Acxiom Reviews

Pros

-Good people overall
-Many individuals dedicated to excellence within their spheres of influence
-Strong data assets
-Family-friendly, flexibile policies enabling associates to get things done

Cons

-Top executives and many recent hires into upper leadership that literally have no idea what the core of the company does
-Desire by upper management for the company to "be" something that customers do not (and will not) ever perceive Acxiom to be
-Location: Little Rock is a great place, but Acxiom is losing the talent race for top notch hires
-Pay scales throughout much of the company are tied to location of HQ; i.e., salaries tend to be normed to Little Rock

Advice to Senior Management

-Recognize what is actually at the core of the company and build from there
-Continued binge/purge cycles have led to an increasingly disengaged workforce, so do what you can to improve the climate or know that the talent exodus will continue
-Acxiom is neither EDS nor McKinsey nor Omnicom. Acxiom clients don't think of us in any of those categories, and they won't no matter how hard we try to re-establish positioning.
-There is still money to be made in being an outstanding marketing database services company if you can just activate the online channel more effectively.

Pros

Flexible work hours
Liberal time off policy
Ability to work from home as needed

Cons

No clear career development path
Lack of needed training
Raises rarely happen
Employee pay cuts and cuts in 401K matching are common occurrences when the company fails to meet its targets
The medical, dental, and vision insurance benefits are costly and increase in cost each year while the quality of coverage declines

Advice to Senior Management

Find ways to address challenging business conditions without impacting the employees so drastically.

Pros

Individuals, not in leadership roles, that put in the extra effort to get things done, Good solutions and previous reputation of company.

Cons

Poor internal communications, defective HR and other tools, zero crisis management, unrealistic goals for teams and individuals, inept leadership, verly low morale, lack of caring, poor investments in non productive training, knee jerk implementations.

Advice to Senior Management

You are loosing key talent-remove your heads from the clouds and get real employee involvement and don't drive shareholder satisfaction just by cutting cuting cutting.

Pros

People not in management, teams

Cons

Poor internal systems, push to sell prior to a product's full development, poor employee treatment, poor communications, old boys school management, management arrogance.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat employees better.

Pros

This is a dynamic environment with many interesting challenges. If you can make it at Acxiom you can make it anywhere.

Cons

There are too many long hours worked by too few people with no compensation for the long hours. There is no recognition from senior leadership for the heroic efforts of the front line team.

Advice to Senior Management

Compensate those people who are regularly putting in extraordinary hours. That compenstation does not necessarily need to be in the form of salary, but could be attendance at seminars and conferences.

Pros

* Friendly people
* Flexible time off and scheduling for personal things
* Significant opportunities for people who get noticed as rock stars

Cons

* Disorganized
* Lack of accountability / clear paths to promotion
* Bad hiring and promotion
* NY location has limited opportunities for moving to other teams in the company.

Advice to Senior Management

Formalize human resources processes, open up communication, do not fear confrontation, invest in tools for success.

Pros

Acxiom has great people, flexible hours, great community. Technical associates get to work with a wide range of techical products. It beats being unemployed, but not by much.

Cons

Long hours, four years of paycuts and long string of poor decisions by leadership has created a deep hole that will be difficult to dig out of. Overcommitments to clients and underinvestment in tools and associates is turning a once strong client base into an angry mob.

Advice to Senior Management

You employ some very strong technical talent - use them to help make Acxiom strong again! $30mm deals with software vendors because you got to attend a PGA event, despite the fact that the tools do not meet business requirements, is not building morale.

Pros

Good Projects
For the most part good people to work with
Good social support network
Work with a lot of big name brands

Cons

Poor remuneration / compensation package
Long working hours
US overrides UK far too strongly - hands are tied for pretty much everything.

Advice to Senior Management

Let the UK/Europe do its own thing, it will deliver much better results for the corporation as a whole
Improve compensation packages

Pros

Access to interesting technologies and new marketing initiatives
Offers a flexible work schedule
Offers a robust solution set to clients

Cons

Benefits
Constant restructuring/realignment
Internal groups fight with each other rather than help each other
Pay is not in line with market
Long hours

Advice to Senior Management

Set up a structure that is designed for collaboration that will benefit our clients not one that causes dissention and bickering.

Pros

Promotes teamwork, open communication and fair compensation

Cons

No clear defined job roles and lack of direction

Advice to Senior Management

No at this time