The Vanguard Group Reviews

Pros

I had over 10 yrs experience so my vacation time was good. They allow you to purchase a week of extra PTO, even if you are new to the company.

Cons

Salary - my pay was cut by $15,000 when the partnership structure changed and I was supposed to be happy about it. Career Advancement - if you do well in a role, they do everything to hold you in the job. Layoffs - they do layoff, I've seen it. They dissolve the job and tell everyone to find one if you can. Ageism - the mgmt teams I have seen treat older employees with disrespect. And I found that many people over 50 in my dept just all happened to get the Needs Improvement rating in the same year that VG was cutting budgets and benefits.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop trying to make everyone fit some mold. Stop retailiating when you don't like someone. Cutting benefits and salary while expecting more work doesn't make someone want to work hard. Do an honest layoff of the unneeded staff instead of laying off the people who make too much or just don't fit the VG mold.

Pros

Great company
Solid professionals
Up to date IT
Great workplace
Great campuses

Cons

Low salary
Bureaucracy
IT tough to move up
Food not up to par and expensive

Pros

benefits are awesome, paid is reasonable to start off with if your in entry level position.

Cons

testing requirement environment could be improved. better instructors for teaching series 7 courses.

Advice to Senior Management

when bringing in new employees to take series 7 exam, should there be a second attempt to pass the exam please don't start training for job descriptions until all tests are past and completed. This takes away from someone to be able to focus on passing the exam.

Pros

Lots of advancement opportunity. Great company to start off your career as you come out of college. Recommend to others.

Cons

Even though the job is a good job, the day to day job becomes a bit boring. Feels like a call center. The salary could be a little higher

Advice to Senior Management

Diversify some of the job to other crew members. Work could be a little more fun if we are not confined to our stations. Management is great.

Pros

Vanguard is a company that is at the top of the industry. It has great training programs and often gives people the ability to get their licenses. Moving up is tricky and political but overall it's a great place to start. Benefit packages are also pretty nice along with partnership, once you've gained enough tenure, you share the profits with the company.

Cons

Pay is not competitive, and it's a ultraconservative environment. They have no regard for their employees in the institutional call center, but I guess that's like everywhere else, right?

Advice to Senior Management

Give people more opportunities to broaden their skill sets and advance. A lot of great talent comes in your doors and 6-8 months later goes right back out. Retain your talent!

Pros

Excellent benefits & vacation time; good location & easy commute.

Cons

Vanguard literally made up a reason to lay off/fire me and 50+ others. After 2 months in my new job (still same department) I got a call to go see HR and was terminated on the spot for "hanging up the phone" on clients. #1, I never did that & #2, the phones weren't even a primary responsibility of my new job role. Vanguard DOES lay off, don't be fooled, they just don't call it that to maintain the "no lay off" facade. The HR representative disgusted me. I had no opportunity to fight back, but then again why would I want to work there knowing this is a common practice? I was treated with absolutely no respect. Turned in my badge on the spot & got escorted to my car like some sort of criminal. They didn't even ship me all my belongings from my desk. After almost 3 years of doing anything they asked, this is how I was repaid. TRUST ME. Stay away, you're better than this and better off somewhere else. It actually was a blessing in disguise because if I stayed I would have ended up a miserable robot in a mundane job for the next 40 years. Good riddance. Bottom line: Good for clients, bad for employees.

Pros

From management down, the Vanguard culture is everywhere. Everyone is friendly and client focused. Management is willing to listen to ideas and is able to take constructive criticism. Improvements can be driven by the employees.

Cons

The biggest downside to working at Vanguard is the pay. Since we are a low cost provider of services, there are no commissions. Based on the amount of work we do, we are probably paid 20-30% less than we should be.

However, Vanguard is only really suitable as the secondary income in a two income family for its location along the Main Line.

Pros

Training good for the most part, great food service at many buildings (when you could get there), proprietary computer systems reasonably easy to learn, OK to be on internet between calls, job performance (call quality) system attempts to be objective.

Cons

Team leaders immature, inexperienced outside of VG, and seemed to "drink the Kool-Aid", advancement opportunities few and far between, very regimented day on phones, many people seemed full of themselves no matter their place in the organization, made a big deal regarding their diversity, which to me means that they really don't have much.

Advice to Senior Management

Make sure team leaders are able to handle all types of personalities, give more opportunities to partially trained contractors, decide what a quality call really is.

Pros

1. Great benefit pakcage especially the tuition reimbursement program
2. Great career path in place
3. Excellent opportunity for new technologist to start career

Cons

There needs to be balanced between flexibility and structure. It's too ridgit in some area.

Pros

- Great benefits.
- Great place to network and meet people.
- Depending on the role and management, it could be a great work/life balance.
- Top execs are very nice and approachable.
- Many employee discounts...for everything!
- On site gym and health center.
- Training department is awesome.
- For the most part, most groups have a well structured onboarding program.
- Nature path that encircles the campus is very cool. I used to jog while deer played in the meadow...
- You learn so much about investing that you can't help but benefit from the knowledge.
- If you're strategic, Vanguard can help you develop skills you that makes you more marketable inside/outside the company.
- Name recognition - People look at you differently when they find out you work/worked for Vanguard. VG experience on your resume is extremely powerful!
- Skills, tools, strategies you learn are invaluable. They are definitely ahead of most companies. You learn so many new things to help you and your department grow & excel. I joined a smaller yet very successful company, I became the "Vanguard guy" that knows how to manage people, processes, methodologies and information.

Cons

All cons can be managed. You just have to be self-aware, strategic and positive.

- Many leaders were great individual contributors at one time. B/c they did a great job working on their own, they're rewarded with a "people" leader position. That has created a large leadership pool of ineffective leaders that have no idea how to lead people.
- Although they have a great leadership training program, most leaders do not apply the knowledge. There's rarely any consequences for being an ineffective leader...and the employees suffer for it.
- A large percent of leadership positions are filled recet college graduates that have been accepted into & have completed Vanguard's accelerated programs. "Kids" with 4.0 GPAs from top colleges are automatically made leaders of new, tenured and experienced employees. Problem is they don't know how to deal with people of various ages and cultures & fail miserably. Those that are failing are transferred to another area of VG b/c HR and leadership do not want the program to look like a failure. So, they end up failing in the next department.
- Huge company, but not many career paths or opportunities. You have to come in knowing what you want to do next and how to get there. Usually have 50+ people applying for one position!
- Egos and hierarchy. Top heavy and many have a power complex.
- The performance management structure creates a terrible competitive culture. Many keep ideas to themselves or work on projects alone b/c they're afraid someone will take it or try to out-perform them.
- Partnership bonus is gone! I worked there for 10+ years. I made more money during the last year under the "old" partnership structure. The next year under the new one, my bonus was $9k less!

Advice to Senior Management

- Make "people" leaders accountable for their actions and results.
- Continue to encourage employees to share their ideas and suggestions for improvement.
- Act on company-wide survey results, and don't insult employees by twisting negative information into a positive (e.g. Partnership)