Affiliated Computer Services Reviews in Portland, OR Area

Pros

-Comparable compensation packages
-Stable company as a whole

Cons

-Poor management at local level
-Large divide between management and workforce
-Very much a "good ol' boys club" which rewarded the inner circle, allowing only the select few enter.

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs a shakedown from time to time in order to keep from developing cliches and buddy buddy groups. The high turnover rate of the work force will improve with more objectionable leadership.

Pros

The knowledge and skill sets of team members was the best part of working here.

Cons

Management repeatedly lied to us. Work more work harder and oh wait, half the team is getting outsourced and no raises!

Advice to Senior Management

The company needs to look at the employees as humans and not just a salary cost.

Pros

Variety int the type of work.

Cons

Promotion path, employees are not valued, benefits packages are expensive.

Pros

Job is fairly easy if you have the ability to talk intelligently to people. Ability to win cool Apple gear in contests

Cons

Pay rate continues to decrease over time, now at just 10 cents over what an entry level teenager would make pumping gas. Yet, an advisor at ACS is expected to maintain a fairly high level of technical expertise and try to navigate what seems like dueling policies and procedures

Advice to Senior Management

Please recognize that many of your advisors really want to do a good job and some are truly gifted at what they do. Don't offer one group of employees a perk for accepting a promotion, then yank it from them yet still expect them to have high moral. Recognize that your senior tier of advisors have a tremendous level of technical knowledge and compensate them accordingly rather than rule them with constant threat of losing their jobs if they make a simple mistake.

Pros

Better than some call centers. I worked at another one that had much more scripting, this one gives you some freedom on what you say to customers.

Cons

It's a call center, so everyone is overly micromanaged, you can't leave your desk for 5 minutes a day while not on break. You are constantly supervised. Pay is inconsistant - changes weekly based on statistics, and on how busy it is that day (something agents have no control over)

Advice to Senior Management

Give employees a little more freedom, don't base pay off of things employees can't control. Be more understanding when employees have problems outside of work.

Pros

You will not be fired unless you do something truly stupid.

Cons

If you are a CSR and good at your job, you will be fine here, but do not look to be promoted!

Supervisors are paid very little base salary - with high bonus potential - that you will almost never actually achieve. When people do hit the goals they set and get good bonuses, the goals are moved up to the point where that won't happen again.

You are constanty berated for your agents not showing up for work but they wont let you fire anyone no matter how terrible the attendance (unless they don't show up and don't call for 3+ days in a row) becasue the site headcount would drop. Agents know this and game the system to the extreme.

Benifits are weak - zero match to the 401k, no stock purchase option. 10 sick/vacation days a year total - you have to work there 4 years before they goes up to 15 and then another 3 years after that to get to 20.

In the last 3 years there have been no rasies at all - including when you get promoted. Being promoted can mean a pay cut in fact as your bonus gets harder and harder to achieve as you go up the chain and with the perpetual "wage freeze" that means less total pay for more work.

There are very good people at all levels of management in the call center itself but they are all micro managed by multiple levels of TERRIBLE managers not on site. People have 4 bosses - it is like office space. Said high level bosses won't let you fire anyone no matter how terrible their preformance, attendance, or attitude - and yet YOU are held responsible for the fact that site preformance drops month after month after month. Agents are not stupid - they figured out quickly that they won't be fired for anything but the absolute worst offenses - so what do you expect to happen?

Gossip is rampant, as is misinformation. As are secrets - leadership hides all sorts of things from agents. Sups are often left in the dark as well. Hard to do a good job without context!

But hey, if you are lazy, be a sup here - you will get yelled at constantly, but thats all - no one wants to actually hold anyone accountable - 10% of the sups do 70% of the work. The others are leeches but smooze the bosses so they are safe.

Advice to Senior Management

Get a clue - don't tie your subordinates hands behind their backs and then ask them to do cartwheels. Enforce your attendance policy - people get 3-5 times as many "points" as it offically takes to get fired and they are still employed. Don't issue "final wanrings" that you have no intention of backing up witha termination. Pay your supervisors and managers what they actually deserve!!! Then you might keep some top talent rather than being a gateway job for them while you hold onto the average and less than average folks forever.

Pros

Career advancement
Good people
Management is willing to listen to new ideas

Cons

Poor communication between departments
Pay is not up to par with other companies
Executive management is out of touch with the front line

Advice to Senior Management

Remember your employees are people and not numbers on a page

Pros

Decent pay and benefits. Management team had decent operational experience and offered support and guidance when requested. Decent resume builder.

Cons

Bottom line profitability is only focus. Example; If one division loses money the cuts to cover the gap come from all divisions, thus impacting project performance and ultimately impacting the client relationship. ACS is keen on cutting heads while promising to deliver more. The only company I've worked for that actually requested I lie to the client during contract negotiations for the sole purpose of increasing their EBITDA.

Advice to Senior Management

Your constant process review to control costs should be mandatory for MLU's (money losing units) only. Allow the profitable accounts to breath and run their operations accordingly to perform for their client if they maintain EBITDA and don't cut their budgets for completely non-related projects that are not reaching their targeted goals....because it slowly erodes your key accounts to slowly become an MLU.

Pros

The company offers a flexible work schedule

Cons

Very disjointed and matrixed company
Not much opportunity for advancement
Poor employee compensation

Pros

I actually enjoy taking calls. It's very motivating to have a problem presented to you that you have the ability to resolve. Customer service is always challenging, because the bulk of your calls are from people with problems. Making the customer satisfied by the end of the call is very fulfilling, and that is my favorite part of the job.

Also, because supervisors lose $500 of their monthly bonus if they fire someone, they are lenient in regards to attendance. However, if our client requests to have someone removed from the project for not meeting their metric goals, the supervisor doesn't always have a choice.

Cons

The compensation for the job is not fair. We are paid on a per call basis. When call volume is very low, you either make minimum wage, or you are sent home due to lack of work. Then you make no money. The ABC system of payment also has variables, so you do not always make the same amount per call. When the call center gets more calls, you are paid less per call. Also, if a customer is surveyed and dissatisfied, you are also paid less per call.

The surveys also affect the bonus structure. Your bonuses are paid out based on your percent to goal and the number of days you worked that month. (The goal is set by our client, whom I cannot name here.) If your sales are good, you will get a good bonus rate per day (with a maximum paid out for 20 days). If you get too many negative surveys, your bonus has a cap set, where even though you made money for the client with your sales, you cannot get the maximum amount of compensation for them.

It is a hostile, stressful working environment, and the management knows it. This site tries to provide incentives for agents to do well, like barbecues and prize giveaways, and they are excellent, but overall the incentives still aren't enough to properly compensate employees for the stressful work they do. It all comes down to the unfair pay structure.

The turnover rate is very high. If you do end up working here, your odds are not good that you will be working here in a year. Out of my training class of 30 one year ago, only three remain. (Two or three out of thirty is typical.) Half the class quit during training. A few were fired for inability to meet metrics goals. And, there are a LOT of metrics you must meet, including time spent per call, transfers, sales, issue resolution (surveys), adjustments, time spent doing after call work, and attendance.

Every day when I go to work, I hear at least one person say outright, "I hate this job." And, they don't mean the job itself... They mean working at ACS. I recommend the job to friends who are desperate for employment as a temporary solution, but once they start working here, they know it's best to continue looking for employment elsewhere.

Advice to Senior Management

This would be a GREAT job if the compensation were an hourly rate and the bonuses were not capped. Surveys are very random and not at all an accurate way to gauge an employee's performance.