TNS Reviews

Pros

Depending on the Team you're located in, working at TNS means working in a very international landscape. Team spirit generally is very good at TNS, regardless of department, but some departments have much higher pressure from clients and work longer hours than others.

Benefits in Germany are very good: paid overtime or time-off in return, many holidays and opportunities to actually take holidays, optional company pensions plans, flexible working hours to name a few.

Cons

Communication and Transparency is not always a value for management. A lot of communication gets lost in the many hierarchy levels and some information reaches employees only in the last minute.

Workload does not necessarily get distributed fairly among team members, which may be due to specific skills, but is mostly due to mismanagement or disinterest.

Working with international colleagues can be tough sometimes as different expectations deliver different results.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate more often, set up communication processes to make sure that information is pushed upon employees (not pull from the intranet).

Pros

to get into the filed

Cons

long hours, no appreciation, consistent layoffs

Advice to Senior Management

stand up for your workers

Pros

Large company, part of Kantar so there are plenty of opportunities to move around. There are a lot of smart people on board, and still an albeit waning sense of comraderie.

Cons

Lack of trust of middle and senior management, by now it's obvious they never tell us the whole truth, just what they need to say to keep us working like dogs. We have restructured every year (or it seems) for the past 7-8 years.

Advice to Senior Management

Put your money where your mouth is: you claim your greatest asset is your key talent, yet you treat your top performers the same as the masses, and have told us one too many times we're lucky to have a job in this economy. Pay us what we're worth, so you'll keep us.

Pros

International company that can be positioned for growth and can be global leader in Telecom.. If your position allows you attend conferences and meet players in the industry, you will have many networking opportunities. Telecom is a good industry to be in. TNS has all the components to be a great company.

Cons

Resource allocation is unfarily distributed. There are some employees doing all the work, whereas others are on a free ride. The management team is cliquish and if you are 'in' you will be OK, as long as you tell Exec Mgmt what they want to hear.

Advice to Senior Management

Invest in the business. Hire the resources needed. Invest in the services. Respect high achievers and good team leaders/players who demonstrate a dedication to the business

TNS needs to dive in and not just get their toes wet if they want to be competive. Too many reorgs within the company. Too many mistakes with recent layoff decisions and targeted Reloc/Layoff package offerings.

Pros

lots of work, busy fast paced environment, nice people

Cons

long hours, often thankless job

Advice to Senior Management

none

Pros

International company, great people, big clients, looks good on your CV, plenty of opportunity but only for those that seek initiative. Great office, nice people and I attended some social events - xmas party, sports day, team building day etc.

Cons

Your work experience and career progression depends on your manager and the team in which you are placed.
For example, when I started out I found my manager was often busy with large ad-hoc projects and as a result I had less on-the-job training than my peers.
Team work is important at TNS and all members must support each other. Sometimes this was not the case, it basically depends on which accounts you are responsible for.
However, for a new employee who is looking for a little direction at the start, I was given the basic training sessions on tools/ company infromation.
Can be long hours, busy periods in which data reports need to be run. Job can become repetitive and boring after a while.

Advice to Senior Management

Communication between departments should be improved for example Technical and Client Service.
Stronger emphasis on placement development. Placements will not return as graduates if the job seems dull and dead-end.
Train managers to their best ability. If a manager is poor in developing his team then somebody elses career is jepordized as a result. Develop poor managers or get rid of them! Not doing so will result in other members leaving.

Pros

TNS is globally recognized. The skills and experience gained are valuable in career growth.

Cons

The good 'ole boys mentality is still strong even in this decade.

Advice to Senior Management

Irregardless of title or position, all employees deserve respect