AOL Changes Guard: Employee Insights to new CEO Tim Armstrong

Glassdoor Team — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:54:29 +0000

AOL’s CEO Randy Falco has left the building and it will be interesting to watch how the new CEO Tim Armstrong, a former Google advertising sales executive, will be received by employees. For the past several months, Falco has been on our CEO Watch List as one of the lowest rated CEOs on Glassdoor.com (w/ at least 25 or more reviews). At the time of the announcement, Falco had a 13% approval rating and 64% disapproval rating. One has to ask if the writing was on the wall for Falco when we observe that his approval rating continued to sink.

Here is a snapshot look at Falco’s over the past several months based on Glassdoor’s CEO Watch List…

So what can Tim Armstrong learn from Falco’s experience at the top of AOL? He should ask AOL employees. Below are just a handful of suggestions AOL employees have for senior management — feedback on what is working well and things Tim Armstrong may want to address quickly.

One should be easy enough based on Tim’s experience at Google: “Get the ad business on track and kick the sales force in the butt. Hard.” – Software Engineer (Lancaster, PA)

Employees’ advice to senior management:

“Do something. The content strategy remains questionable, even if the eyeballs are relatively cheap due to low labor costs (bloggers). Going to continue to need local developers to work on product — India is mostly not cutting it.” – Senior Programming Manager (Dulles, VA)

“Take any offer you can get for the company…” Vice President (Dulles, VA)

The benefits of working for AOL:

“It still has a huge number of talented people and itz a flexible work place. Casual dress code, support for open source technologies, competitive salaries all make it still a good place to work.” – Senior Systems Administrator

“If you have a family, AOL is a really nice place to work since they support great work/life flexibility. We recently had our vacation time increased.” – Systems Architect (Dulles, VA)

And lastly, here are the downsides employees note about AOL:

“Never have I worked at such a negative place. Upper management heavy. No positive reinforcement. Constant layoffs. Constant new policies. Constant frustration. if you do go to work there don’t be surprised if you’re laid off within a year. don’t worry, their packages are fair. for the record i have not been laid off. Yet” – Account Director (Albany, NY)

“Career advancement is limited while company future is bleak.” – Senior Technical Project Manager (Dulles, VA)

We wish Tim Armstrong the best of luck as he prepares to jump into AOL. As he said Thursday, he will be working toward “the right structure and future for AOL.” Check back as we track what AOL employees think.

AOL employees keep us posted. What do you think about the change in leadership?

AOL Changes Guard: Employee Insights to new CEO Tim Armstrong is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Bank of America Hiring as Countrywide Transaction Completes

Glassdoor Team — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 21:07:38 +0000

Bank of America today announced that they would be rebranding Countrywide to Bank of America Home Loans, in light of the tarnished reputation that surrounds the lending brand. This news comes on the heels of the January announcement that the company had completed its purchase of Countrywide for $4 billion in stock. Reports are also stating that Bank of America will be adding 1,000 new jobs to staff the new Home Loan division, along with moving 500 current jobs to this new endeavor.

The question is, what does this mean for both past Countrywide and current Bank of America employees? Looking through the reviews and salaries on Glassdoor, we found a few interesting tid-bits we thought we’d share:

Salaries: At Countrywide, a home loan officer earns about $63k/year. But Bank of America home loan officers reportedly earn an average $67K/year. Does this mean that Countrywide loan officers will see adjustments to address equity gaps?

Company and CEO Ratings: Countrywide Financial has an average company review of 2.5, while Bank of America employees rate their place of business at 3.2. In terms of CEO approval ratings, Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis currently receives a 54% approval rating which overshadows Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo’s approval rating which comes in at a meager 5%.

To give Bank of America perhaps a bit more of a leg up as this transition and hiring spree takes effect, here is some useful advice Countrywide employees have to offer the management team:

“Spend some time learning what your employees are doing day to day instead of just looking at the bottom line”

“Reduce the title inflation, reduce the layers of management inbetween employees, better equipment!”

“[For Bank of America] Have a stronger vision for the end user experience. The web site and marketing programs often seem set up to benefit BofA rather than the customer.”

“Have a better grasp on your employees and the talent on your hands. Work towards motivation and personal growth within each employee which in turn only benefits you and the company.”

Do you have insights as an employee of Bank of America? Let us know.

Also as a side note, Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis was subpeoned last week and is now being investigated to determine whether the bank broke the law by not telling shareholders about big Merrill Lynch losses. Will Ken Lewis stay in office much longer? Will his approval ratings take a dive? Stay tuned.

Bank of America Hiring as Countrywide Transaction Completes is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

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AOL Changes Guard: Employee Insights to new CEO Tim Armstrong

Bank of America Hiring as Countrywide Transaction Completes