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      Access

      Engaged Employer

      Access reviews

      3.4

      54% would recommend to a friend

      (243 total reviews)

      Tony Skarupa

      61% approve of CEO

      40% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      3.7

      Diversity & inclusion

      3.5

      Work/Life balance

      3.4

      Culture & values

      3.3

      Compensation and benefits

      2.9

      Senior management

      2.9

      Career opportunities

      Access has an employee rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 243 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Access employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail & Wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Reviews by job title

      243 reviews
      4.0
      Jun 15, 2018

      Not Bad At All

      Client experience
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Access does an excellent job providing its employees the tools to succeed. From job training, to health initiatives, to personal financial management seminars, they seem to actually care and try to provide what they can. Access also attempts to create an environment where people care. While it is impossible to rally everyone, they really strive to create a team/family environment.

      Cons

      As with all businesses, money is the bottom line. I don't know if there is a job that doesn't have this Con. While they do provide services, everything is within a budget.

      avatar
      Access Response
      7y
      Thank you for your candid review and I am glad you see so much positivity about what we are doing here at Access. We are working hard to provide opportunities for our team members across so many of the items you mention (training and education, health initiatives, personal financial management, etc.) and I am touched that it shows that we care, because we do care…and, personally, I do care. That is why we try to create an environment, culture and life here at Access where people really care about one another. “As with all businesses, money is the bottom line”...You’re correct that “the bottom line” is a very important financial metric and I am always quick to point out that according to the IRS, at the highest level, there are only two types of companies: 1) for-profit and 2) not-for-profit, and we are definitely a for-profit company. This can create a tough tension as we strive to produce both good short-term and long-term financial results, while also investing in the team and the growth of the business. Regardless, we will always invest in growth, because the more we grow (profitably), the more we can continue to invest in both the business and the team. And, let’s be clear, the alternative to growth is no growth, or shrinking, and these alternatives lead to lay offs, or worse, which would be horrible, especially in a company where we all actually care about one another. I would like to add that striking the balance in this tension isn’t a perfect science and there will be times when we over-invest in the team, which will disproportionately hurt the bottom line, but there will also be times when we underinvest in the team and that could (temporarily) help the bottom line. It will always be our goal to strike the right balance, or at least be heading toward the right balance. Also, as you astutely note, we are often working within the confines of a budget – a budget that has been communicated to investors, lenders and outside rating agencies - so, we have to always work carefully to manage everyone’s expectations, including all team members and our clients, about what exactly will get done and when...which really comes down to communication, I believe. Thanks again for your review and feel free to reach out to me anytime at ralston@accesscorp.com. Keep REACHing for your very best, Rob
      5.0
      Jun 4, 2018

      Fast growing company.

      Director
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Terrific benefits package, lots of training available, internal promotions, great hours, a company that cares for clients, community and team members.

      Cons

      Still experiencing a few growing pains with many acquisitions and short staffed in some locations.

      avatar
      Access Response
      7y
      Thank you very much for your review here on Glassdoor. I appreciate the feedback. It is helpful to hear that you value our benefits package, training, professional development and promotion opportunities and our caring culture. We are definitely experiencing growing pains and will continue to work hard to find the right balance between resources and growth. I would love to hear more specifically where you think we are short staffed. I definitely don’t want existing team members suffering due to continuous team member shortages, but I do know we are having a hard time filling positions in certain markets given the very tight labor market more broadly. I can be reached at ralston@accesscorp.com, and please know all communication will be confidential. Thanks again for your review – both the positive feedback and the genuine areas of concern. Keep REACHing, Rob
      5.0
      May 13, 2018

      Rapid growth

      Market leader
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Access is a young, rapidly growing company. It is built of multiple smaller companies that it acquired and continues to grow by acquisition. Until recently, the company operated the branches it acquired independently without integrating them beyond branding and creating new operating units in the various financial and BI systems. Within the last 2-3 years the company grew to a size that doing business like that no longer made sense. Now, the company is becoming more corporate and building more robust back-office support staff in areas like procurement, finance, safety, operations improvement, etc. This creates a lot of opportunities for advancement and growing into larger roles for people working to grow with the company. This shows - it is common to promote internal candidates to VP roles. The CEO himself is one of those promotions and it shows in how he works with new branches coming into the company.

      Cons

      Along with the ‘corporatization’ of the company, there is a growing bureaucracy, which can chafe with managers who joined the company running previously independent business with little organizational structure and levels of approval. These changes are clearly necessary to for the company to continue to grow and function, but the changes can cause stress to the front line managers. For example, the company as recently entered into the world of forced rankings for P&L managers. It is not a hard, GE-style ranking system where the bottom 10% are gone every year, but rather just for “visibility” so that managers can “see where they fall among their peers” across the U.S. Because the different markets are built from acquisitions with different ways of doing business (different pricing, different contract terms, different service offerings), the stack ranking of branches is more a reflection of those conditions rather than the performance of any particular manager.

      avatar
      Access Response
      8y
      Thank you very much for such a great and pointed review. You make some very astute observations about our growth and development as an organization. This kind of feedback is very helpful. There certainly have been a lot of changes as we have moved from a general/branch manager model to a more functional model. I, too, believe that it is the right move for the company at this time, but it certainly tests my entrepreneurial roots when I see the development of bureaucracy in certain areas. Maintaining an entreprenuerial culture is important to me and I hope to continue never lose sight of our scrappy, less-corporate roots, while also implementing the right amount of structure to reduce further growing pains as much as possible. Additionally, as you note, there is a lot of opportunity here at Access, especially as we continue to evolve and grow. I firmly believe that growth provides opportunity - and we won't stop growing...so, there will be plenty of opportunity, always. I appreciate your description of the productive and positive intent behind the balanced scorecard and stack rankings. The idea behind the stack rankings is definitely intended to create a clear picture of differences in our operations. We still have a lot of economies of scale to realize and will do so as we continue to standardize our operations and the stack rankings and balanced scorecard are intended to help us focus our efforts and investments in the right areas. Finally, I am in violent agreement on the annual summit. I love the summit and agree more that it is critical to our success. Thanks again for your review - and sorry for the delay in posting a reply. Keep REACHing, Rob
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