Intuit – “Intuit has lost its way”

Pros

1. Above average compensation packages (for San Diego)
2. San Diego facility is top-notch – new buildings that make you feel good about work.
3. Great work spaces for employees... lots of offices for non-managers
4. Good food in the cafe at reasonable prices.
5. Employees have flexibility in work hours (some come early, some come late, etc).
6. Good overall benefits, everything you would expect from a Silicon Valley company
7. Happy Hour every Friday… very nice social time with friends and co-workers (good beer).

Cons

Lots of turnover at the leadership levels. This has continued for years, although each year employees are promised that things will be "different this time."

Employees are fatigued by all of the new faces (leaders) that make promises, and then are gone before anything is really implemented or change. Then the cycle begins all over again. This is especially true in the IT group.

This is probably Intuit’s biggest issue: high leadership turnover, and a lack of sophisticated diagnostic process to determine why and how to fix it… so it continues.

1. Biggest issue I see is Intuit leaders and, more specifically IT leaders do not live by the Intuit Operating values... there are some good leaders left, but the majority of new leaders don't quite fit with the old employee-centric culture.
2. I have found that some managers could not list more than 2 of the values, which is really disappointing.
3. Here are Operating Values, which I think are very good if followed (this means HIGH Say/Do ratio).
   1. Integrity Without Compromise
   2. Do Right by All Our Customers
   3. It's the People
   4. Seek the Best
  5. Continually Improve Processes
  6.Speak, Listen, and Respond
   7. Teams Work
   8. Customers Define Quality
   9. Think Smart, Move Fast
  10. We Care and Give Back

4. Certain HR "leaders" are totally compromised and can’t be trusted. Be very careful who you share your thoughts and ideas with you... they may come back to hurt your career and standing.

5. There is NO upward mobility... it's very rare that a manager "level 2" will get promoted to senior manager. It's even more rare for a senior manager to be promoted to director. I don't know of a single director that was promoted to VP in the IT group. (these are the facts... however, you will hear lots of lip service paid about mobility and career growth.

6. Similar to #5, 90-99% of all of the top jobs are filled from the outside. The company that IT is favoring these days is Oracle. I think there is probably more VPs and directors coming from Oracle than any other company (for anyone at Oracle who is looking... now is a good time!)

7. Culture is "nice" to your face, but much of the truth remains unsaid. Managers are either untrained or don't see it part of their jobs to be straight and upfront with their staff. Hence, it's very difficult to understand where you stand. Nobody shares the truth with others, until the day you get your severance package!

8. Rewards and Recognition are more a function of popularity and likeability rather than performance outcomes. Managers don't know understand what their employees do so they rely on shallow perceptions, anecdotes, and other half-truths to assess people. This has been my biggest surprise and disappointment

9. Differences of opinion are not valued or appreciated. It has been made very clear that if you disagree with a VP or a director, you’ll be branded as a “detractor” and suffer consequences of low performance reviews and a reduced bonus payouts.

10. Layoff process is haphazard and non-logical. Staff was laid off when there was more demand from the business. Very dysfunctional and miss-managed process.

Advice to Senior Management

Ensure that each manager goes through an intense operating values training. This should not be a one time event, but an ongoing discussion to ensure that each manager is living up to these values. Get rid of the ones that can't uphold them OR change your values.

Don't tolerate anyone who confuses opinions with facts. There are too many leaders who feel empowered to share their BS comments that are totally false, yet they are taken as facts and are acted on them. This is especially dangerous when employee’s careers are negatively impacted.