Euromonitor Employee Review

Current Employee – been working at Euromonitor

Pros – -The work. I’m on the sales team and I get to have interesting conversations with executives in some of the biggest and most progressive companies in the world. I work across multiple levels and functions so get to work with a lot of different people in those companies.

-Excellent work/life balance. Overall people in this office tend to work very reasonable hours (9-5), especially compared to other professional services firms. There are teams, specifically the research teams, that do have weeks where they work long hours but in general the hours promote a strong work/life balance. Additionally there is no “blackberry” culture here. Managers don’t expect you to be responsive to their emails in the evenings and on the weekends. In fact, many employees don’t even have their work email on their phones.

-Generous incentive package. I’ve been in a commission-based role for the past 7 years and this is one of the best plans I’ve seen. Commissions are paid out monthly and the annual targets are reasonable. Commissions are also uncapped; at goal you can double your salary but you could triple your salary if you had a good year.

-Smart, nice and worldly colleagues. It’s almost just as common to hear non-English languages being spoken in the office as it is to hear English. The people here are incredibly smart but not just book-smart. Most people have lived abroad, many speak multiple languages and it seems like everyone here has these incredibly interesting hobbies on top of their work life. I enjoy coming into the office.

-Ability to set your own travel schedule. Though as sales people we do travel, and though managers will push you to see clients, you have a lot of authority on when and where you travel. I’ve read reviews on this site that talk about how much travel is involved in the role and I have to strongly disagree with those comments. The average person probably travels once every 4-6 weeks and the heaviest travelers are on the road every 1.5 weeks.

-The local leadership team that promotes a casual and open office culture. There isn’t a strong feeling of a hierarchy here and people are allowed to be themselves in the office. We have a lot of kooky personalities at Euromonitor but that’s one of the things I like best about our office.

Cons – -The benefits package isn't good compared to other companies I've worked for. We are a small company and I don’t expect the same type of benefits I got at large companies, but, if I’m honest, they’ve cut too much. The health plan is expensive on an individual basis and impossibly expensive to have a family on the plan. Additionally the company has chosen not to offer domestic partnership plans.

-The base salaries are lower than other professional sales roles. That said, for people in sales roles the take-home pay can be amazing if you’re doing well on your incentive plans.

-Euromonitor grew so quickly yet roles and responsibilities were never re-considered after we went from a small to a medium-sized business. There is confusion on who owns what and this can sometimes lead to contentious relationships with your peers. There is an organized effort right now to clarify roles so we’re moving in the right direction.

-Lack of a long-term upward career path for those that want it. Though the company has developed “Senior” titles within existing roles and “Team Lead” positions there is a lack of clarity on who gets these jobs and why. It seems like people are being promoted as a reward for tenure or for revenue generation rather than overall performance which includes creating positive internal relationships and demonstrating leadership ability (the latter being especially important for “Team Lead” positions which require you to manage).

-The global leadership team is disconnected from the Chicago office and when they do connect into the team they don't promote a positive work environment. We don’t hear anything from our London-based leadership team on a regular basis. When they do come to town, they don’t make a huge effort to get to know the staff or even interact with the staff. Interactions are often contentious and you often walk away feeling insulted and disposable (this is the case no matter how well you’re performing). That said, these interactions happen only a few times a year as the global leadership team rarely makes it to Chicago, and since the local leadership team is nice, the negative feelings about management are short-lived.

-Euromonitor has a terrible charitable giving policy. Despite the fact that many of the employees work for non-profits or sit on non-profit boards, the company doesn’t seem interested in charitable giving.

Advice to Senior Management – Local management does a great job of keeping a casual work environment but I think they could do more to promote cross-team collaboration. In the recent months it has become clear that the local management team is putting more effort into recognizing strong performers and keeping everyone informed of company strategy. That said, there's still some room for improvement. I would also highly suggest re-evaluating the health insurance/benefits package. Many employees are at the stage in life where they are about to start families and our health insurance plan makes that difficult. If you want employees to stay and grow with Euromonitor our insurance needs to be able to support that growth and promote tenure.

My suggestion to the global leadership team would be to establish more of a positive presence with the Chicago office. I think “face time” with the team here could go a long way and could make us feel connected and appreciated. That said, the “face time” has to be positive and I think that team needs to make an effort to show their appreciation for the staff. Staff outings and dinners don’t mean anything if, during the dinner, you insult us or make us feel disposable.

Finally, I hope management keeps all the good things they've already put in place. Keep the incentive plans, keep the work/life balance, keep hiring smart and interesting people, and (though this will become more difficult as we grow) try to continue to give employees a balance between structure and autonomy.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend