Constant turnover, incompetent management. - Anonymous employee Volacci Employee Review

1.0
Jan 16, 2014
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Free lunch for modest appetites. Got to work with some genuinely talented and interesting people. Did I mention free lunches?

Cons

Where to begin? If you are considering taking a position at Volacci, do yourself a favor and ask them about turnover rate for the last 5 years. They probably won't know, but ask them how many people in the picture above still work there. There have probably been 20 people hired over that the last 5 years and only 1 of them is still around. They will likely blame employees but the team I was able to work with was great: smart, funny, quick learners who all went on to much, much better things after they left. At some point you have to wonder what else is at play. A pattern you will notice with these reviews is that the good reviews happen around a year or less in. I wonder how many of these people would go back and change their reviews today? I wonder if writing a good review on here is the newest "process" that new hires have to go through. Basically, there is a honeymoon period, and after that people begin to see just how messed up everything is at Volacci. Maybe one day the CEO come in and decides to rashly reverse strategy overnight or cut staff in half, etc. It's all happened before in a similarly manic fashion. I haven't worked there in a while, but it seems like little has changed. In fact, financially it seems a lot worse. Expect turbulence and the management grasping for straws because they don't have a clue. I was shocked to find out that the company didn't have a budget for much of the time I worked there.

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Volacci Response
12y
Thanks for the response. One comment sticks out in my mind: "...all went on to much, much better things..." You nailed our hiring strategy exactly. We pay average or even below-average salaries because we hire entry-level people. Volacci is the first "real" job out of college for over 70% of our employees. We look for smart, hard-working people who want to learn SEO, Drupal, online marketing, social media, etc. We teach all of our employees and invest a lot of time and resources into the systems that guide our work. It's not uncommon for someone to start here making $15/hour and get a job paying nearly double that in just a year. It's an intense year but that's a pretty good outcome for many. No, we don't require anyone to write online reviews for us - that's awful - but we do ask as suggested in the GlassDoor guidelines. It's completely optional. I want to respond to your other comments but I think the best thing here is just for me to apologize. Your experience here wasn't a good one and that's my fault. Our industry and company have undergone massive amount of change and that has been difficult for me and everyone who worked here. It's been stressful and that's not easy. I'm sorry for hurting you and hope you will accept my apology as sincere. I can and will do better.

Explore other reviews about Volacci

5.0
May 5, 2012
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Volacci is like a family. I enjoy working there and look forward to arriving to work each day. A strong Operations team allows us the flexibility to explore new opportunities in the market. People are genuinely kind and interested in me as a person, not just as an employee. We're growing. It's an interesting industry with huge upside. The skills I've learned can go with me anywhere. Everyone seems to genuinely enjoy their job and want to be there. Work at home 2 days per week. Very supportive of personal time and needs. Flexible vacation schedules. Management is responsive to team ideas. A new focus on "ideal" clients has meant more interesting projects and less customer turnover.

Cons

Understaffed. We lost 2 people and didn't replace them. There is too much work to do. Benefits were cut recently after a tough 2011. I understand but it's still frustrating.

3.0
Mar 17, 2014
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

If you're looking for a place to learn, this is it. If you want to work for a company where you really make a difference, this is it. Be willing to work your ass off -- you're not going to have time to surf Facebook or Youtube all day: this is a real job. There is no sitting in a corner and doing those few things that get assigned to you. If you want to be "just an employee" go somewhere else. You will be challenged and stressed but when you are done, you will have a sense of accomplishment.

Cons

CEO is a great guy, decent human being. However he struggles with interpersonal skills. He can be very demanding and curt - coming off as rude. But then he can turn around and be very generous. He also does not seem to pick up on normal social cues. Below-average wages. The CEO gave us a book for required reading -- I wish he would read this part again: "If I hire an employee at below-market rate, market forces dictate that I'm not going to keep that person forever, and replacement will be more costly in the long run than hiring that employee at the market rate. A high turnover rate is very, very expensive. It also makes it hard to create consistency in the workplace, which can lower productivity, service quality, and customer satisfaction (this is also expensive)."

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