Equifax Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Equifax

Pros – Learn about leading data analytics solutions in the consumer credit industry;
Build up experience in financial services;
See how businesses across all industries use consumer credit information to market and retain customers.

Cons – The company fires people out of whim, primarily based on likeability and cultural-fit;
Does not innovate in a timely way, due to the dominant market share and mature industry position;
Company support in employee training is very limited.

Advice to Senior Management – Please consider how employees think when you fire a lot of people in a short period. It is very demotivating and damaging the morale.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Equifax

Pros – -Good benefits package
-Annual Incentive Plan - performance-based bonuses
-Defined Benefit Pension plan PLUS Defined Contribution Pension plan (with RRSP 25-50% match for up to 6% of your before-tax income)
-Employees are overall treated with respect and integrity
-"Economic moat" - Credit Reporting Agency (TransUnion being the only competitor on Canadian market)
-Moderately-sized IT department and company in general.
-Salaries above average (due to great profit margins, being an economic "moat").

Cons – -No career path
-No opportunity for training and promotions
-The officially stated "meritocracy" does not manifest at all
-The yearly performance reviews lack objectivity, performance and creativity/innovation are not recognized and awarded
-Too hierarchical, lack of cooperation between various IT sub-departments
-Business-driven IT environment, as opposed to a technology-driven one. In terms of technical solutions, mediocre approaches are chosen instead of better ones. Fear of adopting other technologies.
-Too Mainframe-centric IT environment. The MF guys are considered the "kings" and the rest of the people (Unix and Windows people) count significantly less for the purpose of allocating new projects.
-Inept senior management. Too many changes of direction, from year to year.
-Recent offshore initiatives are destroying the IT departments. A lot of layoffs and the offshore devel teams (coming through TCS - Tata Consulting Services) are not delivering sub-standard quality.
-A "watch your back" work atmosphere, sink or swim
-Officialy, it's supposed to tolerate the English and French languages equally, but a bias exists towards French (and the quebeckers tend to form their own "nest" and "circle" and the English spealing peers from the same team feel excluded, marginalized.
-A sort of protectionism is manifesting between the various IT OUs - especially between US and Canada. The Canadian teams come up with very good solutions and infrastructure projects, but they are ignored and only US dictates.
-Too much interaction and reliance on IBM as technology partner, and not having its own data center
-The use of Lotus Notes/Domino infrastructure instead of something more user/Microsoft friendly.

Advice to Senior Management – -Rick Smith seems to be a good CEO and very enthusiastic. What should be changed is the way how the Senior Leadership team is held accountable. Also the IT leaders are not the best ones.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Equifax full-time

Pros – Some of the people are really great.

Cons – Some of the people are absolutely horrible. You could be let go at any moment. The demands are unreasonable and the recognition for accomplishments is almost non-existent. Employees live under the fear that their jobs will be exported to the offshore office. Working under those conditions is stressful.

Advice to Senior Management – Upper management should really take a close look at middle management and non-managers who have responsibilities over others in the office. Get rid of the toxic people. Pay attention to the day-to-day experiences of the lowest men on the totem pole; they count, and their unhappiness in their jobs is as real as anyone else's, with the added insult that their pay is low and their jobs are not secure.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Equifax full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Flexible, good team, working from home.

Cons – salary, poor career progression, not many interesting projects

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Equifax full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Great technology...stable company...technology center has a great location in the suburbs of Atlanta. Company working to improve work environment (current technology center is outdated, needs an overhaul).

Cons – Flexible work hours are offered as a positive of the job - but not honored. Working parents beware. Environment is clique-y. Not yet operated as single entity - can have conflict within different organizations supporting the same end goal.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Equifax

Pros – Equifax is a great company, been around for a very long time, well respected in Corporate America. The benefits are pretty good as well.

Cons – Equifax is a company that values internal relationships. People are promoted by "Who" they know and are friends with. Not if they're great fits or can help the company grow. The Director and Manager I worked under were not good Managers at all, they were smart individuals but knew absolutely nothing about establishing and encouraging trust and encouraging their employees to be the best they can be. They were promoted because they did things to make their superiors look good. Under their guise, learning, education and appreciation were not promoted.

I don't think many people at Equifax who are in Management positions are actually "good" managers at all.

Also, I think many employees are severely underpaid. After leaving Equifax, every job I interviewed for paid at least $20K more per year. Long hours, bad pay.

Advice to Senior Management – I think Senior Level Execs or (SLT) should require all Managers to take courses on how to effectively manage. Great company, great vision, great CEO but from my experience wrong people in certain management positions. This is my opinion.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Equifax

Pros – Stable company as opposed to others in our current economic environment. CEO has diversified the product offering which has brought new revenue to the company. The company seems to be financially stable.

Cons – Management by intimidation still exists throughout all levels even after six years of the current CEO. He promised to resolve these issue but it appears now that he is comfortable, focus has moved off the things most employees were looking forward to.

Advice to Senior Management – Remove the management that continues to intimidate the employees. When a company post great numbers for a fiscal year, at least reward the people that are still there with a 3% increase. Average for most is 2% and has been for three years. Start delivering on your promises.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Equifax

Pros – Pay is fair
Benefits are good

Cons – If you work in IT then you will not have any free time. After you design a solution and the product is live in production, you will be responsible for operations. The TCS and IBM offshore teams cannot handle operations and managment will call you 24x7 365 days a week. There is alot of cronyism within Equifax management. Alot of the IT managers were friends from GE and Accenture.

Advice to Senior Management – HR please listen to your employees. Cronyism with the Equifax management is causing alot of good employees to walk out the door.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Equifax

Pros – The people at Equifax are great to work with.

Cons – Very limited opportunity for growth. Out of the box thinking not supported or rewarded. Unfortunately, if you go the extra mile, you are only reducing your hourly take home pay.

Advice to Senior Management – Invest in the talent you already have. If you sell tuition reimbursement as a perk, let the employee actually take advantage of it.

Current Employee – been working at Equifax

Pros – good pay, bonus at higher pay grades
good insurance, although expensive

Cons – Just do a person search on LinkedIn for Equifax as a past employer. Draw your own conclusion after looking at the talent that has left in the last year.

Advice to Senior Management – No advice. Pointless to give it. The strategy is to clear out IT and start over with cheap resources in 3rd world countries. We can't compete with pennies on the dollar salaries. Just remember, you get what you pay for.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend