VWR International Reviews

Pros

Great building location and offices

Cons

Poor divisional leadership Hurts team building

Advice to Senior Management

stop outsourcing and off shoring everything

Pros

the building is one of the nicest corporate HQ's you will ever work at.
Wawa coffee
on-site gym is a nice fringe benefit

Cons

Pay is terrible
Pay is terrible
Pay is terrible
mgmt incompetence
mgmt arrogance
the industry and business is going nowhere

Advice to Senior Management

the pay scale at this place is a joke! try reading the salary guides and making the pay scale competitive or you will never retain good talent.

Certain Directors and Mgmt are completely incompetent and have no reason for being in their position except for politics. This happens at many organizations but not so pervasive in the best organizations.

Business sucks. 2% growth each yr due to inflation and cutting costs. That is all this place does. Cut expenses. No focus or success in growing the business. Acquisitions inflate the numbers.

Pros

Good benefit, pay was decent

Cons

Distrust, lack of communication, Hr not effective

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the employee more

Pros

Decent benefits
Gym and trainers available at work for all employees
A lot of genuinely good employees working here

Cons

Below average pay for the position
Overstaffed departments make work slow and make us seem unproductive
Management seems hesitant to take employee ideas and suggestions seriously
Upward advancement blocked unless you're willing to kiss some shoes
Departments are very clique-y

Advice to Senior Management

AT LEAST attempt to make good on promises you make to your employees about advancement opportunities. Stop hiring outside from the company and promote from within, you have a wealth of underused human capital here. Stop using Non-GAAP financial ratios in your employee forums; your employees aren't all stupid, some of them know you're pulling the wool over their eyes.

Pros

VWR has an excellent building, great location. It also offers on-site gym for its employees. Workings hours are great as well.

Cons

I would suggest VWR International to offer more professional training classes since some of its employees are not too familiar with Microsoft offices, better tuition reimbursement.

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership / Management are great @ VWR. Most managers are very flexible with their staff, working from home, using the gym during lunch or even working hours. As long as you get your work done.

Pros

Great culture, big organization with a lot of opportunity (internationally) within various departments/specialties, upward mobility, solid income, great benefits, work/life balance conscience company/culture.

Cons

Large complex company, political, very old and complex technology internally, very complex organization with outdated processes.

Advice to Senior Management

Leverage new technology like 99% of other large organizations of similar size have done to become more efficient internally and externally. Lotus Notes for e-mail still....come on!!

Pros

Great people to work with, first-class facilities. A lot of room to grow and expand operations across the US and internationally.

Cons

Avoid this company if you do not want to change. VWR is called to lead the market if the company can attract top talent.

Advice to Senior Management

Build a stronger employment brand. Implement a culture of high performance at all levels, reward accordingly and fire the ones that do not contribute to the bottom line.

Pros

Flexibility, Diversity in customers and projects

Cons

Little room for career growth

Pros

Ethical, hard charging company. Great people.

Cons

Always something to do, so for type A personalities work/family balance can be a struggle.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to hire hard working, dynamic people...train them well and keep their productivity high through training programs, good direction, and positions that suit their personalityand skillset. Sounds easy :).

Pros

Fantastic facilities, good compensation and benefits, opportunities to move between business units for growth. Seem to be taking an increased interest in employee health and happiness.

Cons

Lots of politics among mid- and senior-level management, poor communication from upper management - they often say one thing publicly but the opposite in private. Increasing trend to move jobs to India and other offshore locations to save costs.