Canstar Reviews

Pros

The people at Canstar are the best part of the workplace. Everyone is so friendly and welcoming. The culture has been a big focus over the last couple of years and there are so many great benefits for employees (free breakfast, fresh fruit, getting your birthday off). The social club is also actually really awesome, with things like a cinema movie night, trivia night and escape rooms. Canstar is very generous when it comes to events and celebrating successes.

The other thing I really like about Canstar is the accessibility of senior leaders. They are very approachable and easy to talk to. The CEO is super down to earth and loves to get to know employees. He knows what's happening in the business and can have a really operational conversation. I'm surprised by some of the older reviews here but I can only comment on my own experience.

Pros

Canstar has a positive and personal culture. Nearly all employees are friendly and encouraging. Canstar also has plenty of little perks that make work fun, such as birthday morning teas, celebratory lunches and cheap massages. Canstar also offers a great work-life balance and is usually pretty flexible with alternative working arrangements.

Advice to Management

Management should realise that while the little perks are nice, they are relatively superficial if employees don't feel respected in other regards, particularly remuneration and promotion opportunity.

Pros

Rapid growth means work is interesting and constantly changing. Many great people and a lot of responsibility given quickly to people in all roles

Advice to Management

Be honest and upfront about salaries in job ads and interviews to minimise frustration and distrust. Treat people with respect regardless of their gender and ego. Stop valuing the opinion of only those with overinflated egos (team commercial). Replace the sales team with people who care beyond themselves and their money. You have potential to become a great place to work if you recognise the greatness of your people doing great work but not blowimg their own horns.

Pros

Good culture and openly inclusive environment

Advice to Management

Automate all your processes - the data team are irrelevant

Pros

Welcoming culture. Opportunities to take ownership of a team or project in a mid-sized company. Great people in each team make it easy to ask questions and learn.

Advice to Management

Hire more mid level managers so that group executives are not trying to be line manager for three departments.

Pros

Canstar have some great people and being small there is a lot you can contribute to add value. Your efforts will be appreciated but not necessarily rewarded. A positive attitude will get you far.

Advice to Management

Talk to people and find out what is important to each when deciding what incentives are appropriate. A table tennis table is quite reflective of the lack of awareness of what staff value and the obvious drive to employ cheap young and inexperienced labour who bring nothing more than a can do attitude with no training to help them fulfill this belief in themselves. You need to spend money appropriately to make money (and to retain your top performers who clean up the mess of others til they drop in exhaustion). You need to value staff members for them to value their job.

Pros

The drones who follow the company line are full of cringe but I like a lot of my co-workers who know what it's really like and speak freely about Canstar curse and we all have heaps of free time to look for better jobs and follow the race out of this unrewarding and boring place. Yes the air conditioning can be a bit cold but that should be the least of Cansta's concerns.

Advice to Management

Time for a change because you do not leave but all the rest of the workers come and go.

Pros

I have had a very positive experience at Canstar over the last 9 months and cannot understand some of the negative reviews on this site.

From the get go I was given exciting work projects and a lot of time and energy was invested in bringing me in and training me up.

The people and culture is unlike any other organisation that I have worked for. Management puts a big emphasis on the corporate culture and puts a big emphasis on only hiring talent that fits in with the warm, collaborative atmosphere of the office.

The organisation is growing very rapidly, providing significant opportunities for new and existing staff. There are also many opportunities for internal career progression.

Pros

My experience at Canstar was very positive. The people who work there made the experience absolutely wonderful. The management team was very open and I enjoyed being able to speak with executives at any time without feeling any different to them. Canstar is a place of continual learning and I enjoyed how every day was different. I was always working on new projects and working with different people. There's also so many benefits to working at Canstar such as gym memberships, massages, free breakfasts and team lunches. The staff are really social and enjoy getting to know each other which made my time at Canstar a great experience. The location in Brisbane CBD is stunning and so close to everything as well. I would definitely recommend Canstar to others.

Advice to Management

Continue to keep inspiring your employees! I really enjoyed the innovative culture of Canstar; always growing and evolving. By keeping this alive, it'll keep the company moving forward.

Pros

Generally a fun place to work, big on social/drinking events
Work/life balance is pretty good

Advice to Management

Your entire business runs on Microsoft Excel, upgrade to a newer version and computers that actually work