Great mission and vision, leadership with no ability to make it happen - Project Manager Volvo Group Employee Review

3.0
Nov 16, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great benefits, nice paid time-off, good options for global relocation and international experiences.

Cons

In North America, management team is very weak, many leaders do not understand their own function/ responsibilities. Majority of them are politicians, and in some cases the political skills is what helped them on climbing up, not performance or leadership skills. Coaching, onboarding, mentoring are not regular practices. The company tries to launch some training programs but it never really helps on developing the competences needed for many roles. Some special program -like emerging leader program or things like that - are more to “manage” talents expectations and keep them in their role waiting for career promises that will never become reality. You cannot count on your leader to support you in challenging situation. But if something goes wrong the blames falls on you. Too many layers, too many functions, too many decision makers, which makes impossible to deliver real changes because they are never aligned on priorities and common targets. Many people not performing on their roles, but that seem to be ok and that results in overloading the ones who are working well and engaged - great resources are burning out. The company preaches for diversity, but in higher management positions it is not what you will see. Actually, in many situations, a skilled women usually loses management positions that match their profile for less skilled males. And people sponsored by special sponsors are likely to get well paid positions - which explains the lack of leadership abilities in many people from the management team.

Explore other reviews about Volvo Group

5.0
Mar 4, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Really inclusive environment and most of campus is already with ABW - activity based workplace (flexible seating).

Cons

Sometimes due to the very inclusive environment, decisions can take a little longer.

1
2.0
Jun 19, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Benefits are decent although the cost has been rising, most coworkers are great, they used to throw company events

Cons

Right now, almost everything. There is zero morale in Volvo North America, regardless of what some reviews are saying. People are resigning, being let go at alarming numbers, or their positions are being eliminated during a sloppy reorganization. You don't even know they're gone until the news travels or they don't show as being an applicable email address anymore. And management feels fine letting us know that more layoffs are "not off the table". Bonuses this year were utterly pathetic and only accounted for about 2 weeks of a family's grocery bill. Yes, we were thankful we got a bonus but after taxes and our benefits were removed, it was a slight slap in the face. Also not everyone got a "merit" raise this year which is a mix of performance and where you fall on a pay penetration scale (which there is zero explanation of what goes into this figure). Explanations as to why some received a raise over others was more than questionable - and raises varied greatly. We are being told to return to office full time but there are not enough desks for everyone - oh and only certain teams get assigned desks. Everyone else needs to fight for a place to sit that the company expects us to clean if someone wanted to be a slob and leave garbage or a mess all over the desk. Half the desks are missing keyboards or the mouse or don't have a functioning dock or monitors. If you don't get here by 8:05am, good luck because you will not find a place to sit. Company brags about being sustainable but is making over 3,000 employees commute, sometimes from pretty far distances, back to an office 5 days a week. Want us to do more in-person collaboration but there aren't enough conference rooms either. Expectations are insane, workload increases are drowning some teams, and all we hear is how we need to do better. Volvo made poor business decisions and now we are paying for it in a time that has been incredibly difficult for all your employees.

1
See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All