food safety specialist

senior scientist

account manager

auditor

laboratory technician

NSF International

Accountability. A huge concern and yet there is none. If employees do not understand what they are doing wrong, they will not learn from their mistakes. Pointing out problems with an employee's technique is key to improving their abilities and knowledge. 

There is a lack of attention from management. The effects of decisions being made for the laboratory are not being taken into account by management. They do not discuss any changes with laboratory staff, leading to problems with implementation that could have been avoided had any discussion occurred. 

Supervisors are not within the laboratory on a daily basis, leading to certain employees performing testing using improper techniques.

Communication within the department is non-existent. One type of testing group (i.e. engineering) will not know what is happening within another testing group (i.e. dietary supplements) because there is a barrier and no communication from management between groups. This communication issue has created many problems within the laboratory leading to delayed testing and a separation between groups.

Advancement within the company is difficult if you are not a favorite among the upper management. 

The ability to learn different techniques to advance your knowledge base is lacking, leading to morale plummeting and general disgruntlement among employees.

Compensation within departments vary greatly and is much lower within the Microbiology department compared to other departments with the same position. 

Flexibility concerning schedules is lacking. Many days notice must be given in order to shift your schedule (i.e. if your work is completed and you have worked overtime earlier in the week, you cannot leave early unless notice had been given; if no notice was given you must take PTO, even if you are salaried).

I learned a great deal while working at this company, specifically many testing methods along with the daily routine of working within an industrial environment. The people I have met are some of the best and most intelligent minds. It is unfortunate that so many are being smothered with the lack of advancement, a lack of showing any appreciation for employees and their indispensable knowledge, and an inability to learn new methods. If some of these problems changed, this company would be a great place to work.

Great mission - public health and safety. Outstanding and world-class professionals. Workers promoted to be supervisors and managers but given very little training how to manage people. HR is not there to help the common worker but to be an enforcement arm of senior management. Do not trust HR! 
 
Ridiculous, wasteful, and pointless goals and performance reviews. Poor pay, costs of benefits (healthcare) pushed onto employees. Laughable “raises” that varied from 2% for doing the bare minimum to stay employed, 2 1/2% for really applying yourself, and maybe 3% for killing yourself or making yourself sick from stress. That 3% was sometimes cut by HR to 2 1/2% due to stingy departmental budgets. 

Senior management is, and has been for many years, out-of-touch with its workers. CEO did sponsor a third party to do survey of employees and was surprised that morale and frustration was so low. Gave impression that changes would happen by including diversity in employees to form task groups to address and fix problems. Very few fixes were actually instituted and morale dropped even lower. Senior management still didn’t care. Toxic senior management lead to many stellar employees leaving. CEO needs to go. Multiple “transformations” have not worked. Toxic culture is worsening. 

Entry-level pay in labs is abysmal. People in micro lab could make more per hour working at a car wash. Meanwhile, senior management base pay in the millions with bonuses accounting for even more. Sickening for this level of disconnect and pay discrepancy. 

What is the best part of working at the company?
Some great colleagues. The cafeteria. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Significant business dysfunction, implementation of short-sighted ideas that are out of touch with the industry, and extremely poor morale. Some managers would only delegate and demand financial targets be hit. They couldn't provide any real support, and were a hindrance when it came to execution. 

Losing experienced, talented people from highly technical positions can be extremely impactful to core business functions for years, yet leadership assumes everyone is easy to replace. It's much more difficult to hire for highly specialized, technical roles than it is for general business roles since they have much larger candidate pools and more transferable skills. Losing the best and most experienced talent was obviously degrading the products / services. Many of those people would likely still be here if the culture was the same from 4-5 years ago. 

Many people are very overworked - it depends on your department. 

The company wants to appear like they do and say the right things, but their actions suggested those were hollow words. It did not feel good working there the last several years, and every time you thought it couldn't get much worse, it did. 




What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The mission to protect public health felt like it was just a marketing term - the only thing that mattered anymore was money. The company adopted all the worst parts of corporate America over the last 4-5 years. Most people came to work at NSF to avoid exactly that, and work at a company they felt was making a genuine difference and valued its people. That NSF no longer exists.

As a food safety auditor these are the things I didn't like - The pay is extremely low. On most weeks it can easily come down to $6 /hr. You will be expected to travel all Sunday, to some far away remote location (where you might be at an increased risk of safety, you will be expected to stay in the cheapest hotel available, which getting minimum money to eat everyday. You will be audited for your expenses and that $2 coffee you got, 
That coffee you bought on a non travel day will need a check to be refunded to the company. 
While being painstakingly cheap, they will squeeze you like a lemon.
.
The company has a clear strategy to go after weak/poor/desperate recent college grads to make them work for extremely low wages, while bringing up things like , oh but look you get a rental car and gas is paid for.
The turnover rate for food safety auditor is very high.
Our team changed every 8 months. 
I also did not appreciate the Management's very old school, very extremely 'strict' culture.
This was so weird, and difficult to with with. But lets keep it at facts- the tablet you use is a big piece of machinery straight from the 80's- and the software they use is this extremely slow paced offline thing, which is also from some B.C. 
Not to mention, YOU WILL CARRY AROUND A PRINTER, 2019, who?
People in New York are getting paid the same in Texas and Arizona. This company has zero plans of waking up and the high turnover doesn't bother them one bit, their clients are quite used to it, and everyone is chilling.
The company has zero ambitions to grow, neither do they care about your growth. 
NSF isn't a food safety auditor heavy company, seems like they just keep this department floating but don't bother too much. 
Save yourself, or do a 8 month thing and be onto the next best thing

There is little to no organized training for new hires. Different computer programs do not interface well with one another. Finding solutions to problems requires knowing which one individual in the organization can help (but knowledge of who to contact is via word of mouth only because again, as there is little training/documentation of procedures). Pay is a fraction of what other certification bodies pay their employees. It's hard to feel motivated when the same non-profit sends its senior management team home with millions annually. Many lower level employees at NSF are excellent scientists and thinkers - they've stayed with the company through frustrating changes because they care about making a positive impact in the world. But these people are reaching their breaking points. One reorganization/transformation after another and the end results are always the same - more separation between the people who understand the industry and the test procedures and the people who are the supposed "leaders" of the company. More upheaval and reinvention of the wheel from senior managers who pass directives down the chain of command but don't get their reports the tools they need to do their best.  Middle managers are literally forced to read from HR scripts, especially with staff furloughs furloughs layoffs. HR itself exists only as a mouthpiece for the senior leadership team. They won't do anything for regular employees, even those with valid complaints. I used to love working here. I no longer recognize the company. 

I've watched the steady decline of this company since joining in 2015. I had a genuine sense of purpose with a great team of people. Sure every company has its frustrating elements, but the headaches were heavily outweighed by actually contributing to public health and safety with others who cared just as much as I did.
This is not the same company I started with. Not anymore. Integrity has been diminished to a point of almost non-existence, no department is staffed properly and the workloads are crushing, management does not care about any issue their employees have and treats anyone below them as replaceable, ridiculous turnaround times are enforced regardless of workload, the onboarding and training for a new employee is laughable, the list goes on. As long as budgets are met (by pushing the employees who stay to work insane hours and effect their mental and physical health) why should senior management undercut their bonuses by adding more overhead, right?
A company-wide poll went out to all employees after a recent "transformation", where over half of respondents (over 80% of all employees responded) stated they did not trust senior management has their best interests in mind. Middle management is a mouthpiece for HR and we were all told there is nothing we can do about senior management's behavior.
NSF is a shadow of what it used to be, and until senior management (especially the CEO) is ousted and replaced with people who actually care that their employees are happy, nothing will change. Apply to any position at your own peril.

Contrary to what a non-profit is and what the NSF mission statement stands for, this company drills its employees to the ground, either pushing for extremely high turnover or end up getting rid of you when you no longer fit their mold. They’re currently going through a “transformation” and a lot of employees have dedicated years of hard work, loyalty, sweat and tears for the outcome, only to find out your role is no longer needed. The mothership is based in Michigan, and since they do not see the day to day of all the branches they manage and just see numbers, will never listen to what their employees need in order to succeed. As long as those financials are in black numbers, they will not even need to know your name. The only reason most sectors keep afloat is because it attracts genuinely great and capable people who build teams, and are able to work with the little tools and help provided, but is constantly and desperately requested. NSF does not seem to value loyalty at all or encourage growth within the company. They will hire from outside in a heartbeat if it means it is a clean slate with someone who is unaware of the secretive culture. The big corporate facade only strengthens the fear it’s employees may feel to speak up, since answers are always sneaky, insufficient and blague, and HR is there to serve it’s higher ups, not the actual Human Resource. Somewhat of a secretive and toxic environment that undervalues and makes you feel like a disposable by the end of a multi year run. 

I started at NSF in 2018, and was so proud to be working there! The facility is beautiful and well taken care of. Even though the work I was hired to do at the time was a pretty monotonous, I still enjoyed coming in every day. After a year I switched labs and loved what I did even more! Then the pandemic happened, and I saw first-hand how management viewed us as expendable. Towards the beginning of the pandemic, I came in close contact with a covid- positive individual, and began showing symptoms myself. Two days later, despite not having my covid test results back, I was told by upper management (who worked from home)  to come back to work or I'd lose my job. I ended up going to HR who, surprisingly enough, took my side and had me quarantine for the full 2 weeks. Thankfully, I did not have covid, but I work very closely with immune-compromised employees -- but management didn't care. Most labs are short staffed, many without supervisors, but are still expected to work harder than if they had a full team. External audits found that we were underpaid, and upper management tried to hide it, telling us we weren't allowed to discuss our pay with anyone else. This company has so much potential, it just needs to bring in new management and start showing a little more care and respect to their employees. Everyone who isn't management is burned out, and it's only getting worse. 

This was a good place to work with competitive pay and reasonable hours. A given work day was dictated by the projects ongoing in the lab, but generally my day consisted of monitoring current project progress in the lab, planning future projects, and preparing associated timelines/budgets. I personally learned a great deal about the logistics and legalities of running an ISO-17025 accredited laboratory as well as overall corporate strategies. The workplace itself was very busy and sometimes even hectic due to shifting priorities in the client facing departments of the company. Despite the curveballs thrown at the employees generally take the changes in stride and try to provide constructive feedback to ensure the causative event can be better handled in the future. The hardest part of the job would be trying to predict timelines for the various projects due to the intersection of resources between the various subgroups in the company. Though things weren't always smooth sailing, my colleagues were always encouraging and there was no better feeling that performing the final sign-off on a project. I would recommend this company to anyone looking for experience with safety and sanitation in a wonderful non-profit company.

When I joined, the role was presented as highly strategic and impactful. However, it turned out to be mostly tactical work with little to no strategic influence. Leadership struggled to provide direction, often expecting managers to come up with all the answers without offering clear guidance.

My direct manager was consistently rude and unkind to the team, especially when questioned about direction. Unfortunately, when I raised these concerns to HR, instead of addressing the behavior, they defended the manager and dismissed what was happening—even though it was evident to the team that this was creating a toxic environment. Many people stayed silent out of fear of losing their jobs.

While the company publicly presents strong results, internally it feels quite the opposite. If you’re looking for a role that is creative and strategic, this may not be the right fit. If you’re okay with purely tactical execution under significant pressure, it could work for you. The people on the team are great, but the leadership is under extreme stress and it shows in how they treat their teams.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Food safety specialist 8 salaries reported	$49,406 per year
Senior scientist 3 salaries reported	$84,333 per year
Account manager 8 salaries reported	$71,750 per year
Auditor 7 salaries reported	$61,200 per year
Laboratory technician 3 salaries reported	$17.67 per hour

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