Academy for Educational Development Reviews

Pros

Great colleagues, great benefits, flexible hours

Cons

After the suspension everyone left and the work has been limited

Advice to Senior Management

The six-month rule between positions should be flexible in some cases.

Pros

Travel and somewhat of comraderie, but very centric to which project you work.

Cons

A lot of nepotism, especially once the organization lost funding from the State Department and was acquired by another non-profit.

Advice to Senior Management

Promote those that actually work.

Pros

If you are in a good position, you can pursue your own projects and funding.
Lots of talented people at AED.
Physical work environment good.
The Mission is good, but it seems to be only words

Cons

The competitive environment between centers inhibits collaboration and lowers the quality of work we are able to do.
Senior management are only interested in new business development or when there are problems. There seems to be little or no concern for the quality of our work.
Positive performance is not recognized. But when there are problems, you can be attacked.
Management is top-down with little focus on a person's humanity.
There are no mechanisms to communicate up the chain.
There is a culture of self-censorship that seems to arise from a fear of reprisal
Promotions are handled first from a political perspective.
Senior management states that technical excellence is AED's most valued asset. However, all promotions and recognition are provide for people in management positions with little or no technical capacity.
Some teams are really dysfunctional.
Performance assessment process is a joke and purely an administrative task.
The disparity between the lowest salaries and the highest are embarrassing for a non-profit.
If someone needs to be paid over $300K for the privilege to make a positive difference in the world than something is really wrong and they should go to the private sector. We cannot be dedicated to our mission if we have to paid so much.

Advice to Senior Management

Open and use your ears.
Create a 360 degree assessment process.
Destroy the culture of self-censorship
Create policies that will punish internal competition and rewards collaboration
Live the mission. Focus more on excellent work and less on business development
Reduce the salary disparity and lower the top salaries to no more than $300K

Pros

Benefits are OK, and the educational development benefit is useful; it pays for conference attendance or professional memberships.

Cons

Overall chaos and disorganization prevailed at AED even prior to their being banned from receiving further USAID funding. After that, even worse conditions developed. Payment of reimbursements and postal allowances (for working in a dangerous foreign environment) were delayed or denied for no apparent reason. Communication between management and employees became adversarial and fraught with mistrust. Promises had been made by middle managers in conflict with AED policy and resulted in employee disenchantment. Employees' adverse reactions to being lied to were not validated.
A bait & switch approach to salary information was used to attract employees to positions as contractors, then they were switched to regular employees at greatly reduced salaries. Employees were expected to develop educational programs without access to libraries or textbooks. Orders for materials were delayed by months due to bureaucratic inaction.
Employees in a country known for terrorist activity were housed in unsafe conditions and transported without safety precautions as recommended by their own emergency insurance plan.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire managers who do not see their relationship to employees as an adversarial one. Get better contract writers; contract terms were unclear and unreasonable because the contract was written by someone without experience on the ground in the host country and without an educational background. Make sure that communication with employees is honest and is conducted on a professional level by all employees. Do not place managers in a position for which they are not qualified. Take better care of overseas staff members.

Pros

Great location! Some very talented and competent staff.

Cons

I wonder how the organization can work on behalf of the US Government and lead programs that support, protect and promote values such as transparency, gender equality, anti corruption, advocacy, healthy lifestyles when it does not practice it! I'm at a loss for words trying to comprehend how AED continues to get ridiculous amounts of money from our government when the economy is so bad.

Advice to Senior Management

Return the money to tax payers, stop corruption and treat your employees with dignity and respect. And fire some many of the top senior and mid level managers that perpetuate an environment of fear and corruption.

Pros

Lots of opportunities for learning and accessing information at the DC headquarters; a diverse collection of many talented and competent professionals; plenty of funding available with enormous potential to truly make a difference and implement quality programming.

Cons

Inefficient systems for the management of overseas projects make processes and approvals move slowly; overseas staff, including US Americans, treated as second-class citizens by headquarters. Although there are many US American minorities who are AED employees, very few of them are in senior management positions.

Advice to Senior Management

Do a management review and overhaul of the major systems, beginning with finance and grants systems to support overseas projects. Streamline decision-making and improve the balance of power between headquarters and field projects. Review salary compensation and decrease the large disparities between top management and management staff. Transform valuing workplace diversity talk into real action, assure that managers are not only trained in these policies but that they also comply.

Pros

AED has access to a huge range of options in terms of countries, projects and topics in which it works, and its staff is very competent and diverse. Climate is friendly, open and respectful. Provides opportunities and expects staff to be self-managed in terms of their time and tasks. Benefits are great. Location of the main offices is great too.

Cons

AED management is surprisingly weak considering its success in the industry - probably a reflection of growing up with its main source of funding (US government agencies). Incentives and compensation do not address the needs for development of the organization nor its staff, but rather compensate giving "110% because management messed up." Local staff in field offices are second-class citizens with few chances for advancement in the organization. Overall the organization is wasting the huge potential of its staff and knowledge.

Advice to Senior Management

Be less hidebound. Break down stove-piping, commit in practice to your words: a global organization.

Pros

Nice people, pleasant office space filled with art, frequent cultural and educational events open to all staff. Quite good benefits.

Cons

Serving in a technical role (web and database developer for one of AED's projects) I feel too far removed from having a direct positive impact on any of the areas in which AED works. I've also been frustrated by the IT department, which is inflexible when it comes to their policies. For example, Remote Desktop Connection is also blocked, which makes it very difficult for me to work from home. I'm sure that inflexible IT policies are not unique to AED, but it's new to me, coming from a college environment that was much more permissive.

Working in a technical role in this organization can be isolating, because there is no network amongst other staff doing similar work for other projects. In my job, I have no technical mentor or anyone who can review my design decisions.

Advice to Senior Management

On the right track.

Pros

AED is a thought and practice leader in government contracting around so many types of social issues. It is a great place to start your career and gain transferable skills while you figure out your own interests and talents. If you get the right manager, AED central services provides great resources for personal and professional development. It is easy to move up and to gain great skills that are recognized throughout the international development community. They have great infrastructure and facilities for a non-profit and are located in a nice location to work. The roof deck is a major perk.

Cons

It's a large place and easy to get stuck with a less-than-forward-thinking manager who does not always see the big picture.
They have major leadership pipeline issues: many upper level staff get too bogged down in administrative or programmatic tasks instead of being strategic leaders.
Some senior managers have work-life balance issues and expect the same level of commitment from their underpaid staff.
Compared to other organizations, there are very few opportunities for international travel for lower and mid level employees.
The organization does not have a strategic communications strategy- neither internal nor external, and could benefit from some better reflection on the way that they talk to their employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Do a social network analysis to compare the informal relationship realities with the formal organizational structure.

Pros

The breadth and depth of the knowledge of international projects that AED employees work on is incredible. They are in over 80 countries around the globe and have wonderful opportunities to participate in these programs.

Cons

Usually when you get hired, they low-ball your offer. You can talk them up however. They also offer full benefits, but watch out for the medical plan that the doctors you want to see are covered. Many of the popular doctors under the larger health plans in DC are NOT in the health plan they offer. Also watch out if you're a short timer -- retirement doesn't kick in until one year on the job.

Advice to Senior Management

Truth in advertising -- please don't say one thing, yet do another. It's a bit disingenuous.