Capital Group Reviews in Los Angeles, CA Area

Pros

Used to be the opportunity, training, respect, culture and family/team (people) environment that made this a great company to work for. Now it's just "business" with no regard for the associate. Based on discussions with existing associates, unsure now, therefore, I'd have to say the April & June bonuses, plus the MRP make this a good reason to work there in 2010.

Cons

New management has taken a great company to work for and turned it into a mess. Since the layoff's one year ago, there's been nothing but chaos and confusion as the restructuring unfolds. A lot of decisions do not make sense. Lot's of knowledge was lost and cannot be replaced. May get better as things settle down and the direction becomes clear. Lot's of unhappy people remain even 1 year after the layoff's.

Advice to Senior Management

Contact former Mgmt and use them as consultants or rehire them to get back on track.

Pros

Great pay - this place defines golden handcuffs!
Low stress environment - associates can have a great work-life balance
Probably a great place to go and retire

Cons

Claims to be a collaborative culture - which makes it impossible for anything to get done, to the point of being dysfunctional. Everybody has a voice in everything - there is no agreed way to stop discussing things in endless meetings - but when decisions are made, there is no transparency to how they were arrived at.
Does not have a clearly defined organization structure - and that only leads to confusion at all levels as to who is responsible for what.
"Culture" is a big word here - anybody thinking of going to work here should think twice about whether they will be able to fit in to this culture - and go in with their eyes open!

Advice to Senior Management

First - draw up a clear org chart - everything good will come from that!
Next - set clear objectives and goals for each function, that are time-bound and measurable - work should be measured by more than just how many meetings have been held on the subject.

Pros

Terrific facilities and benefits!

Used to have, but no longer: great environment, people who cared and were collaborative, future focused, respect for employees

Cons

There has been a gross destruction of what made CG great. CG has lost the environment and core values that made it special. People suffer due to a state of senior management confusion and lack of clear direction. Little clarity from senior management - most of the GMs coasted to these positions through seniority and never experienced rough times and thus have handled this crisis deplorably. Great people were let go at the Director, Senior Manager, Team Manager and associate levels. Even worse were the demotions - talk about respect issues. Unacceptable.

Not sure if the current bunch of GMs has the capability or desire to right the ship. I'm sure this company will recover and be great, but not soon and not with the management in place within AFS and AFD. Grade: F.

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership at the GM level is not acceptable. Look for a more qualified management team and focus on returning to greatness.

Pros

Very respectful and professional employees
Excellent pay and benefits
Life and Work balance
Stress level is low compare to other companies, as one is given enough time to acomplish tasks

Cons

Did experience its first layoffs
advancement opportunities became practically non existent.
One can no longer choose her path.

Advice to Senior Management

Offer more opportunities to the employees once the market turns around before they leave

Pros

Company was undergoing new management when I left so the following may not be applicable anymore:
Great benefits package
People who were sincere about helping
Great work environment

Cons

Bit slow with technology
Takes a while to see changes occur

Advice to Senior Management

Less meetings

Pros

Good pay and benefits
Nice people
Flexible hours and telecommuting
Well-respected company
Ability to purchase funds without load
Opportunity to receive appropriate training

Cons

After lay-offs in 2009, people with great experience are no longer at the company
Lengthy decision-making processes
Current management displays little regard for associates - no transparency
Management all has "drunk the Kool-aid"
While Capital says it is "flexible", it is really more "arbitrary"
Promotions are not awarded to those most deserving

Advice to Senior Management

The associates WERE Capital's greatest strength. Pay attention to people and listen to their ideas.
Reward innovation and appropriate risk-taking
Reward compentence - far too many people are incompetent yet still working there
Give PRAISE to associates when they do a good job - don't just give negative feedback.

Pros

Relatively good compensation in the bad job market. People are nice and friendly. Good location and modern building and infrastructure.

Cons

things move slowly. Little visibility of your work performed. A little inflexibly in accomodating new ideas. Big company, business model uncertain.

Advice to Senior Management

Offer incentives and promote more creativity. Be more flexible and innovative. Reward overperformance and efficiency rather than forcing everybody to work slowly.

Pros

The salary, bonuses and benefits are tremendous. I know of no other company that is as generous in these areas. Although the culture is changing, the culture at CG has been one of the best of companies that I've worked for. They have been very people oriented and collaborative in nature. They do not tolerate extreme negativity or 'public' verbal attacks. You can be certain that meetings will be civilized, even when there are disagreements.

Cons

CG IT culture is changing. Some of it is actually for the good, because it's large enough now that it needs some hierarchical decision making. But so much of the senior management in IT is from outside the company, that IT is no longer able to maintain the overall company culture. In addition, there were some significant strategic mistakes that (in addition to the current economic downturn) seriously affected the overall financial health of the company and CG laid off over 1300 associates as a result. The morale of the remaining associates is very low, and people right now are very uncertain of the direction and whether or not there may be another layoff. There's a lot of concern about the latest layoff, since a great majority of the expertise about the applications and business is now gone. Years and years of experience are gone, and the remaining associates are trying to pick up the pieces.

Advice to Senior Management

Consider bringing some of the expertise back on at least a temporary basis, through temporary contracting positions.

Establishing common IT process and procedures and ensuring that just ONE group of people are working on them at the same time needs to be a priority. Many different people/groups of people are trying to independently work on them, which only causes confusion.

Also for management, consider obtaining 'review' information from subordinates, not just peers. A great number of the recent management positions have been filled with people that 'manage upward' very well, but they are not respected by ANY of their subordinates at all. This is happening in both IT and the business. This is not just a few disgruntled subordinates - it is well known in the 'worker bee' community.

Pros

Information sharing and leveraging of knowledge and skills across location and departments.
Strong communication across the organization - the right hand generally knows what the left hand is doing - strong teamwork.
Majority of associates (employees) give their best - a high quality focus.
Generally really nice people to work with - not too many egos.
Great work environment and highly competitive total compensation and benefits package.
Capital does a good job of managing the business and people to its corporate values.

Cons

Large number of senior leaders retired. The cards aren't in yet on whether the new leadership can sustain the success of the org.
Not sure the new leadership really focuses on the long term which has been a historical underpinning of Capital's previous success.
Capital grew perhaps too quickly without regard to the potential long term fallout - now recent layoffs have impacted morale and loyalty somewhat. Some question senior leadership because of over hiring versus slow controlled hiring.
Diversity (of styles) is less than in other organizations. Organizational fit is sometimes taken to extremes at the expense of not attracting good talent.

Advice to Senior Management

Move to 360 feedback instruments.

Pros

Great benefits; wealth of information sources; worked with very intelligent people both at the same job level, and up to portfolio managers; PMs were mostly very visible to employees and had constant communication with team members.

Cons

Work in this team was very inconsistent, Management in this team was incompetent and played a lot of favoritism. There is no structured method of how an employee is selected to be groomed towards becoming a manager. Sometimes felt like a cult-ish type of environment - if you followed the hoard you were liked, if not, you would slowly be pushed out.

Advice to Senior Management

Please improve the management in the PC department. While they are intellectual individuals, they have no management skill.