Reed Elsevier Group Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Reed Elsevier Group

Pros – Great work life balance, they understand that employees have lives and the goal is to do your job not just show up in a specific location.

It is a truly global organization so the opportunity to interact meaningfully with a wide range of people is very real.

Cons – Elsevier can be very euro-centric in how people are promoted and treated. When I was there it was much more common for Europeans to be promoted into senior U.S. based positions than the opposite. It came across as a glass ceiling for Americans.

Getting things done can be tedious. There are layers of internal departments who main function appears to be form completion and project delay. This is common to many large organizations so it's not a unique problem. It did get worse over time though as more MBAs entered the business.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Reed Elsevier Group

Pros – Some excellent talented people work there. Independence to excel if you know what you want to accomplish

Cons – lack of training (if that is required)
highly political to the point of being ineffectual

Advice to Senior Management – look up the facts yourself and don't let perception and the views of a few incompetents influence decision making and strategy

Current Employee – been working at Reed Elsevier Group

Pros – good health benefits for all employees and family

Cons – senior management is inconsistent and makes snap decisions

Advice to Senior Management – need to be more proactive and reward good talent

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Reed Elsevier Group

Pros – Salary was OK if you worked overtime. Team I worked in was good and we were able to attend some training.

Cons – Bad decisions and complete lack of communication from senior management. So poor that the directors outsourced devisions to an Indian company. No thought of employee welfare what so ever.

Advice to Senior Management – N/A

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Reed Elsevier Group

Pros – Generally treats its employees well. Time off, working flexibility are good, pensions, benefit were good but have been getting worse. Work life can be very pleasant and measured, all the usual trappings of a company their size.

Cons – No-one's heard of the company. People know the brands but expect to explain how to pronounce Reed Elsevier (reed el-severe) let alone what they do. It seems like change happens at a glacial place. Management has been turned over several times in the last 2yrs, this, coupled with the downturn, has led to continued product stagnation and a general lack of overall direction. They've been steadying the ship but don't have a rudder or any wind the sails.

Advice to Senior Management – Set some direction, communicate it, to the employees and to the market stick to it.

Current Employee – been working at Reed Elsevier Group

Pros – Fair treatment of employees, transparent policies, mgt. pretty good. They are recently becoming good at allowing movement to parts of the company but that is only recent. Finally, they are fair, in general, to employees, with some notable exceptions like every company has.

Cons – Not reacting well to changes or attacks on their industry of information services and, as a result, not keepign up with internal and external changes in the industry. Need a dose of newew management that cares about changing with the times.

Advice to Senior Management – Try to do the actual job of a sales rep for a week in terms of barriers internally to sales and you will understand how bad that needs to be fixed. Do more to fix employee salary problems for employees to increase retention.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Reed Elsevier Group

Pros – Good work/life balance, excellent benefits and supportive colleagues, plus opportunities to work outside the UK

Cons – Company's excessive pricing policy in the past and ill-considered outsourcing (causing lower standards) has lowered reputation with more traditional customers

Advice to Senior Management – Having been seen to leave 'premiership' paper publishing to rivals such as OUP, developing successful electronic business model is essential.

Current Employee – been working at Reed Elsevier Group

Pros – work life balance is extremely good in my area anyway, my managers are very approachable, the company is relatively well resourced.

Cons – hard to get anything done, some of the people in my area are quite cliquey and hard to get to know, I'm on a maternity contract and there is therefore little job security. I also don't really know if the job is as challenging or as interesting as initially "sold" in the interview.

Advice to Senior Management – I'm quite happy with the way things are run by management. Most of the managers I have worked with are quite approachable and easygoing, although I do find it hard to get clear, consistent answers at times.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Reed Elsevier Group

Pros – The company has a large global footprint. This opens opportunities to have a career in a lot of different places including telecommuting.

Cons – Those based out of a small regional offices have less exposure to the corporate experience.

Advice to Senior Management – Employees in remote locations especially those in smaller locations have less opportunities for advancement and almost no exposure to corporate.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Reed Elsevier Group

Pros – It's an old world book publishing company struggling to transition to a new world company. It is extremely challenging to see and help a company cross this technological chasm where the entire publishing industry is experiencing a severe transformation upheaval which has claimed many victims in the wake of its paradigm realignment. Reed Elsevier won't go under but may just cobble along. It is both exciting and frightening.

Cons – Ironically, depending on how you look at it, the pros are also the cons. For those willing to embrace this industry change and carve a new frontier, you will enjoy working here. For those less brave, this is not the place for you.

Advice to Senior Management – You must re-instill the faith in employees and rally the troops through this industry change. Employees are uneasy and do not trust management. Turnover is high. Managers need to have 1 on 1s with their team and be brutally honest with them in the change to come and what it means to the employees. That honesty will endear the staff with management and help reduce churn to some extent.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend