Tolmar Reviews

2.9

45% would recommend to a friend

(220 total reviews)

56% positive business outlook

Tolmar has an employee rating of 2.9 out of 5 stars, based on 220 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Tolmar employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Pharmaceutical and biotechnology industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

220 reviews
1.0
27 Feb 2018

An Incredibly Dysfunctional Company

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

-Benefits, 401K Employer Match -Paid Birthday Holiday and full week off around Christmas -(depending on whether you're hourly or not) a lot of overtime

Cons

Although it's had different names, the main facility and departments at TOLMAR have been around for roughly 25 years. You would think this would be enough time for a company to come up with procedures and systems for adequate training, handling growth, and adopting a culture of quality. You couldn't be more wrong. In my three years working here I have seen a lot of promising individuals come and go once they realized how the big the problems are, and how unlikely they're going to be fixed. It is very difficult for this company to retain talent. With that, what you have left is people in leadership positions who lack experience and maturity. Many employees and reviews I'm seeing say the company has "growing pains." That would count if the company had some kind of plan for growth in the first place. The truth is all decisions are made in haste, without thinking things through, and without consideration for the repercussions downstream. This is our expansion the two new facilities in Fort Collins and Windsor in a nutshell. There is no culture of quality here, but rather that of fear, a "just get it done" attitude, and a lot of office politics. There is a skeleton crew in every department and unreasonably tight budget constraints, to the point where it interferes with departments doing the most basic projects. With the lack of structure, your way up depends on who you're related to or how well you cozy up with supervisors. On top of that, the pay is low - and saying "below market rate" misses the point. This is the only pharmaceutical company in the area, for now TOLMAR owns the market. I would like to think this company has potential, but it doesn't exist with our current leadership, not until they hold themselves accountable for the sustainsble growth of this company, promote based on demontrated performance, keep the cronyism in-check, invest in their employees, and operate with integrity. Other pharmaceutical companies will show up in Northern Colorado, and TOLMAR will lose employees fast when that happens. -Frequent Restructuring in Upper Management -Lacking in Training -No Work-Life Balance -Poor Compensation -Inept Supervisors/Managers -Favoritism/Cronyism -Toxic Environment in some departments

avatar
Tolmar Response
8y
Thank you for sharing your feedback - we are sorry to hear that you feel this way. Since you are a current employee, we would also be happy to address your concerns through the direct avenues available to you so that you could provide more specifics in support of a constructive process toward resolution. Although it is true that our company has been in existence in different forms for over 25 years, we have only existed in our current structure as Tolmar since 2007. Before Tolmar, we were part of a Canadian company, QLT, and prior to that we were Atrix Laboratories. During the time that we have been established as Tolmar, we have experienced exponential growth - expanding from 134 employees in 2007 to the 652 employees we have today. As you mention, this type of rapid expansion does not come without its challenges, which we have weathered in the most feasible ways possible given the dynamics of change. Two years ago, we evaluated areas of our operations that needed improvements and determined, as you mentioned, that our training process had tremendous room for improvement. Since this discovery we have formed a Learning and Development team that is dedicated to revamping and improving our approach to training, including training on leadership development. This has been an extensive undertaking and is being rolled out in phases by department, with 2 of our largest departments currently implementing these processes. Every attempt is made to ensure our employees are able to experience a positive work/life balance. One of the ways we ensure this is through our generous benefits package, which provides employees with 3 weeks of paid time off annually, an additional week of sick pay each year, and a holiday closure in December which allows them to spend a week or more with their families without using any vacation time, and other personal leave opportunities as a qualifying need arises. Additionally, we offer a very generous 401(k) match in order to help prepare our employees financially for a future beyond their tenure with the company. Another demonstration of our respect for our employees’ lives outside of work is our commitment to limiting our expansion to facilities located in Northern Colorado. While a more centralized “campus” may have made our expansion easier logistically, our interest in focusing on new facilities in the geographic area where the majority of our employees live was intentional to avoid a company move to the Denver metro area. Employee compensation is evaluated at a minimum on an annual basis, utilizing validated salary data detailing comparable pay practices in the pharmaceutical industry as well as in Northern Colorado. Through these routine verifications, we are continually ensuring that employees are paid at or above current market averages. Finally, we strive to put quality at the forefront of everything we do. Our commitment to quality can be seen in our audit history, having never received any warning letters and being audited by multiple regulatory agencies on a regular basis. We also make every effort to keep employees as up to date as possible on quality training initiatives. All employees receive annual cGMP training and supplemental trainings throughout the year related to quality practices. We pride ourselves on transparency and would appreciate the opportunity to respond personally to your valued feedback.
2.0
20 May 2016

Troubled company

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Medical, dental and 401K benefits. There are a lot of very good employees who are helpful, caring and devoted. The company is growing, layoffs are not a problem.

Cons

Tolmar is heading for trouble due to poor upper management decisions. Quality is slipping due to a “we want it done right now” attitude taking precedence over “we want it done right”. Setting unrealistic deadlines that are impossible to meet and then blaming and punishing the employees who bend over backwards to try to reach those deadlines is driving good people out of the company. Politics, favoritism towards the worst in management and blame is the new norm. They do not invest in their employees- they have slashed all training budgets so there is minimal training and absolutely no concern for employee goals or professional development. The computer systems are so out of date that many of the software programs required for daily business are not upgradable, and no longer supported. Employees need to work with antiquated sample tracking and trending, inadequate and outdated training programs and systems. Current employees beware- HR is not your friend, they are not on your side. Also, you will get paid more to go to a different company.

1.0
7 Jul 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The people that I've had the privilege to work with are some of the most amazing, inspired, loyal, intelligent people you could ever meet. The benefits, while industry standard, are still pretty good. 15 days off a year (sick time pulls from this pool), a week holiday time between Christmas and New Year's, you get your birthday off, full medical/dental/vision with an HSA option where the company will contribute money to your account, and matching 401k. There's a pretty decent ability to grow your career, provided you don't mind changing departments every couple of years. Waiting to be promoted in your current group just isn't going to happen, but changing departments too often can paint you as impatient, not a team player, and greedy. There's a balance point there, but it can be hard to find.

Cons

The CEO is completely disconnected from the realities of modern day generic pharmaceutical development. The business approach to targeting projects is fundamentally flawed, and is resulting in cancelled project after cancelled project, often times after a substantial amount of money and time has been invested with literally nothing to show for it. The CEO neither understands, nor respects, the scientific process for developing products. Test results come back not optimal? MAKE THEM WORK. Not having the appropriate equipment to produce results? YOU CAN HAVE MORE RESOURCES ONCE YOU MAGICALLY MAKE THIS WORK. This company is on a downward spiral until they remove him. There is a complete lack of accountability in senior management. Problems and setbacks are going to happen, but instead of trying to proactively deal with the problem, blame is assigned indiscriminately, often times to departments that not only aren't responsible, but more often than not had nothing to do with the problem and just happen to be the company "whipping boy" at the time. Reviews are conducted inconsistently, and unethically. Review scores are artificially lowered in order to satisfy the CEO's desire to wholesale punish a department. What's your motivation to over-perform when a temper tantrum can lower your score out of the range for promotion? The worst part is that senior HR management is implicit in this process, and has no qualms about signing off on his despotic demands. The pay is well under industry standards. I took a job at a similar company, doing very similar work and got a giant promotion and a pay increase that basically doubled my salary. To borrow a quote, "You think hiring a professional is expensive? Wait until you hire an amateur." PLEASE FIGURE THAT OUT BEFORE YOU LOSE ALL YOUR GOOD EMPLOYEES!

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