iostudio Employee Reviews for HR Specialist

"It's all smoke and mirrors! Employees are disillusioned, jaded and disgruntled."

What do you like about working at iostudio?

"I have met some amazing people that I will be friends with forever."

Do you have any tips for others interviewing with this company?

"The process is so jacked up, all I can say is good luck. The company is so political, most of the time they know who they are going to hire for open positions, they just have to post them to meet EEO standards. They don't interview all of the most-qualified applicants, only who they want."

What don't you like about working at iostudio?

"When I first started working at iostudio, I thought I hit the jackpot. Friendly employees, free snacks and coffee, a cool office environment. As I began to settle in to the company, I soon realized that it was all smoke and mirrors. The turnover at iostudio has increased DRASTICALLY in the past 6-8 months. Employees are rapidly checking out, becoming jaded and disillusioned, and realizing that they deserve better. Why I attribute it to a few factors.The company used to be super laid-back, super fun. The owners were always in the office, and were connected with what was going on in the company. As they began transitioning themselves from the company (they hired a set of executive directors to oversee the company and make all of the decisions), the company culture began to get lost. It's not the owners fault, and it's not all of the executive directors faults. Each executive director is just too wrapped up in their own workload to notice that there is a major culture and work environment shift going on, for the worse. No major decisions or changes are ever communicated to employees, so employees rarely know what's going on, from a financial standpoint, from a business standpoint, etc.Last spring, the company hired a Human Resources director to help run the company. Because the company had grown so much in the previous year, it needed to expand the HR department badly. Coming from a rigid, corporate, retail environment, he was very different from the relaxed, laid-back environment that iostudio was used to. He fired the existing Human Resources Manager, and decided to hire his buddy from his former company for that position (he wasn't even qualified!), completely disregarding the hiring and equal opportunity employer processes, not even interviewing any of the other qualified candidates that applied for the position. They quickly began implementing policy after policy, turning the company from a cool ad agency to any other run-of-the mill corporation. Some of the changes were for the better, but most of the new policies and procedures were not communicated properly, and resulted in misunderstandings and disgruntled employees.Pay is average for the industry, but with the company being SO political and gossipy, you have to suck up to the right people to get promoted and move up within the company. Not interested in getting promoted In the past 6 months, I know of at LEAST 2 employees, probably more, that were fired because they made too much money for their position. Why pay someone who has been with the company for a while more when you can fire them and hire some cheap college grad They've also eliminated positions and laid off employees in the past 6 months to save money, leaving the employees jobless, with barely any notice, after several years working for the company. So much for being an employee-friendly company, eh They recently implemented a disciplinary action process, but they can fire you for whatever they want whenever they want without adhering to this process, so it's pretty much useless.Employees are realizing that this company is all smoke and mirrors, hiding behind the curtain of a creative ad agency, but becoming a scary bureaucracy where employee opinions and well-being are an afterthought. With budgets being slashed and departments being restructured, I fear for the future of this company."

What suggestions do you have for management?

"Step back and see what is happening before the company gets any worse than it already is!"