Dynata Reviews

3.0

45% would recommend to a friend

(1,523 total reviews)
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Mike Petrullo

53% approve of CEO

34% positive business outlook

Dynata has an employee rating of 3.0 out of 5 stars, based on 1,523 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there. The Dynata employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Management and consulting industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

2K reviews
1.0
15 Aug 2019

Seriously?!

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Talented people with deep knowledge of the industry and area of expertise.

Cons

1) Product: Make no mistake, the product we're creating is Dynata. The job is to make the company appear impressive enough to be sold to someone else. This is accomplished by doing the minimum amount of effort as quickly as possible despite any objections from employees or experts in the field. 2) CEO: More concerned about custom tailored sports coats than employees. CEO has a history of firing qualified executives with years of experience who disagree with his decisions (I'm looking at you OPs and HR) and replacing them with 'yes men' with no experience whatsoever. Also, never make the mistake of engaging the CEO in conversation if you are lower than VP level - you'll be met with an icy 'Who the hell do you think you are?' stare. 3) Benefits: 401k matching slashed significantly this year. Rather than being transparent about the change, they simply omitted the change from the presentation (somehow, hoping employees wouldn't notice). Medical and dental downgraded as well. 4) Raises: Even with great performance reviews, employee raises were in the 1-2% range (less than or equal to inflation). Rare exceptions of 4% where some managers put themselves at risk and pushed those raises through. 5) Retention: Employees from all departments are quitting at high rates. The C-Level plan for reversing this trend is to ask employees for suggestions on how to reverse this trend. See points 3 and 4. 6) Empowerment: Unable to make decisions without walking up a very tall chain. Unable to delegate responsibilities because what is true today is likely to change tomorrow. 7) Morale: A dark cloud hanging everywhere. An employee satisfaction survey from upper management was sent out recently. Execs quickly minimized the result (obviously poor) saying "We knew it would be low due to our challenging integration efforts." No, it's not that. It's much more.

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Dynata Response
6y
We understand your frustration and we realize that many employees are still unhappy about the merger(s) and trying to adjust to the changes and get acclimate to what potentially feels like a “new” company. The organization had to make some hard decisions as part of the integration process that resulted in take-aways from some and improvements for others, depending on which company you were part of. Leadership looked at trade-offs with the ultimate goal of creating a sustainable and realistic structure that positions Dynata for long term growth and success for all of its employees. We often ask employees to participate in task forces and working groups aimed at improving life at Dynata. It seems like you have a lot of ideas on what can be done differently to make the Company a better place to work. I strongly encourage you to join one of these team and help drive and own the solutions.
4.0
8 Oct 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I worked as a software engineer at Research Now, so this review is from that perspective. 1. Research Now has a very interesting problem space and the opportunity to use a huge range of modern, cutting-edge technologies. Name something cool, and RN engineers are probably using it every day. 2. Teams work in an agile environment, with well designed team rooms. The teams are cross-functional, and include the product owner and QA. 3. The technical leadership is all about getting stuff done. You won't die a slow death in hundreds of meetings. 4. Engineers are given great leeway in how solutions get implemented. There are not ivory tower "architects" preaching down to you. We used Java, Groovy, Kotlin and NodeJS/ReactJS with deployment to Docker. 5. Fun-loving, casual work environment. Definitely a startup feel. Shorts and teeshirts, with a fridge full of beer on Fridays. 6. Good work-life balance, if you pay attention and manage it. There is an infinite amount of work, so don't boil the ocean. 7. They'll pay well for talent, but the rest of the benefits are merely average If you want to work on hard problems using great technology in a low friction environment, you can have a lot of fun here. This has a very startup-like feel. People who can't handle a fast-paced environment won't survive here, but those that do can have a rewarding experience.

Cons

The business side of the company is a trainwreck, and ultimately why I left. 1. The company was purchased by a flaky east coast PE group, and they micro manage finances at a monthly level. 2. The CEO is purely a bean counting sock puppet for the PE guys. There is no leadership or strategic thinking. Everything is about how to make the books look good to keep the puppet masters happy. 3. The company used to have a strong culture but that's gone into the toilet. Plenty of stealth layoffs on the business side. The engineering organization is largely shielded from this, but you definitely get the feel you're tolerated only because they desperately need you.

1.0
23 Jul 2019

Be Careful

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I learned a lot in this position, and I'm grateful for everything I learned. The work itself was fun and challenging and I adored my clientele. My teammates were the reason I stayed so long; they were the most brilliant people I have had the blessing to work with.

Cons

*Glassdoor/Dynata please stop removing my review. * My goal in writing this is and coming forward with my thoughts is to ultimately help my teammates enter into a more appropriately professional/healthy work environment and be transparent with people that are looking to work here. In the office, I never, in my professional career, encountered such bullying, harassment, favoritism and hazing (especially women on women). Management style is not appropriate for a company with Dynata's goals and is not conducive to safe work environment. Management has made derogatory remarks such as "Last one in gets fired!"during a team lunch when we first round layoffs were happening immediately after the merger with SSI and “we haven’t lost anyone important” after multiple people have left this team in a matter of months is disheartening and scary for team members to hear at work. Management conducts blatant hazing, stalking, and micromanaging. Everything from looking to trade a person to another team if they are no longer “needed” to monitoring social media at odd hours to “keep tabs” on an employee, and then use their social life against them at work. I would also like to note that not one manager followed me the entire time I was employed - they were actively looking at/for me. This was incredibly invasive and was used as ammo against me. Another example of hazing was in response to my request on information for unpaid time off due to a family matter. The incredulous part of this response was that management mandated that if I needed to work remote I would have to use vacation time to do so and that I was still required to work. Generally in emails requesting information and examples from management and leadership, my requests were denied, evaded, and I went 6 months without a 1:1 with the team lead. I believe to avoid confrontation. Because the atmosphere is so toxic at Dynata, when I got sick I was afraid to go to the doctor for fear that leadership would take action against me. I believe many people have felt the same. This led to more stress and increasingly related health issues. This fear only stopped when I had to take medical leave for organ failure. I cannot remember how many countless times I have had to hide behind doors and crouch down in cubicles when I went to visit my other co-workers on different teams management passed by. Employees on my team spend an unreasonable amount of time and energy concerned on management's perception of their simple every day activities instead of their overall accounts and business performance. I know that people have spoken to HR management, but there is a breach of confidentiality with HR, so be warned that if you discuss anything to HR, it is not in confidence. In conclusion, I believe my team leader at Dynata has established a fearful workplace environment that I believe is overall detrimental for the team and the company in the long run. A true leader would promote their employees, trust their employees, and be present around their employees. Unfortunately, I do not believe this is occuring and the environment it is creating is utterly toxic to Dynata.

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Dynata Response
6y
I am sorry that you feel this way. It has not been my experience since joining and I have personally taken time to visit our offices, meet with employees and have put in place communications and pulse surveys to get a better sense of the culture and environment. If you feel comfortable, which I hope you would, I would welcome the opportunity to speak with you about your experience.
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