Press Ganey Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Press Ganey full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – There is a nice level of flexibility in the job and the base pay isn't bad.

Cons – During my tenure with Press Ganey, there have been 4 CEOs. Each one brings in their own team and tries to "fix" what's wrong with the company. They add products and services without truly integrating them so that we have a myriad different platforms and teams that don't interact.

Press Ganey's pricing models are so varied and complicated that it is difficult to tell a prospect what a service costs. That, coupled with PG being the high priced solutions, causes us to lose several deals.

As a sales person, they have instituted a new comp plan in 2013 (which we have yet to receive in writing) that is convoluted, difficult to calculate, and penalizes the sales person for any decrease in a current client's revenue. So if a client discontinues a service because it isn't working - that money cancels out any new sales that were mad. It's possibly the worst SCIP that I have ever had in my 10+ years in sales.

Advice to Senior Management – Streamline your offerings, make pricing more competitive and simple, and don't push a product out to market without testing it's readiness.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Press Ganey full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – They are very flexible with your schedule - letting you work from home, flex hours, etc.

Cons – I used to really think Press Ganey was a great place to work, but in recent months my opinion has taken a complete reversal.

This company continues to pile on unnecessary upper level management (all of whom are old friends of the current CEO), while treating its average employee like dirt. If you are considering working here, don't expect to be fairly compensated for your hard work. Merit increases are no longer a given, and, though they claim that you may still be eligible for a merit increase if you score high marks on your annual performance review, this is a blatant lie. Myself and several others with whom I spoke received marks of "Exceeds Expectations" on our performance reviews, yet we received no merit increases. In the past 6 months alone, I worked an average of 60 hours per week, yet I guess that just wasn't good enough. On the same day that they announced the creation of yet ANOTHER upper level management position, the CEO of the company sent out an e-mail explaining to us that only 65 people in the entire company were deemed worthy of a merit increase this year.

They can't afford to give us raises, or to provide us with desperately needed working laptops, but they sure can afford that new manager! I expect a mass exodus soon.

Advice to Senior Management – Stop playing favorites with all of your friends and driving this company into the ground. You're ruining what used to be a good company.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Press Ganey full-time for less than a year

Pros – I cannot think of any at this time.

Cons – Management has no idea what is going on. Hired as a 6 month consultant to hire, was told 3 weeks in that I will be hired at the end of my contract, then three weeks later they changed their minds.

Advice to Senior Management – Get a clue.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Press Ganey full-time for less than a year

Pros – The company has some excellent employees at the ground level.

Cons – There is massive turmoil and backstabbing at the middle management level, the senior managers are inexperienced and in over their heads, and the executives have their heads so far in the clouds that they can't see what is really going on.

From my individual perspective, the workload is unbearable. People keep quitting the company and they are not replaced, so their job responsibilities fall on other already overworked people. When I asked for help, I was told to "work more hours." When I demonstrated that I was already working 60+ hours per week, I was told to "work more efficiently." I'm doing the work of 2.5 people in 60 hours, so I'm already extremely efficient!

The company seems top-heavy with management; for example, there are at least 5 layers of management between the average worker and the executives in a < 1,000 person company.

Salaries are on the low-end of acceptable and the fringe benefits are Spartan. The health care coverage is abysmal, which is ironic because Press Ganey purports to be a leader in the health care industry.

Advice to Senior Management – Interview some of your ground level employees. Realize that the middle management turmoil is

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Press Ganey full-time

Pros – Lurking below today’s problems is a company with a noble mission, an inspiring history, and some remarkably talented and enthusiastic employees.

Cons – There is an understandable assumption that when people leave a company under negative circumstances, their sour grapes attitude is the reason for their negative publicity. They can’t accept their own responsibility, so they blame their bosses or senior leaders or the organization itself. They can’t accept change, even when it means growth, and they can’t accept constructive feedback, even when it’s warranted. But the oceans of talent who have left Press Ganey in the last few years, as the company has grown more rigid, less science-based (in spite of the valiant efforts of a bright and ethical research & analytics department), and less customer focused (with lots of words being thrown at the idea of customer service, but policies that prove those words dishonest) tell a different story.
     Many of us left voluntarily, after years or even decades, with tremendous sadness. We loved the company and our mission, and we tolerated insane hours and unproductive policies because we believed so strongly in the fine work we did, improving the state of healthcare and changing people’s lives. We supported, even embraced, numerous changes, even when they negatively impacted our work-life balance over the years. But when at last the mission is obscured, expectations move from insane to impossible, clients become treated essentially as “marks,” nepotism runs rampant, and incompetence is wildly rewarded and promoted (to be fair, there are occasional fair and justified promotions, but they are the exception), often to the level of senior VPs, you must see that something is very wrong.
     The mission is becoming obscured by prioritizing sales over service. After the brightest and most creative minds are hired, they are expected to exhibit a skill set different from that for which they were hired and are bound by intransigent and unwise policies. The scientific research now takes a backseat to compromised ethics. It's rampant throughout the organization: consulting reports to sales (which undermines their very reason for being), account managers are worked beyond their ability to function effectively, much less optimally, marketing is shown only the glossy reflective surfaces so they are unprepared for valid pushback, and the research team’s scientific approach is devalued at every turn. The result? Press Ganey’s clients stay because of its large database, and, frankly, inertia. (They've said it themselves.)
     Worse still is the culture of fear. Those of us employed at Press Ganey for, let’s say, at least five years (many of us far longer) have seen the climate get worse and worse, with more panicked speculations about where the next axe will fall, what the next incomprehensible policy change will be, which talented individual will disappear next. True, the toxicity of the environment was increasing for several years before Pat Ryan’s emergence on the scene, but it continues to grow exponentially. In my job, I encountered dozens of colleagues each week, and almost no one could keep their fears in this noxious environment a secret. A few of us did keep our constant feeling of dread to ourselves, even surprising others when we left; we were by far the exception.
     A keen eye will take a look at the dates of the postings here and will notice a sudden flurry of positive reviews in late February. Is it a surprise that a data-driven company has noticed that the numbers weren’t looking good? No. But to manipulate the data in such an unscrupulous way…well, it should be shocking, but in the current climate, it is not. Whether the intention is to lure in well-meaning talent, or to present a pretty picture to the next corporate buyer, the campaign to present a positive picture of what is truly an unhealthy company is unmistakable. A business that cares about its image works to repair it, not to obfuscate it.
     Corporate does not have to mean unethical. Hard work does not have be unrewarded. High standards and accountability do not have to mean terror. Many, many of us “refugees” have kept in touch with each other and with those who remain behind, and we have learned this: Those of us who landed on our feet elsewhere are reminded that a driven, thriving environment can be exhilarating, personally enriching, can bring out our very best work, can propel us to exceed all expectations. And those who have fled or been fired from Press Ganey describe the feeling of the great weights of managerial bullying and personal despondency being lifted.

Advice to Senior Management – To those of you who are reasonable and ethical and still believe in the mission of this once-great industry leader (and I know there are still a handful of you there), PLEASE fight for Press Ganey. We know it can’t (and shouldn’t) be the bold little start-up it once was, but I genuinely hope, free of schadenfreude, that Press Ganey could once again be the shining star of a company that celebrates innovation, honors its mission, and does its very best for its clients.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Press Ganey full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – A great market, great clients, colleagues with a passion for improvement (most are now former PG employees).

Cons – Everyone who can is leaving or already gone, driven out by Pat Ryan and his cronies, who are intent on getting as much as they can before the owners wake up and figure out what is going on under their noses and fire these people. By that time, clients will have also figured out they are chumps for staying on.

It is rare to see a company and a culture fall so far so fast.

Advice to Senior Management – Leave.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Press Ganey full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Was a great company to work for. Had a great culture of innovation, collaboration and team spirit. It trusted the workers and valued them. The teams themselves were wonderful to work with.

Cons – After recent change in management, there has been constant change or lack of direction would be more accurate. This has resulted in high level of attrition. While I hung on as much as I could, it was pointless to stay put without there being a team anymore. Most managerial decisions have been puzzling at best.

Advice to Senior Management – None that would be taken.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Press Ganey full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – There are pockets of excellence hidden within the company. Find one, put your head down and do your job, and this place can be tolerable.

Cons – Seemingly never-ending string of exceptionally poor executives, poor decision making, zero accountability for poor performance at any level in the company. No direction, no vision from upper management. Spending money on wasteful things like it's going out of style.

Extremely hostile work environment, very very political. Ideas are evaluated and promoted not based upon their merit, but upon who proposed them and to whom that person is connected.

Advice to Senior Management – Go run someone else's company into the ground and give this once respectable organization a fighting chance.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Press Ganey full-time for more than a year

Pros – I worked for a couple years at PG with the best and most productive team of software developers I have ever had the pleasure of working with in my 20+ year career, but they have all left PG in the last 3-6 months. Clearly a few cronies of the new CEO are very happy and are being taken care of 'like family'.

Cons – When people are asked for their input and then are ignored, they tend to leave. When they have little or no control over their work processes, they tend to leave. When they are not given the tools to do the job and are distracted from their work by constant shifts in direction and are then maligned for being poor producers, they tend to leave.

We had teams that delivered great product on time, every time for several years before this executive team came in. Now ALL but a very few have left. About 15 of 20 team members in our office have left by their own choice. 5-10% turnover with new management is normal. 75% turnover is BAD management! (Unless they wanted us to leave...? They could have just asked nicely.)

Advice to Senior Management – Come up with a VERY good 'story' for the board and investors! It will be extremely dificult to deliver on promises when your best people are leaving, so your best hope is probably a good snow job. Start treating your employees with respect and understand that they probably know how to do their jobs better than you do, so trust them.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Press Ganey full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – We used to have a great culture in our department; good people to work with.

Cons – There have been recent layoffs. Everyone who's left is demoralized and most employees don't believe in this company any longer.

Advice to Senior Management – Nothing that hasn't already been said here - but the new CEO and his buddies are not going to listen.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend