Ford Audio-Video Systems reviews

I’ve been to a lot of boring places, a lot of time away from home, takes too long to acquire a “merit-based review”

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.