Telstra Reviews

Pros

Some very good people. No real shortage of money for projects. Opportunity for professional development. The very good redundancy provisions for all staff.

Cons

Very uncertain environment. Ongoing reductions in headcount. Too many time servers desperate to hang on. The vast edifice of approvals and processes to check the checker

Advice to Senior Management

Clean out the top levels of management in the technology and IT groups. The senior leadership team is seen as being very remote from the ordinary workers.

Pros

Availability of tools, great people and ability to move across the organization. The upcoming changes in the management and culture combined with the new direction of the company seem very promising

Cons

There are a number of silos across the company and it is a challenge to remove these barriers to facilitate high perfromance.

Advice to Senior Management

David leadership and his team are doing some really good work. But more needs to be done to change management culture in Operations. Often it appears that Enterprise & Govt is driving the company.

Pros

You can make a difference

Cons

You will drown in senseless work

Advice to Senior Management

Delegate

Pros

The ability to work from home
Videoconferencing

Cons

No accountability, poor Leadership and micromanaging

Advice to Senior Management

Give us a strategy and let us get on with it

Pros

Telstra Media - Great resources, great bargaining power outside, good name to have on your resume, brings great opportunities to do big things if you have the buy in of senior management and your boss, and some really great people to work with

Cons

Orgn lacks a clear culture across teams, very dependent on your team manager, for an online business still has a lot of people who don't really get the internet - great in the access side, but not so great in content side, political, bureaucratic, red tape - join if you know your boss will have your back

Advice to Senior Management

Culture determines success of initiatives, and a lack of culture and politicking is killing a lot of great initiatives

Pros

Large budgest mean big projects, many of which are innovative and interesting. The speed of the 3G rollout, for example, was both impressive and well executed. The company makes an effort to balance life / work, though not all seem to take it.

Cons

Bureaucratic nonsense can be very frustrating. The company requires change to accommodate privatization and competition, but internal resistance is often a problem. Interdepartmental squabbles can undermine projects. Marketing is often weak, inconsistent and not well thought through, though this does appear to be changing.

Advice to Senior Management

Align department goals across the company and avoid rewarding those engaged in an interdepartmental blame game. Look world wide for best practices in customer service. Take credit for the innovations the company has achieved - and make more employees aware of the significance of these achievements.

Pros

Recognisable brand. Salary levels are high and benefits are good. People work hard and are generally good to work with.

Cons

Work life balance is talked about a lot but not delivered in practice. Employees are expected to be working 24/7 accessing emails/ taking phone calls etc. Highly political. Managers are extremely arrogant and there is an attitude of "We can because we are Telstra".

Advice to Senior Management

Get out and really understand what your people do... in the same fashion as "undercover boss". You would learn a lot about the organisation and the way the people feel about the work they do.

Pros

People are nice
You can some times senior management. However, not always.
Work Life Balance is great. You do not need to work extremely long hours

Cons

Professional Growth is not very big. However, there are many people in Telstra that have worked in the company for many years. So maybe growth here comes with more time and experience.

Advice to Senior Management

To give younger empolyees more responsiblities and see if they hit the mark. Overall, they are doing well considering the changing times.

Pros

Allowed to take on ownership and responsibility of projects
Flexible Working
Reasonable pay with good bonus scheme
Varied job role that will change from project to project

Cons

Small company in the UK, and subsequently a lack of genuine promotion opportunities
Currently selling off a lot of its low margin business - In the short term at least its a business in decline. Likely to reduce headcount further in the next 12 months.
Quality is often sacrificed in favour of reduced costs, resource and time to deliver
Training is virtually non existent other than company wide self study programmes (e.g. ITIL)
Most employees received 0% pay rises over the past 2 pay reviews (Oct 2009, Oct 2010).

Advice to Senior Management

Invest more in your people
More structured promotions and improve internal recruitment policy
Are you sure selling off 70% of your customers is the right thing to do? Where is the revenue going to come from?

Pros

Becoming an exciting place to work & starting to shed its "government" background.

Cons

Still bureacratic, processes can be confusing. Management can be directive rather than participative in approach.

Advice to Senior Management

Support employees, better benefits for staff, consistent processes