Experian Employee Review

Former Employee – worked at Experian

Pros – - Company is strong financially, revenues support Experian corporate
- Plenty of growth opportunities
- Strong, well-known brands
- Benefits are very competitive with the best companies out there
- Lots of very smart and talented employees who are also fun and down-to-earth
- Management genuinely tries to care about employees and culture, and constantly tries to improve communication, great CEO that everyone loves
- Recent push to work together more with other Experian units, many significant synergy opportunities there
- Depending on your team, you could work with amazing amounts of data, stuff you couldn't in any other company except maybe Facebook, Google or Amazon

Cons – - Salaries are very low and not competitive, even when compared to other Experian divisions
- Management is focused on short-term revenues, not long term plans. 3-yr plans are vague and not tactical or related to brands
- Significant turnover, average 2-3 ppl/week for months including very experienced and senior managers as well as lower level employees. Little to no attempt at retaining talent.
- IT is a separate entity with no goals tied to success of business, so they have no incentive to go beyond what is specifically asked. High turnover and lots of low-paid contractors result in poor work quality and slow turnarounds - changing a word on a website can take weeks.
- Company tries to project itself as a cool "dotcom" type of business (game room, 5 cent snacks, team events, branded swag), it's nice, but too corporate to feel real
- Unqualified managers have not been good for the company, resulting in frustrated employees and increased turnover. Manager quality is very inconsistent with no 360 review process to help
- Some managers are very political, others are very CYA and refuse to take accountability, some borderline unethical (HR turns their heads)
- Budget and headcount constraints make it difficult for many to do their jobs well
- Very rush mentality, management may say it's "fast-paced", but it's really more of a frenzy of chasing tails and not getting anywhere. Projects are rushed out with errors and missed requirements instead of taking a little more time to do things right. Results in burn-out and frustration by many people.

There was a significant layoff in 2010 that wiped out a large percentage of employees, including very strong (and personable) leaders that drove a wonderful culture where people cared about the teams and each other. It was almost a family environment with many coworkers hanging out after hours, even with their bosses. But once those leaders were sent packing, the culture changed forever.

Advice to Senior Management – Realize employees are the strongest asset to this (and any) company. There's a reason so many people are leaving. There's also a reason the company has a bad reputation that's causing developers to not want to work here. There have been big steps forward in some aspects of the culture and how the company is run, but still much improvement before the company really thrives.