LexisNexis Reviews

Pros

good benefits, vacation time off

Cons

Not a happy place to work. I had worked for LexisNexis for over 40 years and all i can say no communication. Certain Managers are still there because the lie and make it sound the department is making a difference and making money, so they laid high salary employees off so it looks as if they made their quotes.

Advice to Senior Management

be more honest and open with your teams. Be fair.

Pros

If you are in the legal sector this is one of the interesting companies to work for

Cons

There is no central company vision that one can relate to

Pros

Benefits were good; immediate co-workers were good to work with

Cons

Inefficient managers, too many levels of non-productive management. They sacrificed excellent employees to outsourcing

Pros

Promotes Work-Life balance
Many positions (not all) can be done with very little training (quick ramp up)
Smart and driven people are running the company from the top

Cons

Middle managers (including lower level VPs) are horrible. They don't truly understand the market or how to be competitive. They care more about protecting their own necks than protecting their people.
Not a place that encourages internal promotions (no career path). They offer a leadership development program, which is NOT management program. It is basically a glorified social network with a few Jr. Executives.
Full of red tapes. They will make you jump through hoops for everything. You need to seek approval to offer discounts but no approval request is ever denied, which makes you wonder why the system is in place.

Advice to Senior Management

Be honest with your people. Many great folks have left the company because they felt lied to either about their career outlook or about Lexis' ability to compete. Lexis' strength is in its people. Let your people help you becoming more successful in the marketplace rather than simply pushing blame down the ladder

Pros

Good pay and benefits, fantastic telecommuting policy. A number of lawyers come here to work thinking they will get rich. They won't. If you work a inside sales (telemarketing) job, that is the pay you are going to get (even if you have a JD). You want more, go practice law or get an outside sales job here because they pay in six figures.

Caring leadership and heavy investment in new products.

Well respected by customers

Cons

Constant management by spreadsheet. Goal/cost=quota is the technique, no matter if the market supports what we are selling or its cost. Quotas are based not on accounts, but by satifying "your sahre" of the managers target. Managers do not fight back on unrealistic goals.

Speaking of managers, about 75% suffer from the Micahel Scott Syndrome: promote the best salesperson to manager and have them lead by making everoyne copy what they did instead of coaching and developing to their strengths.

VP sadly are even worse. They spend 90% of their time on conference calls and waste time on details to make sure things are done their way (e.g., discussing what the menu should be at a customer event). Also, they frequently will say 10-15 things are priority ONE. This changes based on this month's numbers.

Reorgs: wow. It is astounding how management thinks moving the boxes around creates value for the customer. If we would take the money spent on this and just buy plane tickets for us to go visit all of our customers, we would see profits go up by 10%

Advice to Senior Management

Do a competency and activity review of all VPs and managers of people. I think you would be shocked at what you pay them and what they actually do all day. I don't think sitting on conf calls, making decisions about fonts on invitations and reviewing PPTs/spreadhseets warrants a 200K+ income

Pros

Great home based work/life balance job offerings
Incredibly talented people
Global company
Decent benefits
Role focused trainings and career development opportunities
Market leader

Cons

Often unorganized and disparate messages from Sr Management
Tend to never know what happens next...always wondering if you will lose your job
Not good at creating timely goals for personal and career development
Difficult to climb the Corporate ladder
Almost NO increase in annual pay even if top performer

Advice to Senior Management

In order to have a stable work-force not in fear of losing their job, Sr Management should communicate more often with more detailed messaging.

Pros

The technology is fun, and Lexis is justifiably proud of the great customer service it offers. Customer service reps adhere to extremely high standards of professionalism and are graded on the quality of their interactions and the assistance they give customers, NOT on how fast they can get people off the phone nor on the number of calls handled. The feedback is pretty good and the training is at least adequate, although it could be better.

Cons

For a lawyer to start in the neighborhood of $40,000 per year is utterly ridiculous. The unnecessarily strict standards for punctuality and various housekeeping matters borders on the insane. The paths for advancement in the company are laid out in fairly rigid fashion, and switching departments is difficult. Management egos are significant. Getting programmers and system analysts to recognize the need for improvements in the search technology or the structuring of data can be frustrating due to unresponsiveness.

Advice to Senior Management

Back off the professionals and cut them some slack. Pay the attorneys in customer service at least twice what you pay now. For top management: let your salespeople at the lowest levels participate in the setting of sales quotas. You will get better results and not use up good people quite as fast.

Pros

They have a good work/personal life balance. Request for time off is easily facilitated because of the size of the company.

Cons

Mid-level managers need training in proper management skills. Communication is poor. Favoritism is blatant in some departments. Discrimination is covert.

Advice to Senior Management

Train the mid-level managers. Tenure for advancement is not enough. Make them accountable for subtle discrimination and favoritism.

Pros

Great hours, esp if you have a family.

Cons

Lackluster Exec team. Inflated self-image and concept of value provided to customers.

Pros

Flexible working environment. Great colleagues. Fair compensation. Good Benefits.

Cons

Constant spinning of wheels. No communication from management. No coaching or development. Constant firedrills!! Everything is needed yesterday!
Constant cost cutting trying to hit ridiculous profit targets.
Continuous cycle of reorgs - many times just reverting back to something tried before.
Little to no accountability, yet constant finger pointing at others. Mngmt has lack of trust in employees. Top heavy. Lots of chief and few Indians.

Advice to Senior Management

A lot of great employees with tremendous will and skill wasted. Start communicating and rationalizing needs. Everything is not a firedrill! Lot of time wasted on non value added work. Stop working against each other all the time.