Balsam Brands FAQ

Pros

I worked at Balsam Brands for over a year. Among the great things at BB were my co-workers, in-season perks, WFH Wednesdays (before COVID), opportunities to grow and build the company. The Learning and Development team also did a fantastic job with regards to training team members as it relates to management, and personal development and understanding. I can't stress enough how great most of my collogues were to work with. I worked primarily with our Boise, Dublin, and Manilla teams, and it was wonderful to have an opportunity to work with them. I genuinely miss having the opportunity to work at the office and having lunch with my teammates. Despite the limited PTO, the work life balance was great and I was always able to take time that I needed.

Cons

Among the biggest "cons" would be the disconnected teams and long term vision. All companies have issues and looking back I think these could easily be solved with focus from leadership. With regards to disconnected teams this could have been solved with a better overall understanding across functions/teams of an individual's role, assigned projects, and workload. While there is a PMO, there isn't the coordination or project visibility that I would expect to see when people are juggling operational issues and feature/horizon projects across the enterprise. This leads to ambiguity and self prioritization of work that seems like it may or may not have a place in the value stream. PM's and coordinators do a great job, but having project charters/visions/kickoffs would add some guard rails. As far as the long term vision, the company does a good job of having town halls to communicate what's going on across the company. However, the goals and vision are more abstract than I would have liked to see. This causes ambiguity and leads to interpretation of what is important for the company to move forward.

Advice to Management

Balsam should continue to keep a focus on building relationships, as that does make it a great place to work. Don't be afraid to define explicitly what you expect the company to be, or how you expect team members to show up. I would say the same thing as it relates to long term goals. "Remember the future" on how you want the company unfold over the next 5 years. With a globally distributed team, you can't have ambiguity or else time is wasted and efficiency lost.

Pros

-Great co-workers, health benefits and great CEO

Cons

-Aloof & disconnected management -Lack of inaction on and failure to listen to serious issues within individual teams -Poor HR structure, development and execution -Siloed departments despite interdepartmental "efforts" to effectively collaborate -Extremely slow execution from ideation to creation - several roadblocks, namely ego-driven management -Lack of consideration for employee point of view over management (he said/she said) -Questionable hiring practices -High school petty environment with management speaking behind subordiantes backs and creating hostile environments

Advice to Management

It should be common practice for HR to hear all points of views, both management & subordiantes, before taking action on executing long term and high-performing employees from their jobs.

Pros

-Great co-workers, health benefits and great CEO

Cons

-Aloof & disconnected management -Lack of inaction on and failure to listen to serious issues within individual teams -Poor HR structure, development and execution -Siloed departments despite interdepartmental "efforts" to effectively collaborate -Extremely slow execution from ideation to creation - several roadblocks, namely ego-driven management -Lack of consideration for employee point of view over management (he said/she said) -Questionable hiring practices -High school petty environment with management speaking behind subordiantes backs and creating hostile environments

Advice to Management

It should be common practice for HR to hear all points of views, both management & subordiantes, before taking action on executing long term and high-performing employees from their jobs.

Pros

I worked at Balsam Brands for over a year. Among the great things at BB were my co-workers, in-season perks, WFH Wednesdays (before COVID), opportunities to grow and build the company. The Learning and Development team also did a fantastic job with regards to training team members as it relates to management, and personal development and understanding. I can't stress enough how great most of my collogues were to work with. I worked primarily with our Boise, Dublin, and Manilla teams, and it was wonderful to have an opportunity to work with them. I genuinely miss having the opportunity to work at the office and having lunch with my teammates. Despite the limited PTO, the work life balance was great and I was always able to take time that I needed.

Cons

Among the biggest "cons" would be the disconnected teams and long term vision. All companies have issues and looking back I think these could easily be solved with focus from leadership. With regards to disconnected teams this could have been solved with a better overall understanding across functions/teams of an individual's role, assigned projects, and workload. While there is a PMO, there isn't the coordination or project visibility that I would expect to see when people are juggling operational issues and feature/horizon projects across the enterprise. This leads to ambiguity and self prioritization of work that seems like it may or may not have a place in the value stream. PM's and coordinators do a great job, but having project charters/visions/kickoffs would add some guard rails. As far as the long term vision, the company does a good job of having town halls to communicate what's going on across the company. However, the goals and vision are more abstract than I would have liked to see. This causes ambiguity and leads to interpretation of what is important for the company to move forward.

Advice to Management

Balsam should continue to keep a focus on building relationships, as that does make it a great place to work. Don't be afraid to define explicitly what you expect the company to be, or how you expect team members to show up. I would say the same thing as it relates to long term goals. "Remember the future" on how you want the company unfold over the next 5 years. With a globally distributed team, you can't have ambiguity or else time is wasted and efficiency lost.

Pros

Very supportive of personal career goals and growth. A welcoming group and very small company feel despite the rapid growth.

Cons

With so much growth things are always shifting and changing, so you have to be adaptable.