Pros
"Probably no worse than some other places" is perhaps the strongest praise I can muster. The "Cons" below are therefore in one sense just another indictment of late stage Capitalism, of which Ensono seems to be a representative employer. But I (clearly) can't help lamenting the demise of the UK firm before Ensono (Attenda), and that, of course, has strongly coloured my review & rating. If you come into Ensono without that background (as you will), I'm sure you'll find some Pros - pay, benefits & flexible working are reasonable. But just don't believe the hype in the People's Republic of Ensono.
Cons
UK based Attenda (placed in the top 20s of the Sunday Times Best Companies surveys in 2014-17) was taken over by US based Ensono in Oct 2016 and from that point onwards the trajectory could be predicted. Life at Ensono feels pretty much how I imagine living under a communist dictatorship would feel. Specifically, ideological leadership zealots preaching their view of the Company - "great service!", "great values!", "great culture!" - which is diametrically opposed to the reality experienced by the unhappy worker drones labouring under increasing demands. This view is championed by the "Culture and People Experience" department (previously known as HR) who appear to have been renamed in some kind of ironic nod to George Orwell's "Ministry of Truth" from his novel 1984. A prime example would be the attempt to force new contracts on all UK staff without consultation (and on threat of no pay rise) 6 months after the acquisition. I would also suggest that the Glassdoor review dated 11.06.2019 and entitled "Excellent Culture, People and Place to Work..." was a memo from the Ministry. I smell a fake review. There is certainly lots of talk in the company about "culture", but good culture cannot be manufactured, but rather naturally & spontaneously arises from happy employees who are managed well and have genuinely bought into the vision of what the company is about. A significant negative impact on the culture is the increasing number of "the disappeared" (colleagues I have seen leaving either through stress or "reorganisation", but without any acknowledgement) which also supports the communist dictatorship metaphor. Since Ensono has been formed from the "Acquisition & Merger" of three existing Companies (Acxiom, Attenda and part of Wipro) it also suffers from what would appear to be typical issues arising in such situations... 1) A siloed approach - every senior leader thinks they're the only game in town - combined with a lack of joined up strategy. This puts impossible pressure on any team trying to deliver a service to more than one of these leaders. 2) A top down JFDI culture. It appears that one of the characteristics of a "strong" leader is an inability to listen/consult. Leadership don't want to understand how best to do something, they just want you to do "it" (because their boss has told them it must be done... so they can report "it's done" upwards... which is all that counts). It's simply disrespectful not to listen to your technically able staff, as well as a waste of money. You might as well replace them with much cheaper staff who just say "yes"... ah... I think I may have just hit upon a strategic direction and a way to improve your EBITDA! 3) The usual greasy pole competition/ empire building that happens in larger companies, to which you can add in a dose of rewarding clear failure. This is the kind of thing of which contributes (negatively) to culture. No amount of messaging can whitewash it. It's obvious to all. 4) The need for speed. This is of course paramount. Everything must be done yesterday (because it was promised to someone higher up the chain to meet an arbitrary deadline). It's also another convenient excuse for never doing things properly. Lots of "new legacy" is being stacked up for the future (to add to the inevitable old legacy). In summary, just another great UK firm acquired by a US company and ruined by being subjected to aggressive management. If you focus exclusively on EBITDA you'll end up "knowing the price of everything, and the value of nothing" (as Oscar Wilde once wrote). It doesn't HAVE to be this way (see Attenda) but for some reason it is with Ensono.
