Avigilon Reviews

Pros

Great people to work with. Tries, and succeeds most of the time, to be transparent about its goals and objectives. A lot of talented people work here. Open and accessible management. Great products in the video security space and interesting technologies, especially in AI and video analytics. Huge range of technologies to work with.

Cons

Many teams that work in silos. Professes to be Agile but sometimes struggles to succeed. Sometimes overreaches its capacity to deliver.

Pros

Even after merging with MSI at the beginning of 2020, management and policies were all mostly unaffected. Still have that “local startup” feel even though we are technically a small part of MSI. We have a lot of great, talented coworker and most of our management are friendly, down-to-earth and don’t micro-manage. Beautiful office space (used to be better on the 6th floor), good amenities, and before COVID, frequent events and even sometimes free hockey tickets. Currently working from home is also pretty nice. Benefits are average for a company like this (used to be better pre-MSI) but instead have 3 weeks vacation to start instead of 2. Fitness subsidy, stock purchase plan, RRSP matching, profit sharing and yearly salary review. Starting salary was very decent given the entry-level role (just shy of $50k) and after a year it’s closer to $55k now. Which brings me to the next pro: room for growth. Required to work on most stat holidays (paid accordingly) but for me this is great. Management seem to highly value ability and motivation here. There are many younger talented agents in higher roles and few “dead weights” outside front-line agents. I think that any motivated person with good worth ethic will do well and grow quickly here.

Cons

Staff burnout and lacking better training especially with COVID. Absentee agents are not back filled by rescheduling other staff: this includes everything from vacations to stat holidays, so the workload is just shifted to the people present. Management appear unwilling to get rid of underperforming staff, which is causing a lot of morale issues. It is very frustrating having some people working hard while a few try to find every excuse to avoid doing work. Medical benefits used to be better with a $2000 spending account yearly. Furthermore costs of premiums have increased noticeably. Overall, perhaps the company doesn’t value tech support enough since they don’t directly generate revenue. It seems like a lot of these issues can be resolved with more people and resources. On the other hand, one of the most common things I hear from our customers is that Avigilon has the best tech support compared to our competitors and that’s one of the reasons for going with our products.

Pros

Working as a team doing fast paced assembly. Learning how various security cameras are constructed. Monthly birthday celebrations. Occasional company BBQ.

Cons

You have to enjoy repetitive and fast paced work. There are constant production targets that have to be made. The night shift at the Richmond location finishes after the last bus of the day so a car may be required.

Pros

Everyone is respectable, has a clean pantry large enough for all production workers, free coffee and utilities whenever you need it. Has ample parking area for a shift only.

Cons

Employees have to pay their share of the benefits when it is merged into a bigger company, employees do not have their representation to management when things get sour.