Ford Audio-Video Systems Reviews

High Turnover, Low Job Satisfaction, Horrific Employee Morale, Terrible Benefits, Old Systems, Worthless Processes, Zero Leadership The only good reviews are left by upper management or people who i specifically reached out to (employees who received promotions, anniversaries, new hires, etc). In the recruiting department, we had the impossible task of hiring 100+ people across a dozen divisions, with our glassdoor reviews being appropriately abysmal. So, I did the only thing I could do, and got a list of employees that were least likely to have a bad taste in their mouth, and requested that they complete a Glassdoor review. In hindsight, that was immoral, and I hope that very few people were fooled by any of those reviews. Again, to anyone that I met at a career fair, invited to apply from Indeed or Zip recruiter, or who saw one of my thousand job postings, I sincerely apologize. When I would bring up Glassdoor to Claire Ford and the Division Managers, they would treat the site as a conspiracy, saying that our competitors were the ones leaving bad reviews, or that they were paying Glassdoor to make us look bad. Absurd. I needed to stay for two years because I wanted to avoid looking like a job hopper, but this is one exception to the rule. Get out. Don't wait two years. Just update your resume and leave. Or better yet, don't apply at all. The application doesn't even have resume parsing so you will spend 40 minutes manually filling out an application only for the recruiter to ONLY look at your resume anyways. We will then send you a 45 minute assessment to gauge your cognitive abilities, motivation, and personality. Keep in mind that no one cares about your motivation or personality, and the hiring managers will only look at your cognitive scores. Plenty of great candidates would be locked out of the hiring process because they can't answer standardized questions from a useless assessment. We needed Installation Technicians who could use power tools and made them answer questions like "If the first two statements are true, is the final statement true? James bought Thomas a drink. Thomas bought Suzette a drink. James bought Suzette a drink. yes no uncertain" How does this pertain to installing video walls? Great question. But don't worry, even if you happen to do well on the Wonderlic, the recruiters will then bring you in for additional assessments. I'm talking a 20 question math assessment, 20 question grammar assessment, typing, 10-key, DISC, and guess what, the Wonderlic again! We would then compare your first Wonderlic score with your "proctored" Wonderlic score and make guesses as to whether or not you cheated on the first one. Keep in mind this is all before you even get 1 interview with a manager. Even after your interview, the hiring managers don't actually decide to hire you. No, instead the recruiters present you in front of every single division manager within the company on a weekly Thursday meeting. No joke, we will go over every single piece of data we learned, only for the upper management to then speculate as to whether or not you are "passionate about the AV industry." It would be hilarious if it wasn't so unbelievably unprofessional. Lastly, Ford AV will not pay you what you are worth. For example, our CFO retired last year and the Fords wanted us to replace him with a someone who had a CPA and would work for no more than $70,000 a year. This person would run the entire accounting department, and the Fords wanted to underpay them. I could keep going, but let's be honest here, plenty of other people have outlined these issues in great detail. I've read every single one of these glassdoor reviews, and I'm 100% serious when I say that maybe 3 of them are exaggerated, and the other 100+ are terrifyingly accurate.

Let's first filter out all five and one star reviews. FordAV is neither a five nor a one star company. Management is instructed to contribute positive reviews to this site. The fabricated reviews are painfully obvious as most are five-star. I am writing this review partially because FordAV did not conduct an exit interview prior to my departure. I am grateful for Glassdoor as a means to illuminate areas within the company which need improvement. I had every intention to remain an employee but reached my breaking point too soon. Hopefully this review will help improve the company, which will prevent talent from leaving too soon. I also hope others do not accept an offer without knowing exactly what is expected. ONBOARDING: The onboarding process illustrates the paranoia and suspicion which is the undercurrent of this company. Trust your first impression throughout the hiring process. Ford contacted the references I provided to them. This is expected and necessary. It came as a surprise when these references contacted me, warning of the peculiar, intrusive, lengthy, and unnecessary questions asked by FordAV HR. The combination of the personality, Wonderlic, timed math/grammar, and typing tests is a bit extreme for an AV integrator. I have worked for a handful of Fortune 500 companies in the past and have never had to take any type of personality, typing, grammar, or aptitude tests. As a professional, my resume, engineering degree, references, and transcript are sufficient in demonstrating my ability to solve problems and maintain good standing within a large organization. Day uno at FordAV was mostly unguided. I was disappointed that I was not formally introduced to the team aside from the safety meeting. Most coworker introductions were initiated by myself. Everyone was friendly and helpful but lacking the charisma expected at a professional organization. Advice to management: Invite new employees to lunch on their first day. Make the employee pay if you must. At least sit them down in an office and get to know them over a cup of coffee.. These gestures will go a long way. I know the first day of work certainly contributed to my decision to leave. CULTURE, EXPECTATIONS, and WORK/LIFE BALANCE: Overtime is expected. As a salaried employee, Saturdays do not contribute to your weekly forty. In fact, there is no weekly forty. A daily 8 hours must be met (Mon.-Fri.). This means that you can work 12 hours on a Wednesday but if you need to go to the doctor Thursday morning for two hours, you will need to use two hours out of your paid time off account (PTO). Advice: Pay salaried employees for every hour that they work over forty in a week or only require them to work forty and let them go home early on a Friday if they know that they have to work Saturday morning. The salaries simply are not high enough to not be compensated for every hour over 40. The hours on projects can become very extreme which will inevitably affect your personal life. I have witnessed it. With no overtime compensation as a salaried employee, you will be missing important life events and not even getting paid to do so. Profit Sharing: Receive your profit sharing money by negotiating your starting salary up a few thousand and never mention or think about profit sharing again. It is merely a distraction technique to keep a light at the end of the tunnel. Expect zero. There are barcodes affixed to almost everything in the office. I never discovered why. Desks, small trash cans, restroom signs, and toilet paper racks etc. are all marked with these distracting FordAV barcodes. I just think it is odd, tacky, and worth mentioning as a representation of the odd culture and suspicion within. The people at the top expect to be called Mr. and Mrs. FordAV shirts are lent, not given, to employees. Logos are cut out of retired shirts to prevent the logo from hitting the streets. Also, no gloves or safety glasses are provided to employees. Hard hats are provided but belong to FordAV. The laptop reimbursement program was a huge draw as a prospective employee considering laptops are not provided but expected. It was recently suspended companywide without any formal email notice. Test equipment is virtually nonexistent. Engineers are expected to have/find/borrow test equipment elsewhere. The vacation time and 401K are not worth mentioning. The insurance is fine. Training is expected to be paid for by the employee if employment is under one year. As I said, I hope the issues mentioned above allow constructive change to happen. These issues may seem small but they serve as representation for much larger issues. I wish I would have known these things before offer acceptance. I do wish FordAV and its employees all the best.