Work Life Balance Versus Career Growth & SalaryThe good thingsI'll just highlight the traits which I think make them stand out as an employer. The company definitely have its good points:
1. Work Life Balance - This phrase is definitely subjective per employee's perspective and experience. I've been to a couple of companies already and I can attest that whichever department you'll be at, balance is highly achievable compared to other Shared Service Center or multinational companies.
Leaves - As long as you align it ahead of time or if you can plot them for the year, you will have no problem for approval.
Working schedule - Flexi time, from 11AM until your 9 hours. Of course, if you're on operations, it will depend on the country you'll be supporting. Rest assured that rendering overtime is highly discouraged. I'd say with proper time management, you can finish your work without OT.
2. Company Perks - They have a lot of events and soft skills training. (e.g. Month long sports and mind tournament, Summer and year-end annual event, talk from invited speakers, in-house soft skills- presentation or communication, leadership, customer service, and etc). Often than not, they hold these either on 3 star hotels or above average convention halls.
They give away Bayer merchandise (T-shirts, Tumbler, the normal stuff, etc.)
They provide shuttle services. Only on landmarks where the larger number of employees are affected (alphaland, market market, etc).
3. Family Oriented - I am not sure if it is because of Filipino upbringing. The management and subgroups are very considerate if it's a family related situations in decision making. Subgroups are also supportive on a personal or career level.
4. Salary and benefits- If you're single or supporting only 1 member of the family (that makes the 2 of you). I think Bayer is a good company to start with. You'll definitely live. Especially when they offer health card to literally all your qualified dependents for almost free.
5. Career opportunity - Enough and steady growth for entry levels.You'll pretty much know what to do as long as you read the documentations and ask the right questions without too much stress.
6. Demographics - Millennials. You'll rarely encounter employees with age in 36 yrs of age and up--they're mostly the pioneers.
Overall, I recommend Bayer for those who wants work life balance, steady salary enough to support 2 people, chill and young environment, lots of extracurricular activities and entry levels.
The challengesRealistically, nothing is perfect. Bayer also has a big room to improve.
1. Environment - If you prefer a chill environment or learn a little bit from here and there, Bayer is recommendable. However, if you are among these kinds: career-oriented, thrive in challenging/high stress environment, easily gets bored in recurring tasks or because you're a fast learner, then I would suggest that you check your job options first.
2. Demographics - The maturity is not about the age. But you can't discount the fact that people in the range of 23 to 28 are still on the experimenting stage.
3. Salary and benefits - I learned that even when you're already on a leadership position, your range is pretty low compared to other companies. (Ex. a level above entry level can be equal to other SSC's entry level) But hey! at least you're not stressed. Apart from the health card, allowances are below average.
2. Company Perks - I'd put my focus on their soft skills training. If you are new to this, then you'll probably have fun just like I did especially on your first year. On the succeeding years, you'll get used to it and learn that most of what they provide are the same contents and activities from previous years.
3. Career opportunities - It gets difficult as you go up the ladder. Just the same here with Bayer. But difficult in a sense where compared to other SSCs, has a smaller number of employees with less than a thousand of in Manila. I do not think they'll be expanding anytime soon because of company's status and missed investments (Google it. It's a public knowledge).
4. Tech advancement - They take on a conservative business approach which made them falling behind in tech. Example, Bayer still uses SAP ERP when most of the companies now are in SAP/HANA,
Overall, I don't recommend Bayer if you are; supporting more than 2 dependents, you're driven, wanted to learn as much and as fast as you can in your career, looking for an experienced mentor or coach.