Upper Management Depends WAY TOO MUCH On Middle Management - Information Security NIC Employee Review

1.0
Jan 28, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The benefits were great (even though the pay was significantly less than average). The Corporate Office is cool. The CEO is Awesome, and a lot of great talent comes through those doors.

Cons

Middle management is garbage and genuinely cannot do their jobs with their egos so inflated. This was true for pretty much every single middle manager, all the way up to the directors. Most of them won't take criticism for even the smallest things, typically equating "Hey I think we should do X instead of Y" as a personal attack. There are certain Director Level Managers in the company that refuse to even take criticism from their own team, or any other teams within the company. Upper-level management, however, refuses to reflect on any of the complaints filed, because they refuse to actually look at them as real problems. It's unfortunate that the people making the upper-level decisions refuse to even look at their "pets" as possibly being problems. When your team has a mass exodus (within a couple years, the Corporate Security team has cycled out around 10 people, which was a majority of its staff. As of now, none of the senior members remain), maybe you should take a moment to look at WHAT went wrong, and not just shrug it off. It gets worse when you realize that the lower-middle management (Under the directors) have little to no spine and will pretty much just do what their director says without question.

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NIC Response
7y
While this is never the kind of review we want to receive, we appreciate your feedback and will share appropriately.

Explore other reviews about NIC

5.0
Sep 3, 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Friendly/Helpful employees. Schedule and salary.

Cons

I do not believe there are any cons.

4.0
Oct 22, 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Overall, NIC is a company that cares about and supports its employees. I have a great work/life balance with a flexible schedule and ability to work remotely when needed. They are willing to send (relatively) junior resources to conferences that other companies would normally send high-level executives. The federal group is a pretty small and very collaborative team that enables everyone to both lead and support opportunities. Also, health insurance is covered by the company which is amazing.

Cons

Overall, I think NIC is behind in technology trends. They primarily focus on custom builds for each agency/project, which, considering their customer base of over 25 states and several federal agencies, is a costly strategy. By creating a different solution for each customer, NIC is investing more time and effort than would be necessary if they adapted a shared services model or used SaaS platforms that most agencies and companies are shifting towards. Because each state and federal agency is treated separately, NIC also uses different management approaches for each customer. This could work if there was an overarching approach that was adapted on a per customer basis, but instead there is no single set of governing principles resulting in a disjointed management approach. They are also pretty niche in capabilities in that they focus purely on using their no-cost model for citizen-facing services. This works for many cases - but not all - and they struggle to adapt/to be open to using other basic contract types like FFP and T&M. As a result, opportunities are fairly limited because they must meet very specific criteria.

4
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NIC Response
7y
Thank you for the taking the time to share your perspective. We are glad to hear your experience at NIC has been positive. As you know, our employees are our most important asset and we strive to ensure we are the best place they have ever worked. Throughout our history, we have evolved as technology has evolved. We have advanced from dial-up technology, to the first mobile app for government, to delivering the first Alexa skills for government. Today this includes a balance between custom development, platforms, and standalone technology products – all designed to deliver innovative solutions that create efficiencies for government and the people they serve.
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