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FirstService Residential

Engaged Employer

FirstService Residential reviews

3.8

75% would recommend to a friend

(2,361 total reviews)
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David Diestel

86% approve of CEO

74% positive business outlook

FirstService Residential has an employee rating of 3.8 out of 5 stars, based on 2,361 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The FirstService Residential employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Real Estate industry (3.8 stars).

Reviews by job title

2K reviews
2.0
Jan 22, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Nice co-workers. Robust benefit plan.

Cons

Accounting is horrible; constant mistakes that need to be corrected. Nobody answers their phone or responds to email. You have no idea if your request is being handled or if the email is lost in cyber-space. Forget getting an emergency check cut if you need one, it takes forever to process. Very long wait times for the Customer Care line. Once an owner does get through (usually about 20 + minutes) the representative will direct them back to the manager. Upper management refuses to believe the customer about the wait times for the call center so this issue will never be resolved. No administrative support. So if you are a portfolio manager or an onsite manager without an admin, then you will be buried in a sea of corporate paperwork. It makes it very difficult to manage properties when you are buried in paperwork. Too many computer systems that don’t talk to each other. So you will have 16+ passwords, and if you need to fix an error in one program then you need to have it corrected in several programs. As a manager you are forced to sell ancillary products and you are penalized if you do not. Upper management refuses to listen to the requests of the boards. They force their customers to fit into their inflexible corporate model. Managers are over worked and not supported and board members see this. Associations are leaving FirstService, and FirstService has been having difficulty signing on new Associations due to their reputation. FirstService cannot attract talented property managers due to their reputation. Any new manager coming on board quickly realizes the issues and they regret their decision to work for FirstService.

2.0
Aug 24, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Young atmosphere if you’re in the NYC office, semi-decent happy hours - Fun culture, two annual parties - Decent way to get into the NYC property management industry - Technology isn’t bad - HR does the best they can to keep people happy (with limited resources for the most part)

Cons

- Pay. Raises are once a year at annual review and will yield a MAX of 2-3%. There have been years with no increases. If by some miracle you manage to get an off-cycle raise, expect a 3-5 month wait. (One poor girl waited 6 before she finally left.) It has to be signed off on by a handful of extremely busy higher-ups that will drag their feet on the matter until they tear the carpet. - No bonuses for non-property management personnel. - Benefits are sub-par. They like to say that they match 6% on a 401(k). They do not. They match 4% on your first 6% (a max of 2.4%). - Turnover is horrendous. Payroll team has ONE person on it that’s been there longer than a year. (For reference, it’s a team of 7 including the Manager.) - Bought the Financial Management team a lunch of pizza and wings in an indirect and pathetic attempt to address wild turnover. Pay a bonus. We’ll use that and buy our own pizza and wings.

3.0
Jul 31, 2018

Review

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great Company Values. Nice Properties.

Cons

Horrible Management and Corporate structure

Viewing 175 - 177 of 2,361 Reviews

Glassdoor has 2,429 FirstService Residential reviews submitted anonymously by FirstService Residential employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if FirstService Residential is right for you.