Vault’s Verdict

OUR SURVEY SAYS

No worries

Insiders seem pleasantly surprised by the workplace culture.  One hire admits being "a bit concerned about coming to a large corporate environment having always worked at small companies," but adds that once she began working there, "the experience hasn't been bad at all."  Another insider in the Alpharetta, Ga., office calls the corporate culture "fair," adding that "the people are very friendly" and while it's "fairly laid-back," it may be due to the fact that there's "primarily tech folks" in that particular office.

The dress code is "casual always, unless you go to headquarters at midtown, which is rare."  One insider notes that the code "isn't stringently enforced" anyway and "as long as your dress is business casual" you shouldn't run into any problems—just "stay away from blue jeans," she warns.  Employee hours are "flexible" and "there seems to be more working from home recently."

Compensation and salaries get average marks from employees.  One insider notes that although the "base salary for business analysts and project managers vary," the range tends to be "from mid-$60K to over $90K."  The contact goes on to add, "I was offered between $85K to $90K with an annual bonus of 10 percent, which was based partly on performance incentive and partly on company incentive.  But there were no signing bonuses or anything like that."  Another worker notes that annual bonuses "have run between 10 and 15 percent."  Vacation time, however, "starts at three weeks per year and increases to four weeks—after 10 years."

The future is uncertain

"There aren't a lot of minorities in senior management," comments one insider.  Another says that "there are other kinds of diversity now that so many employees from India are at Equifax now, because of the outsourcing.  So in that sense, there are other kinds of diversity."

The company's immediate outlook, however, seems to be mixed, at least according to insiders.  "Under the current atmosphere, continued employment is a concern," confesses one insider.  Another contact calls the firm's business outlook "good," adding that "there is a new management team that has been doing some corporate restructuring" and Equifax has also "introduced a couple of new products in the past year that have been doing well."  But then again, "the downside is that the company is committed to outsourcing" and because of this, "it appears that a good number of people are in an uncertain state."