recognise people more. there are lots of opportunities for getting monetary or material rewards, however, there are very few people who actually qualify for these rewards.

Pros

the people are awesome and a diverse work force is encouraged. the company respects all religions. the company also respects minorities, and all sexual preferances. it realy does care about it's customers. employees are always encouraged to do the right thing, even if it costs the company money. when you screw up its looked at as a learning opportunity even if its detrimental to the company.

Cons

salaries are below average for professionals, lots of politics, business units do not share employees (hard to switch between departments for management without causing political stress). it's a growing compnay that is trying to get away from the old government ownership, and as such, people have a negative attitude towards it. there are lots of growing pains with the transformation to a company that was government owned to a company that has to turn a profit

Advice to Senior Management

easily accessible by all levels of employees, from entry level and up. very open and honest.

Pros

Telus had an impressive training program and a full benefits package unlike any I had come across by previous employers. Team gatherings inside as well as outside of the office motivated and brought employees together. There were plenty of opportunities for advancement of knowledge and position within the company, so long as the employee was willing. Listing a major communications organization such as Telus on a resume is impressive to many other institutions. Employee discounts at multiple stores as well as scholarship opportunities were a bonus. Telus employees receive discounts on home and mobility phones, Telus TV, and internet. There are also some great share buy-ins available to employees. Taxis were provided to employees who worked graveyard shifts.

Cons

Frequent changes in management made it difficult for employees to get to know their supervisors. Career opportunities were a large incentive, but changing managers every few months created chaos and a rocky transition period. As it was a call center position, the 411 North American Directory Assistance (ENG DA) did not allow for any interaction between employees. Shifts were long and hours could not be guaranteed; for example, new employees would most likely be forced to work evenings, weekends, and shifts not wanted by more senior employees. Telus recruitment involved a long drawn-out process comprised of an intelligence test, a typing speed test, and a one-to-one interview. Pay was not impressive and was raised infrequently.

Advice to Senior Management

I would advise senior management to communicate more with employees, especially regarding promotion of middle management.

Pros

There is a great team atmosphere at TELUS. The leadership team is fantastic. They foster an environment of business ownership and pride in your work. There are endless opportunities for growth and advancement. The benefits are decent and the share matching program is among the best in the industry.

Cons

Unfortunately the compensation is below average for the industry. It is a fantastic place for an entry level worker coming in off the street to gain experience in a corporate setting, but unless you have the acumen to climb a corporate ladder at the director level or higher, the money is just not there. And even if you do have that acumen, it is not exactly a fast track. It is a long road to get to a lucrative position.

Advice to Senior Management

I would say stay the course for the most part except when it comes to employee compensation. A more lucrative pay scale will attract and retain the talent you need to lead the sector and build your client base against some very tough national and regional competitors.

Pros

Overall I like my Job sometimes the politics get in the way. The benefits are good and atleast they do offer shares & some sort of bonus..even if it is small.

Cons

Being in a union environment as well as trying to get unpaid time off. The Union at TELUS is not a strong one. I think if Telus could disolve this union that employee satisfaction would increase. Being in a union allows too many people who should be there & give TELUS a bad rap..to continue to be employed when they really don't like their jobs.

Advice to Senior Management

Allow agents/employees unpaid time off to help create balance in work & life. Sometimes things come up you can't plan for and it would be nice to have the support of your employer ..at ALL levels to get the time off. By not allowing time off when requested it encourages agents/people to book off sick more often. I see it in my area ALL the time, especially before a long weekend. Also, This Union has got to go !

Pros

Middle management is a dedicated team committed to building a great place to work. With an aging workforce, opportunities are becoming increasingly plentiful. Also, TELUS is a great place to see the evolution of technology roadmaps.

Cons

An older workforce also brings an older mindset. Innovation from newer team members is sometimes stymied because of old ways of thought. A lot of roadblocks (corporate beaurocracy) in place to bringing an idea to life. Although middle management is a great team, communication up to senior levels is difficult. With a company as large as TELUS, speed to market can lack. Team members are often 'told' and not engaged in developing solutions to issues.

Office facilities / work environment can also be terrible, depending on which building you work in.

Advice to Senior Management

Open your mind to the new ways of thought and practise. Create opportunities for innovative solutions to be created from every level of the company. Engage the team in solving problems and dealing with news. If there is bad news to communicate, let team members be a part of the solution instead of being on the receiving end of an email bulletin.

Pros

Diversity of opportunity and exciting to see how technology evolves and changes. Of course, the people are by and large really amazing. There is a lot of programs that support people's community giving.

Cons

It's a massive company and although that means a lot of opportuity to move around etc. it also means a certain amount of inertia and inability to own the outcomes of your work. Too, there is a certain lack of fairness in terms of pay increases especially for those of us in Calgary who have experienced double digit growth in cost of living with no blanket raise.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen

Pros

If you're in IT, there's lots of different areas that deal with lots of different kinds of technologies that you wouldn't see at a small company. There's also decent opportunity for advancement, if you're a go-getter (and a bit patient).

Cons

Opportunities for advancement are pretty much only available if you go after them and know the right people. HR is a mess. TELUS is not the kind of place where you can just do a good job with your current position and get promoted. The other catch is that the only way to get a real raise with TELUS is to switch jobs within the company, so in order to advance you need to be a go-getter but you also need to be willing to move around a fair bit. This is not necessary a bad thing for everyone - depends on the kind of person you are.

Advice to Senior Management

Senoir management is actually not bad, but the problem at TELUS is that middle management is a) lacking in competence, and b) over-populated. I get excellent feedback from an SVP, and he's a very nice/approachable/honest guy. The problem is that the people between me and him don't really know what's going on with the teams under them, and they also don't always seem to understand the direction given to them by VP level people. This can be hard to deal with. Also, Darren (CEO) is a good person, but I believe he's making some bad choices, especially with regards to a recent aquisition. I guess only time will tell, but it almost feels like he's ignoring the way the communcations business has changed in the last 8 years. I believe this is why the company has seen a 25% reduction in it's market capitalization in the last year.

Pros

There are a lot of good people working at telus...this is easily the best part of telus

Cons

cheap cheap cheap. telus takes little chunks out of your "comprehensive benefits plan" every year - soon there will be little less...for example, did you know that part of your yearly performance bonus is now directly tied to whether you volunteer on your own time? ...to me that seems to be hardly "volunteer work" any more. Hmm..wondor if there are legal implications there?

Advice to Senior Management

TELUS, your people are your most valuable assets...period. The economy is booming yet you seem to show little interest in retaining the people. You need to bring salaries up to the industry standards, stop reducing benefits every year, and get rid of the considerable dead weight that bogs down the productivity of this company.

Pros

As a telecommunications company, TELUS is firmly focused on the next generation of unified communications. They're a technological leader in the Canadian marketspace.

Cons

Regionally, TELUS is not as competitive, salary-wise, as the dominant industries. This doesn't foster a culture of lasting employment.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior Management needs to recognize that an investment in technology should also include an investment in technical personnel.