Oncourse Learning Reviews

For those of you that do not work at OnCourse and are contemplating the idea of accepting a position with this company here is my advice. Accept if: -You are receiving an Executive or Vice President title. (It looks great on resumes and you won't have to do anything or learn about the systems or the people you manage. Can you say cakewalk?) -TSA and Motor Vehicles are no longer hiring and you really like frustrating customers. (The broken technology will provide endless ways for you to keep those clients frustrated and talk to them with all the sass you'd like with no recourse! Who's going to say anything? Certainly not Upper Management, that would take time away from Ping-Pong games.) -I guess that's it...maybe if you're really desperate for a job? (I have faith in you that you’ll find a better opportunity then working for these part-time execs) Don't accept if: - You live in any other state than Wisconsin. (They just tripled the size of headquarters in Wisconsin. They've also shut down offices around the country from Portland to Philadelphia. While a good amount of those were allowed to work remotely upon shut down others were let go in not the most upfront fashion. Training them on the new system they will be working with, just to keep them unaware of the fact they were going to be using glassdoor soon to find another job. Certainly there is more office shut downs to come although this has not been said, and really the only question will be who gets kept around remote and how long do they keep all these people remote when they have all this office space in Wisconsin...I wonder..) - You live in the state Wisconsin. (Yes, you’ll have a wee bit more job security there for now, but I hope you will also like the increased workload you’ll take on as other offices are closed and positions are consolidated. They don’t like replacing people when they leave or are let go. Don’t bother asking for more money when this happens.) - You are motivated to help clients and truly care about customer satisfaction. (You may have seen it recognized in other posts but the Technology is so outdated and almost beyond repair. They are forcing this Learning Management System down the throats of every business unit like its the messiah of online training even though it was built for just for banks years ago. Now even in the case of banks it's not cutting the mustard and clients are becoming disgruntled with inaccurate reports, inaccessible tools, and no answers to when things will be resolved. The technology team consistently over promises and under delivers, and even when a patch comes out it almost always winds up breaking more than it fixes. Regardless of how bad this technology is though, it's full steam ahead with the mission to put the world on the new LMS whether they want it or not, whether it works or not.) - You expect to develop a career by demonstrating your value to your superiors through hard work and dependability. (Sure emails come out publicizing that somebody just received a new position and is now in charge of this team, or will be doing this important function, etc. You know what makes these emails hard to believe? Answer, when the company email sent out is recognizing your recent promotion. However, that offer letter you just received for that “promotion” gave you more responsibility and they cut your pay in half...literally half. That doesn't sound much like a promotion to me. I’ll sum this up for you with a quote befitting of what you should do. "Run. Run Away, and never return." - Scar (1994) Advice to management: First things first, don’t plead for employees to post positive comments on Glassdoor when there are clear signs that things are not right within the company based on numerous negative posts. For the President to come out and say I need you guys to bury our dirty laundry, rather than address the stink by throwing a load in the washer really exemplifies how out of touch he is. I guess congrats for boosting your rating .3 Stars by twisting some arms but maybe.. TAKE REAL ACTION! Second, you don’t need to hire new Executive Vice President’s every day. OnCourse hires Execs like the ESPN sports desk hires every NFL star of the past, they just keep multiplying. Instead how about focus on getting some young talent on the ground floor to support the work streams that current employees are struggling with. Then actively recognize that talent and cultivate it. As much as you’d like to think you do, you don’t. Trust me, I watched the revolving door of fresh faces come, become defeated, and leave. Third, if you’re going to be taking over a new group of people and make drastic changes to workflow and compensations...for the love of God, take 5 minutes to have a conversation with all the employees to inherited. There’s no need to have the leadership style of a Crocodile, lurking under the surface watching everything and saying nothing. Learn their weaknesses and strengths so you can place them where you think they belong, don’t just do it on a whim. Especially when it’s a team of a whopping 10 people. Ohh, and when you have that 5 minute conversation...or in some cases 30 minute conversation, maybe try to remember them. It doesn’t really register well when somebody pitches you a well thought out idea and then you a couple months later shake their hand and think it's the first time you’ve ever met. Then to follow that up with a conversation telling your employee they need to demonstrate their value, and make themselves invaluable...it’s a slap in the face. Speaking of slaps in the face, how about don’t tell employees that they don’t make a lot of money and you have no intention on paying them more anytime soon. I don’t have 40 years of Upper Management experience, but my gut is telling me that’s not how you inspire people to stick around. Simply put, this ship is headed right towards an iceberg and the captains too busy playing ping-pong to be found at the helm. If you don’t really sit back and think about the course you are on this is going to end badly for everyone. You took independently successful companies, and sucked every ounce of culture out of them. You’ve uninspired your employees to the point that a trip to the office gives people a sickening feeling in the pit of their stomach. You skew data to reflect your prerogative, and run away from the true internal concerns. I say this fully knowing that those capable will do nothing about it and this has been a giant waste of my time. Instead I’ll direct this section to staff and all I will hope is that when this ship goes down, the people that deserve the lifeboats make it to them. Don’t go down with the ship “OnCourse Learners”. The skipper and his best mates (Pat and the Gang), are going to want to hear your beautiful quartet music until the bitter end, but I ask you lay down your cello and violins. Get on those lifeboats and cut the strings before they ever get the chance to escape without you. I know you said you’ll never let go and you want to hold on, but do it. Inevitably, many of you will have to paddle through rough waves before you find land, unfortunately it’s the situation you’re in. It’s still a far better fate than being sucked down with that ship though...and at the end of the day I promise other opportunities will come and have you feeling like you’re “King of the World”.