Valassis Reviews

Pros

- Flexible work schedule
- Casual dress code
- Open door policy with management

Cons

- Limited growth potential in Columbia
- Promotion in targeting typically is just a title change, rather than a change in role
- Lack of professional and career development
- Unclear career paths

Advice to Senior Management

- Define roles and responsibilities at each level in targeting (associate, analyst, and senior analyst)
- Define potential career paths

Pros

There are many dedicated and talented coworkers. Valassis offers some innovative products and services as well. The majority of the people that work there are very helpful.

Cons

Management leaves people in the dark. Change is vague. You're encouraged to ask questions but then chastised if you do. HIGH level of favoritism. Management selects people when they first start and fast track them to management and are blind to other people's skills, talent and contribution. There is a lot of back stabbing amongst the younger ones. The truly nice people are chewed up by many and disrespected. Some leaders also share talk about other team members to their direct reports - totally unprofessional. If you're efficient and leave on time - then they don't think you have enough work to do if you're not logging OT. Yet the other folks that are incurring OT are busy being social butterflies and they are the "shining stars." It's odd to try to figure out the culture and it's clear that it varies by leader.

Advice to Senior Management

Train your leaders on ethics. (This does not apply to all the leaders). Leaders also don't need to beat up their staff. They also need to learn how to easily and readily recognize their staff. People would be happy with a simple "great job" and it doesn't have to be a formalized award. See above Cons and discern areas for improvement.

Pros

I like the atmosphere and the flexibility of the organization. They really put a lot of focus on work/life balance and to me that is very important.

Cons

Lack of career advancement opportunities, benefits are not as good as they used to be, and very horizontal organizational structure.

Pros

Valassis' best asset is its people as there are plently of great people to work with. While being a 7000+ employee company, it can still have a small company feel.

Cons

...at the same time, the small company feel can make it hard for promotion. There are a lot of people that have good ties with a lot of people, so it can be hard to stand out at times. The pay overall seems to be lacking behind similar companies. The work can be unsatisfying.

Advice to Senior Management

Many associates are pretty unsatisfied with the the work they do. They get tired of it and burn out. When the economy and job markets gets better, people will jump ship if you do not address this better. This cannot be a company wide/mass operation, it will have to be specialized and individualized with departments. This will be tricky to do, but it is what is needed.

Pros

Individually, some of their facilities are okay. It all depends on the management team in leadership positions. Each facility is run on their own. Most are run by idiots.

Cons

Very little team work. Mostly back stabbing and trying to make others look bad. Not a supportive work environment. Overall one of the worst places i have ever worked. Unless you are desperate look for employment elsewhere. Valassis is in a dying industry. At worst, take a job and keep looking.

Advice to Senior Management

Most of you, it's time to retire. The world does not function well on the good ole boys network and neither do you. You will never keep talent without treating people fairly.

Pros

-Vacation/Time Off is good after 5+ years.

Cons

-Sr. Mgmt is not open to associate feedback and extremely unapproachable.
-Leadership only looks to put a feather in their own hat. Consistently leads by bad example.
-Favoritism is abundant. Opportunities to grow are not spread amongst associates. When employees ask to be a part of new projects/accounts it is overlooked and another ridiculous excuse is given.
-There is never a good answer from Sr. Mgmt or Leadership. There is a lot of “back peddling” when asked about decision making.
-Threatening and intimidating environment.
-New leadership has no formal training/experience in any corporate leadership environment. Standard HR practices are not used by leaders, communication is grim, decision making seems to be quick and not well thought out. Very reactive.
-Pay very low.
-Too much push for a spot on "100 Best Companies to Work For" list. Instead of focusing on the real problems at hand within this division, they are sweeping them under the rug and trying a quick fix approach to make this list.

Advice to Senior Management

Enough with the hostile, unethical, untrained approach within this division. There needs to be a change in management and leadership or someone up the ranks within needs to understand and tackle the problems within this division. The turn over is very high and people are extremely unhappy. The new attitude of "whatever, we don't need you here anyway" from Sr. Mgmt is driving people out the door. This is not a way to show you are a dynamic company. This should speak volumes on how this division is treats their employees. The poor kids coming in from surrounding colleges are seeing this right off the get as well. Very sad and disappointing.

Pros

*Good-hearted people who are excited about their jobs and the service that they provide.
*Enjoyable work environment at corporate headquarters.

Cons

*Some of VCI's individual performance metrics could use some updating.

Pros

Innovation, Speed of change and overall optimism

Cons

lost control, lack of meaningful process strategic perspective

Advice to Senior Management

Strategy is the key

Pros

Resources for the sales department and information are second to none. Sales has access to great marketing and analytical tools to help in the sales process. Internal support has improved to a great degree.

Cons

The degree of micromanagment imposed on sales is astounding. The amount and number of activity reports, progress reports, sales meetings, conference calls, evaluation meetings, etc. sales is ordered to do on a regular basis is positively absurd. Management feels they need to keep track of sales people every hour of every day and that will improve performance when the exact opposite is true. The time spent on most of it is a complete waste and could be better spent actually selling. It is demeaning, and we are treated like children instead of adults. And it keeps getting worse. Valassis is not one of the top best companies to work for if you are in sales.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop inposing these constant moronic game paln, pipeline, forecasting and weekly activity reports, and start treating us with a little respect. You force us as well as directors into a frenzy to complete these things. Realize that the enourmous time spent on these things takes away from selling time and does very little to actually improve sales.

Pros

If you need a day off usually you can get it. Vacation time is alright. Some of the perks/programs are nice.

Cons

The bonus program mostly rewards the teams that cheat on the schedule to get credit time. Supervisors allow the cheating because the better their shift numbers are the more likely it is they will get a payout. Lots of favoritism. The honest and hardworking never get rewarded. Nobody will discuss this.

Advice to Senior Management

The culture change that management is trying to implement is being laughed at in the print area nobody cares about free ice cream. Maybe try something new.