Acquity Group Reviews

Pros

Acquity Group is a great blend of a small-company feel with large company success. They provide services & solutions to the big-name brands, yet the Leadership team makes an effort to know each individual employee.

They are very entrepreneurial in spirit, meaning they continually revise their service & solution offerings based on the market demands. I’ve been here for over six years and I’ve seen the company grow from a traditional technology-focused consulting firm to a full-service Digital Marketing Agency. I’ve had opportunities here to proactively grow and shape my experience level right along with the company.

Note to parents: I’m a working Mom (and became so while working for Acquity Group). AG has been very supportive of the flexibility I need to work around Day Care commitments. This was a huge mental relief for me and something I don’t think you get a lot of places.

Cons

The long-term benefits aren't great. Although I believe they may be revised at some point.
This isn't a 40-hour-a-week job. If you are looking for a steady-eddy job, this isn’t the place for you.

Pros

They are growing fast and with the recent IPO, expect more growth. Some interesting projects. Some good colleagues. PTO. Also travel opportunities. But that's standard in this line of work. Good stepping stone to bigger better things.

Cons

Don't say you haven't been warned. The environment is incredibly toxic. Employees are not treated with any respect. Many reviews have pointed this out but let's make it clear - it's toxic and some of the best talent is leaving due to being overworked/burned out/and unfairly treated by management

Additional cons:
-Way too many incompetent managers. Please get rid of them all!
-Extremely political environment - either you play the game or you will not make it here
-Management are very impersonal, even for just a 500+ employee company
-Poor career mentorship
-PM's that belong in sweatshops rather leading implementations at consulting company
-So-called incompetent "experts/SMEs" that need to rely on developers to answer even the simplest question about a platform
-Promotion is based on favoritism

Advice to Senior Management

Fire all incompetent managers, especially PMs, delivery leads, SMEs, who dont know how to run/manage projects. Stop moving them around - they will never succeed. Take care of your people, especially the ones who are the heart and soul of the organization.

Pros

nice people, company is doing some cool things

Cons

this is a sweatshop. They work you so hard until you cant take it anymore

Advice to Senior Management

more opportunities for employees

Pros

-Fun-loving coworkers
-Interesting projects
-Flexible work/life balance

Cons

-Poor structure and governance
-Sales folks do a very poor job of estimating projects; poor accountability
-No investment in employees

Advice to Senior Management

Invest in your people! They are your primary (only) true asset?

Pros

The pay is decent and the health insurance is OK.

Cons

The culture is extremely toxic. Employees are commodities and they could care less if they lose all of the their accounts as long as they have new accounts in the pipeline. If you are value customer service and doing a job well done then do NOT work there. They will not value you or your health, MANY people have been let go, do your homework before you work there. Check out LinkedIn and see how many ex employees they have had in the last month alone. The West Coast is particularly toxic. Most employees are running scared and it is apparent by the atmosphere of tension and negativity. Bottom line, It's a misogynistic boys club with type A personalities.

Advice to Senior Management

Get new Sr. Management and find some enlightenment while you are at it.

Pros

Smart people
Great clients
Great biz dev

Cons

No professional development opportunities
Opaque promotions process
Good old boy network

Advice to Senior Management

Give people a chance to develop on company time, less pressure to bill a full 40, quit growing so you can sell high

Pros

- Interesting work for some very good brands in multiple industries and with leading technologies
- nice mix of creative and technology professionals
- younger professionals can still learn a lot from type of work and peers, but there are better work cultures and benefits available to them elsewhere

Cons

No corporate culture or strategy; poor career development. Sub-standard benefits. Poor corporate communications. One of the least diverse places to work.
Processes and tools are still very immature, making day-to-day ops very manual and difficult.
Little is invested back into the company or employee development; it's all about new revenue.
Executives are not incented nor held accountable for employee engagement, morale and development. Bonuses are based only on sales, sales, sales.
Very difficult to staff projects effectively with the right skills and hit target margins; lots of dependence on sub-contractors

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on making it a great place to work as much as on sales - with defined career paths, skills required per level, better training and education, better benefits (401K matching, employee stock options, etc.) and attrition should improve along with morale and revenue growth. At a minimum, start an annual employee engagement survey to understand what's working, what's not, and what people what. Show you have a vested interest in everyone's success.

Pros

They buy beers for the office a few times a year.
Standard Consultant things like a laptop, clean offices, insurance

Cons

They claim to be a "creative agency" and have opened up offices in NYC and on the West Coast (LA, SF and Seattle). They are absolutely NOT a creative place to work. Acquity promotes itself as some hip trendy savvy company. The actual working environment is very far from that. This is simply a MidWestern tech company with all of the backwards thinking that goes with it. There is a high turnover rate and they do not care about their employees. The atmosphere is TOXIC.

Company have actually promoted and praised managers that have made people quit!

Complete and utter lack of concern for clients. Everything is about billable hours even if the work is marginal. All they care about is money. They even belittle clients in meetings and around the office.

They got written up as a top agency in Forrester because, surprise, they have a relationship with them. They get work because there is such a high demand for Internet Technology services these days that anyone with some talent (and a few good developers) around can be successful these days. So find another company to work for or work with.

Here's a funny annecdote. The company solicited their employees on Facebook to write up feedback on why Acquity was a great place to work (to encourage new hires). Out of some 500+ (300+ likes) employees, only 4 gave a response. Hardly an enthusiastic reception.

Advice to Senior Management

Rethink the people you have put in charge of the West Coast including the people you promoted who actually infected the West Division from the beginning. Send everyone else to leadership and team development training and maybe you can salvage a few of the good employees who have not quit.
Stop preaching one thing and acting another way.

Pros

Nice Offices, Good location. Efficient expense report processing.

Cons

No coordination between sales staff and managers. Limited interest in consulting opportunities that are not related to web marketing and branding. No training or bench time planning for consultants.

Advice to Senior Management

Sales staff is too complacent and too narrowly focused on Web work. E commerce projects involve more than content management and web site layout and design. Acquity needs expertise in those areas as well as UI design. Packaged products like Hybris don't compensate for the lack of knowledge.

Pros

Working with brands you interact with everyday on their innovative digital solutions

Cons

Not knowing some of the newest and most innovative engagements due to lack of communication

Advice to Senior Management

Cross training for entry level associates