Affiliated Computer Services Reviews

Pros

Vaction plans
Health Benefits
It's a job

Cons

uncompetative salary
no job growth
squeezing the employee internally
RIF
furlough
payroll deductions
no 401k match
cutthroat management attitude bread by corporate initiatives to save money internally

Advice to Senior Management

Look at the cons.

Pros

Flexibility of scheduling if you are salary, otherwise it is very rough.

Cons

ABC pay is a good system if used with the right metrics, The way it is used with the Apple project is complete garbage. Advisors are paid based on their luck and they pray that the super mad customer doesnt send a survey back in.

Advice to Senior Management

Not up to the local management to change anything.

Pros

There are many dedicated, hard working employees of ACS. ITO is a fast paced environment with a lot of different clients. You have the ability to work remotely in ITO.

Cons

There is too much work to be done and not enough resources to do the work. Senior management has turned a blind eye to the problems in ITO. They seem only to care about bringing in the large contracts and not about actually successfully fulfilling the contracts. There is tremendous pressure to work excessive hours every week to get the job done. The ITO organization in the BA and development groups are too lean to be successful. The groups have revolving doors, with employees getting tired of the crazy pace and leaving.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the client facing employees. Hire more resources and slow down the incoming pace of contracts until people can become comfortable and competent in their jobs. Requiring furloughs when groups are already short staffed is so short sighted.

Pros

Management is hands off most of the time
It is easy to take on more responsibility to learn new technologies

Cons

If you make a mistake there is no learning or constructive criticism given
People in other groups were way in over their head and many times I had to do their job for them or watch them do their job to verify it was done correctly
Hire competent people and retain them

Advice to Senior Management

Stop having your employees work on multiple projects it hurts efficiency and productivity. Hire those that know what they are doing and listen when those people tell you that others on their team are incompetent. If an employee is always making excuses maybe it is time to let that employee work somewhere else.

Pros

peers are extraordinary. working across teams was very supportive.

Cons

inconsistent management. does not give recognition to employees.

Advice to Senior Management

listen to employees. management tries to "pigeon-hole" every team and does not allow for differences.

Pros

Co-workers and mid level managers are not just excellent people but great at what they do.

Cons

Un-organized, inefficient beyond belief, no accountability, GREEDY.
Benefits are horrible. No raises in years. No 401k match.

Advice to Senior Management

Xerox needs to get all the way in before ACS runs what could be a better, more efficient, money maker INTO THE GROUND. This company is being bleed dry by the high ups. Not meeting contracts, tranishing the reputation and working/treating your employees like crap.

Pros

They pay great compared with other companies.
Projects are interesting.
Coworkers are nice and immediate managers are good bosses

Cons

Upper management seems to live in an ivory tower and their mistakes translate into no 401k match and furlough days.
Only 10 days of vacation and 4 floating holidays.
Working with state governments can be a pain.

Advice to Senior Management

Actually read the results of employee surveys. Why bother with the survey if you don't read it?
Your job should be to remove roadblocks for employees to get work done and complete projects on time. Don't be the one to create roadblocks.

Pros

If you need to build your resume, ACS is a great place to work, because you are exposed to so many different aspects. I'm a BA, but I have also done technical writing, project managment, payroll....basically wherever there is a need, you may be moved around and exposed to that experience. This looks great on a resume!

If you just want a data entry position, most position are based on your productivity. Depending on what area you work in, this can be very rewarding if you work hard, and it's nice to know you are paid for your hard work and those who slack around you are paid, also, exactly what they are worth.

Great PTO package if you've been there long enough to get the max amount. I think it equates to something like 4.5 weeks after you are there 7 years.

Cons

If you already work there, FORGET about getting any kind of a pay increase. They have had a pay freeze in affect for the past 4 years, and each year they say it's going to be lifted the next year. Prior to the pay freeze, they actually had all IT professionals take a 4% pay decrease across the board. Not cool!

Most areas expect you to perform above and beyond constantly. This means you are always on call and almost always have to bring work home with you just to keep up with tight dead lines.

No encouragement for existing employees to remain employed or pursue promotions.

The development process is sloppy. It always seems rushed and does not follow the phases of the SDLC to support a solid end product. There always seems to be disputes about what the actual business requirements were when the customer gets the end product, but there is never any clear documentation to support it (even thought we supposedly follow the correct process).

Insurance is expensive if you have a family. If you are single, it's about average.

Advice to Senior Management

Give deserving employees raises. Encourage promotion within, instead of hiring outsiders much more to take a position that you could have given to an internal employee for just 7% raise, and saving you money in the end. Give long term employees a reason to stick around. Currently there are no reasons to stay, which is why Im leaving after 10 years.

Pros

Time off flexibility. You aren't bothered unless the job is not getting done.

Cons

Manage from lower to upper are only worried about metrics. They are not involved until something is blowing up in their face and rely on their employees to give them information. No raises in 4 yrs, stopped 401k contribution and was bought out by Xerox and only seems to get worse now. Last year %pay was taken away and now this year furlough.

Advice to Senior Management

Step up and actually look at what is going on. Stop looking at reports and get your hands dirty. You beat us up to get work done and when its done nothing in return. We are down team members and other are picking up the slack and you still beat us up on getting things done. Get out behind your desk and pitch in.

Pros

It's a paycheck; nothing more and nothing less. The job was decent once you got used to it and I felt like I was helping people. If the atmosphere and the pay had been better I could have definitely done it long term.

Cons

ACS has locations in Raleigh and Cary; I worked at the Cary location. I had worked in call centers before and they're all pretty much the same, although ACS was without a doubt the most unprofessional one I've ever worked in. It's the atmosphere that really does you in; a lot of acting out and drama from young, inexperienced folks who are new to the work force. This is not a job that necessarily requires a college degree and that shows. The training isn't the greatest either; you'll be thrown on the floor without too much knowledge. The trainers I had were decent folks but have limited control over the adolescent behavior that permeates most of the classes. The training takes about a month and they have an awful lot to cram into that time. You also get people that just do the training and then quit before they ever make it to the floor, all the while looking for another job. The training is paid and you had people who were actually surfing the internet on cell phones and on the class computers while the training was going on, looking for other work or engaging in other activities unrelated to the class. You also had trainees with honest, reasonable questions for the trainer who would be scoffed at by other class members who felt the questions were dumb. Nothing was done about this and I didn't feel it was fair that these people were treated in this manner. In other jobs I've had you would have been fired for this type of behavior.

If you're hired for temp you will usually be let go after about three months. That's what happened to me. My position was dealing with inbound calls for benefits enrollment for a variety of clients. Every year companies have an open enrollment period where their employees can opt to change or keep their current benefits. ACS has year round benefits reps too; the temps are hired because it becomes very busy during open enrollment and as the call volume drops off people are let go. Many times they hire people through the temp agencies at a higher rate of pay then let them go and try to re-hire them for much less with the idea that you also get benefits, not something I was willing to do as at the higher salary I could have gotten my own. The work space for temps was reasonable; we were in an unused area of the building. However, if you are made permanent, you're usually moved to an area where people have to sit very close together, two to a cubicle. If there's something going around you'll catch it, even in a "one to a cubicle" situation, let alone when there are two people sitting inches from each other. And if you don't get along with your co-worker in that cramped space? Tough luck, and you'd better hope they're not talking loudly on their call while you're on yours as it makes the job that much tougher.

"Handle Time" is big in call centers, which is understandable. This is the amount of time it takes a rep to resolve a customer issue from the time they pick up until the time they hang up. At ACS this is a big deal and they want the handle times to be a quick. Unfortunately, when dealing with benefits, this isn't always possible. Helping someone enroll can be tricky and if it's an elderly or retired person the call can go considerably slower. There are some very good reps who are quick and thorough and some who are much slower but also thorough. ACS knows when someone isn't doing the job correctly, fast or slow, but needs to give some slack to the folks who do it a bit slower but well. Statistics are released every day that everyone can see, showing what each employees handle time was the previous day. This is very embarrassing to some folks, for obvious reasons, and doesn't enhance the work atmosphere.

Whatever you read about the lack of parking and short lunches in the NC locations is absolutely true. I had one co-worker who was afraid to walk to her car after dark because of the nonsense that would go on in the parking lot/garage; as mentioned they hire a lot of young folks who have never worked in a professional atmosphere and would get in fights, they're outside smoking, swearing, etc. On an eight hour shift you usually get a 1/2 hour lunch with a couple of 15 minute breaks but these can be canceled if call volume is high. There are a couple of breakrooms with vending machines and coffee, and some of the local fast food chains come on certain days with prepackaged foods they sell at lunch in the lobby. When I was there, a guy with a hot dog truck would show up daily in the parking lot for several hours. Believe me, this comes in handy since lunch is so short. If you work a later shift you're better off bringing your lunch but good luck finding refrigerator space. There is a shopping center you can walk to in about five minutes and the supermarket there has a decent buffet, but you'd be be a jogger to save time.

Not everything at the Cary location deals with benefits; they also handle customer service calls for other companies like Sprint. The benefits jobs, however, pay the best and are much better than the sales jobs.

I'm grateful that it came along at a point in time when I really needed the money but I would NEVER work there again. That being said I did my job well, carried myself professionally, worked the length of my contract without quitting and can get a good reference.

Advice to Senior Management

Value your good employees and give them the proper respect. Don't turn your employees statistics into a competition. Give each employee a reasonably sized work area to improve the work environment.