Wolters Kluwer Reviews

Pros

In the Customer Service Dept, I believe most employees like their job (in general). I think we feel like management of our dept usually listens to our concerns. It was nice to get a market adjustment, but why isn't it based on the market we are moving to next month.

Cons

On recent annual reviews, some sections were graded as a whole dept which caused our grades to be lower. This was our 'personal' evaluation - not the dept. If merit increases are based on the grading system, the system has failed the employees who at least meet the goals set. It is nice to receive a market adjustment because the company is moving to a more expensive county next month, but the amount is based on our office still being located in the current county - not the new county we are moving to. Also, there is a good bit of nepotism and/or preferential treatment to certain races.

Advice to Senior Management

If it is said that no employee can achieve a 5-Far Exceeds Expectations (or hardly received a 4-Exceeds Expectations when proof can be provided) on annual reviews -- Why don't you remove that option?

Pros

-Some wonderful folks work in Wolters kluwer. The company is very flexible about working from home. Benefits and salary is reasonable but the good points are overshadowed by the cons.

Cons

The attitude of Senior management to the staff is horrible. Long hours and constantly micro managed. Politics is rife as a small circle of management try to beat each other and their staff up trying to climb the corporate ladder. Feedback is never listened to and any sort of praise never happens. The majority of decisions come from the US these days and the attitude towards non US based employees is really bad. The technology is years behind and the infrastructure is falling apart. Overall the worst company by far in my entire career.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop treating your employees so badly, this is not the 1800's. For goodness sake give some attention to the IT infrastructure

Pros

This is an exciting time to be working in the publishing industry as they are challenged to keep up with competition to move to on line delivery platforms (vs. hard copy); new level of required skill sets and a different go to market requirements

Cons

Hierarchical management; low morale; slow to move; stuck in some old ways of doing things

Advice to Senior Management

Quickly leverage the new way of doing business and managing and make it the DNA of work life at WK;

Pros

Great benefits, family friendly, salary somewhat competitive on a lower scale

Cons

Unresponsive management, employee suggestions ignored, no advancement, no forward thinking, top heavy management, goals change according to latest ceo and they're never clear or communicated properly to the employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the employees who are on the front line, make decisions based on the marketplace not on your expertise,

Pros

5bn$ company, good products in the Information Services space, significant acquisitions. The Financial Services arm is better than the others in terms of working environment.

Cons

Lot of internal dynamics, Very hard to get good work done, Autocratic management style, Very little positive reinforcement when doing a good job, Lack of infrastructure, Steady layoffs as a result of offshore initiative. Acquired organizations have not integrated well into the company resulting in a lot of intra-unit politicking. There is no clarity on roles & responsibilities of acquired units. Each acquired unit has its own culture, including a widely differing holiday schedule. Not much in the way of processes. Chicago downtown office lacks basic facilities & infrastructure. Incompetent IT Support services vendor (outsourced) takes ages to resolve minor issues.

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to cultivate a spirit of bon homie within the company by using a mix of carrot and the stick instead of using the stick all the time. Spend more time on redefining & streamlining processes instead of micro-managing operations.

Pros

Gain breadth of experience in health care information technologies, epecially if you are interested in health care content "construction" and "distribution"

Cons

Thinks like a publishing company. Expectations from health care information technology vendors are high, wolters kluwer health does not cut it. Its senior management made decisions as if it was a publishing company while it tried to company while competing in fast-changing health care information technology space.

Advice to Senior Management

Wake up. World is changing! Or should I say, it has changed. Get new toolkit and train your employees on it before they leave you ... or before you are forced to let them go.

Pros

A pro is paid time off.

Cons

A con is the culture.

Advice to Senior Management

Improve management.

Pros

work life balance is good, salary is ok but if u want to stay current technically or looking for cutting edge stuff then not so much....also there is a disconnect between the leadership and the employees which i guess is more common than not

Cons

not much career growth, performance doesn't really mean much during review time, employee morale is pretty low, benefits could be better too with the insurance rates going up every year

Advice to Senior Management

hopefully they read the anonymous surveys we are asked to fill out every year that should tell them what to do

Pros

Aggressive in the software space

Cons

slow devlepoment with products at times

Advice to Senior Management

none

Pros

People - some have very tenured experience and are willing to share insights
Benefits - decent array of choices
Salaries - base is pretty good, some bonus plans are lacking

Cons

Lack of clear strategy
Former pharma management lacks publishing experience
Lack of loyalty for long term employees
Distrustful

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the employees, especially those with long tenure - they have the first hand experience you need to truly build the organization