8y
Thank you for your review. I take your feelings to heart and I am truly sorry that it has taken me so long to respond to this particularly powerful and direct review.
First, as you can read in other reviews, you're not alone in feeling that we don't pay team members what they're worth - and that stinks. We evaluate and adjust compensation regularly (annually at a minimum), including having used a consultant to help with that in the past, but we still have team members feeling undervalued. Our efforts in this area are, and always will be, on-going and as result of the feedback we have received from team members through surveys, face-to-face communications and other avenues (like Glassdoor.com) that we are missing the mark on compensation, we just hired a VP of Total Rewards in June to be an in-house resource to continuously examine and ensure our compensation is fair and competitive for every market in which we operate. They will spearhead our compensation evaluation efforts and compensation adjustments more completely - and I expect with more satisfactory results - than our previous efforts.
Secondly, while I am glad you enjoy the people that you work with at Access, you’re right: there is clearly a disconnect somewhere because team member opinion DOES produce change here at Access.
I acknowledge openly and repeatedly that things at Access aren’t perfect (you can read that in many of my other responses) and I also know a lot of detail about how the team feels because we invest a lot in gathering feedback from the team to make the right changes, including annual benefits surveys and team member surveys. I read EVERY SINGLE WORD of the results from each and every one of those feedback loops (again, plus here on Glassdoor.com).
In direct response to that feedback:
1) We went from investing $0 in 401(k) matching in 2014 to investing an expected $1,700,000 this year.
2) We also invested an additional $1,000,000 per year in improved medical benefits and we now offer multiple options for medical coverage. I encourage you to consider some of our other plans, like our HSA plan for which we cover 100% for the team member and approximately 70% for additional family coverage.
3) We also added 2 more flex holidays last year as a result of the feedback we received about more holidays, which comes at considerable cost to a company that has nearly 2,000 team members.
I think this clearly illustrates that we are investing in our team in many, many ways.
You should not have been told simply to look elsewhere if you don't like your pay. I don't support, nor condone, that type of condescending and dismissive communication with any Access team member, client, etc. I encourage any team member who receives this type of message to reach out their regional human resource director, immediately.
I hesitate to speak up on this point as it may come across as defensive, but I prefer to hit it head on than leave this unsaid. Perhaps part of the issue here is that your expectations on increases and promotion raises aren’t realistic. For example, you mention going from $60k to $80k - $90k in a few years. That would take 10% - 15% raises annually. I don’t know of any job that regularly gets you those increases (and you can look at the Robert Half information to see that average annual increases are much lower - greater than 50% lower - than what you note here). You also mention a promotion that should double your salary. I have never seen or heard of a double-your-salary-promotion and I have certainly never received a double-your-salary-promotion. I don’t know what position you hold in the company, but I have looked at the Robert Half pay scale and we aren't out of line for the compensation we offer in the Bay Area.
Finally, I agree that a true sign of a great company is one where workers are valued as their greatest asset and one that invests in its team members. We do value our team members, we do invest in them and I am sorry that you feel otherwise.
Please reach out to me directly at ralston@accesscorp.com. I would like to hear from you and engage in a discussion about some of your specific expectations and challenges.
Thank you,
Rob
