software engineer

product manager

data analyst

photographer

director of marketing

GS1 Canada

I work in Finance and I don't know about the other departments or past employees, but GS1 has exceeded my expectations thus far.

GS1 is one of the few places I've worked at where they seem to really care about their employees. Management was very quick to respond to the pandemic and implemented a comprehensive plan including working from home and continuously adjusting the plan according to new information. Management has also been very transparent in communicating the status of the organization. 

The culture is generally very supportive; you have direct access to all management. The organization is undergoing a lot of change, as it is trying to introduce new products and services and "re-invent" itself, and this may lead to some of the complaints about a "chaotic" culture. I don't know how much of this can be blamed on bad management and how much is just a lack of infrastructure in place that management is addressing but requires time.

As a result of this, one complaint I heard is lack of things to do. For example, a new hire in a different department that started on the same day as me found another job after slightly less than three months, citing underutilization. We initially started in December, near Christmas and the holidays when most people were on vacation, and GS1 Canada currently has a large emphasis on employee training, thus our first month was almost exclusively spent on training. Hence the slow-pace and relaxed culture. Personally, I find this refreshing and a strength rather than a weakness, being given plenty of time to adjust to the culture, but perhaps I am in a different point in my career after being in several very stressful and understaffed companies.

Once you are acclimated and your goals for the year set out, however, the pace does pick up and my manager is fairly hands-off, allowing me to dictate my own process as long as I achieve the goals. Expectations are always transparent and clearly conveyed. Support is available, but you have to be proactive and request it. You can't wait for people to hand it to you or give you instructions. As the organization seems to be undergoing changes, if you're looking for well-defined roles and daily, structured processes with no changes, you might not find this enjoyable.

As a result, in terms of cons, GS1 Canada probably has the most meetings of any organization I've been to. You are constantly on call meeting with different people in different departments to get answers and meet requirements. Obviously, when you have to work across departments, sometimes you meet resistance to change or you have people focused on their own priorities. This is where communication skills become important and for people who don't like dealing with others or who are not proactive in setting up meetings and looking for answers this may be a challenge. Fortunately, thus far I have found people are generally collaborative and management to be fairly accessible. The one problem is because you are often partially dependent on others for information and support, and there are so many ongoing meetings, deadlines may be delayed due to availability. Once again, this may contribute to the idle time for those that are not proactively inclined. Personally I use this time to take on other projects, improve my understanding of the organization or look for efficiencies to the organization.

Finally, advancement may be limited because of the size of the organization. However, management encourages promotion from within as well as lateral movement if you want to try another department. This is conveyed not just through words, but many employees have switched roles. Upper management has openly stated to discuss with managers our career progression requests and is actively built into the annual goals. There is a large emphasis on personal development.

Once again, I cannot speak to the experiences of the other departments or prior employees, but thus far I have a exceptionally positive experience at GS1 Canada.

The company has great potential in adding value to Canadian industry.  A clear company strategy is missing and senior leadership is unable to communicate it.  Typically the answer is "the strategy is somewhere in that 200+ slide presentation" and they make you feel stupid if you can't figure it out.  
There are a lot of good people at the company who want to be part of something better.  However, regularly people get tried of trying to figure out what senior leadership really want and thus they have a high turn-over rate.  More unfortunate, is that alignment within senior leadership - they clearly don't effectively communicate with each other and admit that regularly. 

Job looked promising at the beginning but soon turned into nightmare. Typical bad corporate culture with relatively high staff turnaround. Had some amazing colleagues (minority) but also faced unbelievable hatred for no obvious reason. Nepotism and conflict of interest (outsourcing work) from incompetent higher management was directly compromising  productivity on personal and corporate level. Average salary, decent working conditions and basically no one cares about you as long as you do not point to real problems. If you have to pay your bills take a job there, but start looking for new one immediately.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The people!  Especially the incredible management team.  

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
Getting the job done - doing it right the first time.   

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Excellent culture but very busy!!

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
It was exhilarating.  Loved every minute.

After working there for almost five years, I can say that it is poorly managed, and conflicts of interests are common.

No teamwork, plenty of hypocrisy. Absolutely counter-productive.

The salary was good and the benefits were great. However, work is not interesting, and mostly frustrating.

Great environment for people to adapt and work however poor management from an executive level.
Customer Service support team lacks proper training and hiring people who are not qualified - poor customer service skills both written and oral for most and poor French skills from the bilingual employees with some exceptions.

GS1 Finance has a high turner over due to Management.  There is favouritism within teams and management target people that strive to do there job.  Competition is high in culture for being accepted.
I would not recommend the Finance team at GS1 nor upper executives as all there is all talk.  Managers look down with presences of power.

This was a great entry level job to brush up on your editing skills.   Fast-passed environment and management provided lots of constructive feedback and training for how to improve. Fairly straight forward role, at times a bit boring. Small office with 4-6 employees onsite. If you are very social person and you might find it a bit too quiet.

Management from the top is the problem. There is a real disconnect across leaders and this causes an enormous amount of confusion and spin. Therefore tasks are rarely done in time or based on the original plan.

There are no clear goals at the top either.

Try to avoid this place!! The management has no idea of what they are doing and nobody cares about anything. 

The salaries are really low and they make a big difference between the people who works for GS1 and the ones that are on a contract.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Software engineer 6 salaries reported	$62,167 per year
Product manager 6 salaries reported	$101,667 per year
Data analyst 2 salaries reported	$77,500 per year
Photographer 4 salaries reported	$41,500 per year
Director of marketing 4 salaries reported	$135,000 per year

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