Jul 22, 2016
App Partner Response
9yHi,
First off thank you for your feedback and candor. We've said before on this page that talking about these issues is how we become a better company. Our #1 priority is to have a talented, motivated, and most importantly happy team. We believe that's the key to achieving business success but more importantly we feel it's our moral obligation to every individual who puts their faith in us by choosing to work here.
In terms of the cons you mentioned regarding work/life balance, tight deadlines, and low salaries we'll have to agree with some and disagree with others. I’ve discussed those items in detail below. However before getting to that I do feel obligated to mention that your statement saying there are fake reviews on this page is 100% false. That’s been brought up before on this page and honestly we’re bewildered as to why that impression is being given off. We mention leaving a review on Glassdoor to our employees once per quarter and that’s it. We know these reviews aren’t fake so if you’re applying for one of our open positions and are concerned about this please mention that to us and we’ll let you pick a random person in the office to speak with for 15 minutes. You can ask them yourself if they think these reviews are fake and what their experience is like working here.
Regarding the work/life balance we do apologize if you feel that your work/life balance is not ideal. We can certainly do better to proactively try and identify individuals like yourself and make sure they’re getting the rest they need to be energized and working smartly. However at an aggregate level we’ve worked hard to provide our employees with a good work/life balance by providing flexible work hours and not forcing “crunch time” unless it’s absolutely necessary for a Client deadline (i.e us hitting a certain budget is not a valid reason). The data shows our employees are working an average of 42 hours a week in 2016. That’s a # we’re proud of and we think very strong compared to industry standards.
Regarding tight deadlines this is something we definitely understand and would agree with. We’ve added more cushion time to our project schedules but we still seem to be struggling to get a grasp on consistently accurate scheduling. This is something we’re actively discussing not only in management but also with our Project Managers and Sr. Designers & Developers. We will do a better job communicating these conversations to the wider team so everyone’s aware.
Regarding low salaries that’s another one that we’ll have to acknowledge. For a 100% NYC-based agency that started in a dorm room 6 years ago, bootstrapped, and never received any serious external funding it’s hard for us to keep up in the arms race that is happening with developer and designer salaries. However we have made significant progress over the years. We rolled out company subsidized health care at the beginning of this year fulfilling a promise we made last year (50% subsidy for new employees and up to 80% for those with more tenure). We rolled out a equity program in 2015 that covers far more of our employees than most companies and certainly more than agencies (roughly 60% included). We have created 3 tiers of developers and designers allowing for rapid promotion for those who deserve it (Jr. / Int. / Sr.). Finally we have semi-annual guaranteed merit-based raises of 1-5% designed to allow us to outpace the wider market in terms of our overall avg. salary growth.
The biggest place I think we’ll need to work on moving forward is better communication. Because in fact we are 100% committed to providing our employees with higher salaries but we can only grow so quickly and it will take time to get there. Something we’re going to work on going forward is making sure we’re having an open and transparent conversation with our employees about where we’re going to go, including with salary levels, and how we’re going to get there. We’re confident that by working together to achieve our goals we can do just that.
Thank you again for your feedback. We do greatly appreciate it which is why we take the time to write such lengthy responses!