specialist

warehouse associate ii

warehouse associate

packager

equipment operator

Swanson Health Products

MIS department is an absolute mess; outdated MIS acronym tells you all you need to know; test environment does not exist; very old package software with no source code; number of work orders that are closed quickly is more important than quality, which leads to more open requests and a bad reputation throughout the company; thoughtful design always an afterthought; never enough time allotted for testing; data integrity not a high priority; bizarre, misguided philosophy is to get things installed in a hurry and then fix any issues later; boss plays favorites and constantly inspects (interactive joblogs can be revealing) your every move if you aren't part of the "buddy" crowd; constantly criticizes, despite having poor programming techniques of his/her own, and amazingly had never even heard of a field reference file; smiles a lot but gives very little support and would toss you under the bus; likes to throw rocks at former employees, something nobody in management should ever do in front of current employees; work assignments at times make no real sense; no expression of thanks or recognition from ANY management personnel despite saving the company 400K a month doing 90% of the programming to convert shipping carriers; seldom treated as a long-time professional with value - very insulting; the president may be ready to retire and the company appears as though it is being positioned for sale; all company expenses, including bonuses, being drastically eliminated or reduced, recent layoffs and the large customer service department is being outsourced to Grenada -  MIS department will most likely be next, and maybe it should... much, much more. Worst programming environment and management encountered in 25 years - and by far.  Totally unprofessional.  Be forewarned.

Swanson was bought out by an investment firm in Jan 2016. Since then they have been hiring high salary upper management  like crazy to try to drive profits but have hardly hired anyone new for middle roles to actually get another done. Almost all new upper management is from Chicago and they fly them back and forth to Fargo and back every couple of weeks. Then in August they tell the whole company in a company wide meeting that they will not be doing any layoffs but go ahead and lay off over 20 people at the end of August. One guy who got laid off had just had a kid a couple weeks prior. Another guy was on vacation and was basically told don't bother coming back. Basically they no longer care about the employees and care of about squeezing as much profit as possible. Apparently the investment firm on average only owns companies for about 5 years before selling them off again. So that should tell you about all you need to know.  Must have had to lay do many people off to pay for all of the air travel. They have done several lay offs since the take over including eliminating almost an entire department within a few months of taking over. 

It has essentially now created an environment if gear for your job and upper management pushing like crazy for constant projects but with no resources to hardly get anything done.

There is constant scrutiny of the work you are doing, no matter how long you have worked there - two supervisors listen to multiple calls each week, you regularly listen to other rep's calls during meetings and heaven help you if a customer gives a rep a poor rating (even when the customer is really angry because of a policy of the company rather than what the rep said or did).  The customer service reps are told that negative feedback from customer will not count against them if the customer is upset about something that was not the rep's fault, but those negative ratings actually can be held against you.  Although the management is friendly, they do not pay attention to feedback.  

 The longer I worked there, the less I thought of the ethics of the company. Even though the company markets itself as a health products company, they are only interested in profits, and disregard any scientific research that suggests caution about any of the products  they carry.  They have misleading sales promotions, that look like he customer is getting a better deal than  they actually are,  and the customer service reps are left holding the bag explaining the discrepancies to the angry customers.  Swanson knowingly sends out products to customers during the month that the products expire.

Immediate management has done the job themselves, so they clearly understand what it's like, know what you can and can't do and treat everyone with dignity. Most calls are pretty uneventful and not too stressful if it isn't busy. Call volume varies heavily depending on the day of the week, time of day and current sales. At least 2 different people will listen to random calls of yours each week, often taking points off for minor, subjective things like saying "um" or "uh-huh" a few "too many" times or not using a phrase deemed "empathetic enough" within roughly a second of a customer complaint.
The attendance policy is the most strict I've ever seen, with punching in 1 minute late earning you the same penalty as being 3 hours late; it's also clearly written with a different part of the country in mind, since you will be penalized for missing a day due to a blizzard, which are common in North Dakota for about 4-6 months of the year. Turnover is extremely high, largely due to the attendance policy they refuse to change, which causes higher wait times for callers and thus even more caller complaints you're expected to take with a smile. Opportunities to advance are few and information on other positions within the company is scarce.

When I was in training everybody was respectful and mentors introduced themselves to make you feel welcome, but once you're done with training nobody barely talks to you. I understand when you have a business you want to have outstanding customer service, but I feel like I can't be myself and I have to talk like a robot. It seems as if things are never good enough. When I say my own power words to customers they're still satisfied. I'm thinking of quitting because I feel as if they don't trust their employees and all they care about is making sales. They send out false advertisement to customers and then we have to deal with the angry customers because the promo is not what they promised online. They make us read a paragraph to add another $15 to order for a deal and this takes more time on the call. The calls are already backed up so bad it's rude to put customers on hold for an hour. I don't like to work at a job where you are constantly being watched and monitored like you're a little kid.

A capitol investment company purchased Swanson Health Products in Jan. 2016. The new management team at Swanson has hired more high salary people than Swanson has hired since they started in 1969. New management is poor and only care about the bottom line reports to the investment firm, They do not care about family or the employees as they try to make people believe they do. Management does not tell the whole story to the employees and it seems it does not matter how long you have worked there or how much knowledge you have in the health food industry. If you don't click with the new management team you do not count. They told all employees in Aug 2017 there will be no layoffs then they fire over 20 people on 9/01/2017. People are so stressed out and are so scared of being let go everyday. My work day used to be enjoyable and fun and fast paced. It was always a great feeling to know you were helping people stay as healthy as possible. It seemed we were all so close and worked as a team now that as disappeared. It is very sad what has happened to a wonderful company since 1969 in Fargo.

Swanson was my absolute favorite job.  I was planning to retire from there in 20 years.  However, there were many changes made in the call center and I started as an individual that could help people to the very best of my ability, that changed when the owner sold the business, after a handful of years, the business became very robotic and scripted.  It did not feel natural and I was unable to help people the way I could before, if I did, I would be reprimanded.  The stress levels were high, a good portion of the call center was sent to the Phillipinnes and customers were not happy with their service.  I was no longer happy in my position and chose to leave the position. Don't get me wrong.  If things go back to being human instead of robotic, I'll be begging for my job back.  I still love that company and wish nothing but the best for the business and employees.  They are all just so wonderful.

The primary duty of my position was to catalog samples and documentation of all capsules and tablets produced by Swanson or outside vendor.  I compared the samples to the description in the specifications (and old samples if necessary) to ensure sample meets specifications. I also compared the Swanson documentation with the Certificate of Analysis from the vendor.

Any variation in the specs or samples would be reported to superiors for further analysis.  Superiors would proceed the further reviews.

I also provided necessary support for other members of Quality Control and Product Administration as necessary.

To build teamwork, our department would have activities inside and outside the work environment to relax and build team effort.

When I was hired i was asked if i wanted to be part time or full time. They convinced me to do full time saying they often leave a little early when the job is done. However once i started they were FORCING all full time employees to work extra hours every single day. The average day was supposed to be 8 hours but they were forcing every full timer to stay 9 hours just because they could. However you weren't seen as a good employee unless you were working 10+hour days. Everyday.

Every week management would have a meeting telling us 'the mandatory overtime should end next week!' well after about 3 months of the same speech i asked to switch to part time. (which they can do) They told me no. Basically because i was too good at the job and they needed me there for the longer hours. So I quit instead lol 

A typical day of work is answering calls continuously. Calls include order placement or inquires on orders. Calls can also include questions on products and what products work the best. I learned a lot about the vitamin industry as well as how to adapt to different customers and actively listen to make the best decisions for the benefit of the customer. The workplace environment is very fun and welcoming. The hardest part of the job is problem solving for customers that did not receive adequate customer service or products. The most enjoyable part of the job was helping the customer and making the customer happy by the end of call.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Specialist 23 salaries reported	$22.18 per hour
Warehouse associate ii 4 salaries reported	$17.58 per hour
Warehouse associate 3 salaries reported	$16.79 per hour
Packager 26 salaries reported	$19.40 per hour
Equipment operator 10 salaries reported	$21.38 per hour

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