PR staff: excellent. MIS operations: needs work.
Pros
In my 15-month tenure at Edelman, I have met some amazing people in the PR business and, as an MIS team member, been involved with some large and interesting projects. Senior leadership of the company seems to have a vision and a plan to execute it, and is doing it very well. Benefits are good, and time-off policies (vacation, sick, leave, etc) are great.
Cons
Unfortunately, the vision for the global MIS infrastructure is not only clouded, but nearly non-existent... or at least, not communicated to staff. The global infrastructure team has cycled through five managers in eight months and continues to be understaffed. The CIO position has been vacant for at least six months. The US-wide bonus eligibility was changed suddenly this year to require over 12 months of service (and not pro-rated), excluding several people hired 12-13 months earlier who were counting on it... it does make me feel less valued than the person sitting next to me who has been employed three weeks longer than me. Salaried MIS team members really feel that, being a cost center and not billable, we are not given the consideration that billiable employees may sometimes get. During a recent office seating re-organization, the entire NY-based MIS team was moved from the open-cubicle seating plan to what amounts to glorified picnic tables.
