FIS FAQ

Pros

It's a fortune 500 company. Few perks like free meals, medical insurance including parents, leaves provided are 7SL, 7CL and 13 PL. Latest technology trends. Stability in job. Professional colleagues.

Cons

Hikes are not up to the standard with respect to fortune 500 tag. Hardly 8% but no hike during covid times. No hikes on promotions.

Advice to Management

Timely and market standard hikes can help you retain good people.

Pros

They have recognized that they need to change and be innovative. FIS has been holding a company-wide hackathon for ten years which has garnered a number of ideas from teams, which FIS has been great at celebrating the winners. Currently the company is hybrid, with varying levels of this from full remote to 100% in office. The management I've experienced, so far, has been very flexible with this. I do expect more of a push to have people in the office over the next year or two. FIS just completed their new building in Jacksonville and the Milwaukee office interior has gone through an overhaul to improve the workspaces and meeting rooms. Benefits are what you would expect for a corp. 6% match on 401k, invested after 3 years, good health and dental, and an opportunity to purchase stock with a rebate.

Cons

The company is in tech and going through an agile transformation. As of 2022, they are between one to three years into this, depending on which area you are working in. 1) This transformation did not start with leadership on board first. The result is not getting the support you need to make this successful. Teams are pressured to meet arbitrary dates set by someone in sales. 2) Employees are #2 and our clients are #1. More often than not, teams feel like they are just a number, pushed to get work done faster. 3) Leaders think agile is though of more as a software upgrade that magically increases speed (this is changing, but it's not without a struggle by those of us trying to help). 4) Teams "just checking the boxes" for agility. There are teams that refuse to change and just rename what they are doing to make it sound like they are agile. As you can imagine, they can't deliver anything under a year. 5) Escalations all the time. Read the first chapter of "The Goal" by Goldratt to hear our story. 6) To focused on project funding and having developers log time to 20 different efforts. This also makes in near impossible to pivot because you need a committee approval to change. 7) Mainframe SDLC needs some love. So many stage gates and heavy processes still exist. We're still doing development like it's 1999.

Pros

good gym, lifestyle, travel benefits, generous pension contributions, Bupa health cover no excess, London office surprisingly diverse and inclusive

Cons

impersonal corporate atmosphere if that's not your scene

Advice to Management

good job, carry on sir

Pros

My immediate team and manager were great to work with (even up to the VP level), everyone is friendly and helpful.

Cons

Almost all of senior management is white males. There are a few non-white males however it is not proportional to the population at large. The company is full of double speak, the CEO often says "I want this to be the last company you work for" however nothing they do makes that true, the company does not offer benefits that are competitive with any tech company or Fortune 100 company (which they are aggressively trying to become), the insurance is expensive and they make you pay for benefits that often are included at other employers (such as LTD and STD). They also only offer a 3% 401(k) match when you contribute 6% which is not competitive. Finally the company only cares about shareholder value and nothing to proactively retain employees (most people I know could only get decent raise when they had another offer on the table), the final straw for me was when the company didn't pay bonuses in 2021 but at the same time announced a $13 Billion share buy back program, which will directly make the executives richer. The bonus goals were set pre-COVID and management basically said "well you didn't meet the goals so we aren't paying" while at the same time sending emails saying how we went above and beyond in 2020 given the circumstances. Management could have easily done only an $11 Billion share buy back and used $2 Billion to fund the bonus pool and provided COLA raises.

Advice to Management

Invest in your employees, don't make employees get another offer to give them a raise, if you truly "want this to be the last company [someone] works for" then put your money where your mouth is and provide better benefits (or at least reduce the cost of the current ones) and salary.

Pros

All tech equipment provided. Full benefits including wellness connection to Virgin Pulse for healthcare discount. Full remote.

Cons

Salary is lower than expected given the parameters of the job.

Advice to Management

Mental health benefits would be extremely useful, such as a Talkspace subscription.