Arbitron Reviews

Pros

They start everyone at the same pay which is pretty competitive for what it is. The hours are really flexible, so if you have a day job you can make extra income working at night. They offer medical benefits to their part-time employees which is really great. You can often pick-up overtime hours there when they are running behind on a survey and need help completing it. They try to keep the enviornment pretty laid back even though there are strict "methodolgies" you must adhere to. People from all different backgrounds work there and many already have professional full time jobs.

Cons

Call centers are pretty boring in general but Arbitron has a strict policy have reading the script word for word. If you don't you could get fired, but they would give you warnings first. After a while of reading the same exact scripts over and over hundreds of times I felt like a robot. That's common in calls centers though. Of course there is also the pressure of meeting call quotas and getting hung up on often, but that's to be expected. It's not for everybody,

Advice to Senior Management

offer a 10 minute break during each shift just so people can rest their voices, stretch their legs, and get water. People do it anyway, but have you ever tried staring at a screen saying the same thing for 6 hours straight???? I was annoyed by my own voice!

Pros

Has a very good legacy. The company has its focus on technology. Very good place to work. Offers excellent life work balance.

Cons

I would say that one thing that lacks in the company is the opportunity to grow up in the ladder fast.

Advice to Senior Management

The management should try to give more options of changing their career path in terms of technology and projects to the employees.

Pros

Flexible hours
Compensation and benefits
Location
Good, team oriented co-workers (mostly)

Cons

Very poor exec/mgt style that continues to ignore mistakes, blame the fall-out on their hard-working employees and take away incentive. Mgt. is very closed-door and hierarchical and quite arrogant about it. Best analogy is that they're stuck in the fifties, when everything (and everyone) stayed in the closet and nothing was shared or spoken of. That's how mgt. operates.

Advice to Senior Management

Look in the mirror and get honest and correct your bad decisions; people will appreciate it and that's how good companies last and retain good employees.

Pros

Great place to work for. The best compensation and related benefits. Family friendly policy and nice environment to work in.

Cons

No career growth. too much work and long hours.Weekend support is needed sometimes. work lif e balance suffers most.

Advice to Senior Management

Increase career path choices. review compensations from time to time. Do a 360 degree performance evaluation and review. Focus more on work life balance

Pros

Friendly coworkers
Attractive benefits and perks
Supportive management
Work from home option
Flexible timings and no dress code
Good pay packages for candidates with experience

Cons

Basic pay for freshly hired candidates is comparatively low.
Inadequate training provided to freshers
Laid back working environment
Not a good place to start your career

Advice to Senior Management

Give more training to freshly hired candidates
Freshers should be paid more salary
Recruitment process should be made a bit more competitive

Pros

- Great group of co-workers
- Friendly atmosphere in certain departments
- Great benefits

Cons

- Too many junior managers
- Most managers speak down to their employees
- Not enough training for the job
- The culture is always reactive and not proactive

Advice to Senior Management

- Introduce evaluation for your management teams
- Get training for your junior managers
- Listen to your employees by introducing surveys to find out where the problem spots are

Pros

Good pay and benefits after your 90-day probationary period.

Cons

Not enough training. No supervisory advice nor feedback. Supervisors sit at their desk and do not intermingles with associates to see how they are doing or if they have any questions - particularly new hires fresh out of a short training period.

Advice to Senior Management

The supervisors and leads would never make it at a company such as AT&T, Verizon, or other in-bound/out-bound customer service centers.

Pros

The Human Resources department stresses that Arbitron is committed to employee growth and satisfaction. However, in my epxerience, it all depends on the particular department that one is with that determines the quality of management, growth potential and work-life balance. I would definitely recommend the company to other people.

Cons

There is a lot of senior management, so every project has to be filtered. It takes a while for any little thing to be approved. The final project is never as amazing as the initial concept after being approved by the higher up's. Ideas aren't very fresh; the senior management is a bit stale.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire smart people then get out of their way. What is the point in bringing in talented people if they can't express their talent and help move the company forward?

Pros

Benefits are solid and numerous, hours for some positions are flexible, in general don't expect people to work weekends, respected stature in media industry, gold standard in radio audience measurement, some excellent technologies, smart people

Cons

poor pay for experience and demands
inferior personnel review process
no 360 review process to weed out or demote poor managers
too much CYA attitude
moves very slowly on new initiatives

Advice to Senior Management

walk around and talk with people other than your direct reports
encourage open communications, not ass covering
encourage entrepreneurial behavior
insist on teamwork, not empire building
listen to the customers, but pay attention to the marketplace
invest more in the future

Pros

-Tuition Reimbursement
-Work/Life Balance
-Strong support of professional advancement (courses, conferences, etc.)
-Interesting Work
-Stable (for the entertainment industry, which is largely unstable). Never felt like I was on the verge of being fired.
-Progressive on HR policies
-Smart Co-workers in most departments (not technology though)
-Minimal Ego Issues
-Lots of well earned respect for most of the the top executives.
-Academic-like mindset in research and development groups.

Cons

-If you're moving up really quick in your career, you unfortunately will eventually need to leave after 3-5 years or so.
-Technology/Engineering group is particularly weak in talent except for a handful of people.
-You only hear larger management goals/strategies once in awhile.
-They struggle with new initiatives outside of their core radio ratings business...nearly all eventually flop.
-Could benefit from some entrepreneurial spirit.
-Management is too distant from what the regular employee knows.

Advice to Senior Management

-Management needs to be more open with employees about where they want to take the company and listen to employee recommendations once in awhile. Most employees there have smart ideas that could help a great deal and help advance the company.
-Add some entrepreneurial elements to the job to retain star performers. When I saw really talented people leave it wasn't because they hated their jobs, it was just that they had grown so much that they had amazing opportunities they could take elsewhere and Arbitron couldn't compete by offering them a similar level of responsibility and salary.
-Don't let your company become too much of a slow moving monolith. Do a better job keeping up with the times while still retaining your core business that you do successfully. It shouldn't be an either or route.
-Diversify beyond just radio ratings. That will only work for so long.