Pros
Overall, Vector is a good company with the potential to be a great one. Vector is growing very fast, mainly through strategic acquisitions, which is how I came to work for Vector Solutions. Over the years that I have been with Vector, they have continued to grow and improve. I can confidently say Vector Solutions is a better company now than just a few years ago, which is very encouraging. Like with all growing companies, however, not every aspect is great. There are definitely a few areas that could stand to be improved. Here are the areas where I feel Vector Solutions excels: Highly-Talented People in the Content Department - One of the best parts of the Content Department is its people. The Content Team is one of the most passionate and dedicated bunch that I have ever worked with. Not only do I enjoy working with every single person on the team, I have genuinely made some great friends who make the hard days much easier. Seeing their dedication to the craft and to the company mission makes me want to work that much harder in order to never let them down. Company Growth - If you like change, this is the place for you. Vector Solutions is growing fast. We slowed down in 2020 for obvious reasons, but once we were able to, we made another acquisition and got right back into hiring more money-generating roles in the Sales and Account Management with some additional roles in other departments sprinkled in. Lots of Great People Across the Company - As I already mentioned, the Content Department has a lot of amazing people in it. But due to my involvement in social committees and other cross-business collaborations, I have also had the opportunity to meet some great people outside of Content. When a company is growing as fast as we are, there are going to be people that not everyone gets along with. With that said, I am constantly surprised at how awesome and dedicated the majority of people I have worked with have been, and I hope that trend continues as we grow. Covid Response - This is an area that I think Vector Solutions honestly did an excellent job, and I was really proud of the support we gave our employees and customers. When Covid hit, our executive team (along with the help of site leaders) came up with a thorough plan to get everyone to work from home and increased the communication to every week for quite a while. We also crafted great communication strategies to help our clients through their own challenges. It was really amazing to see. We also made sure every employee had the tools, systems, and software they needed to effectively do their jobs remotely. It was a super challenging 4-8 months, but we did not falter and the company did not have to let anyone go due to the pandemic. I think that was pretty rare and I was happy with the effort across the entire company to make that happen. At the time of this review, we are still not back to normal life before the pandemic, but there is a rhythm and structure that makes working as normal as can be. Going forward, I am sure we will adjust work situations as many people have excelled in the work-from-home environment and I think the change up will ultimately be a huge growth opportunity for the company.
Cons
Here are some areas that I feel could be improved: Career Growth - Different than company growth, the career growth within the company definitely varies from department to department. I work in a relatively smaller department where there has been a lot of change, but what has been the slowest to establish is additional career growth opportunities. Unlike departments such as Sales, where there is a pipeline and defined flow of progress and achievement, smaller teams from other departments don’t get nearly the same attention. For me, this is highly discouraging and can lead to talented people leaving the company for reasons that are highly preventable. From what I have heard, this is a focus for change, but it is still an opportunity to improve and I would love to see more attention given to this area company-wide. Hiring and Retaining Top Talent - One of the biggest areas of improvement I see in Vector Solutions is hiring and retaining top talent. When it comes to hiring talented people, I feel like there have been times when we have not been given the investment dollars we needed to hire the right talent that would have helped us achieve the goals that we set out for the department and ultimately the company. This is also an area where I have heard similar concerns from other departments. When it comes to retaining talented people, this is the area that I am most worried about. I feel like my department has been extremely lucky in having several tenured and talented employees for as long as we have. This, in my opinion, has been because of luck more than company retention efforts. In smaller departments like mine, many people have to wear multiple hats and/or are very specialized in what they do. This is great for individuals who want to grow their skills, but it also leaves the department vulnerable to losing critical personnel infrastructure and would take a lot of time to backfill and train. Every single person and department plays a big role in the success of our company, and I think the mindset should be as such. It is very discouraging to hear or see extremely talented people that I have worked with put in their notice because they were either getting paid less than what a similar role would be paying in the industry or because we took too long in converting them to a full-time employee. Sales/Account Management Focus - Every company needs a rockin’ Sales and Account Management team in order to be successful, but just as important are the quality of the products and services we sell. If we don’t have those, Sales, Account Management, Marketing etc. have a much harder time, which in turn makes sales and retention goals harder to achieve. The analogy I like to use is the human body. In order for the human body to function at its optimum, every part of it has to be taken care of and given the proper amount of attention. I feel like we give a lot of attention to the roles that have sales numbers tied to them but not enough to the departments that are making sure those products are the best they can be. This is shown by what appears to be a disproportionate amount of people we hire for those roles while hiring contractors, or deciding not to backfill at all, for roles like software or content development.
