Great company to work for and grow as a market researcher
Pros
Ipsos is a great place to work, whether you are just starting out in market research or have been in the industry for a while. The people I have worked with on the client services side of the business are smart and engaged with research, and committed to providing the best insights and strategic recommendations to clients. The current economic uncertainty with the Covid-19 pandemic has only strengthened the company's offerings and resolve to meet clients' changing needs. Ipsos has a variety of validated methodologies and research tools that it offers to clients to help them understand the health of their brands in the market, and how and why their advertising works (or doesn't work). It takes a while to get up to speed on all of these methods, but once you understand how they work and how to interpret the results, it's satisfying to see how you can leverage these tools in research for clients. For example, Ipsos has been very quick to offer new research tools and insights to clients to help them understand how consumer behaviors and perceptions may be changing as a result of Covid-19. It's exciting to be part of a company that has the resources and intelligence to be able to offer these services to clients. I have worked in market research for nearly two decades and I am still learning new things at Ipsos that keep my skill-set sharp. Ipsos has a very healthy, ethical and humane culture of respect for its employees. (As a European-based company, this is bred deep into their cultural DNA.) This probably explains the company's very high retention rate (some people have been with the company for 10+ years, which is increasingly rare in today's economy). Even with the current economic downturn, rather than lay off droves of workers as some other MR firms have done, the company chose instead to institute temporary pay cuts including among the highest senior and C-suite levels at the company, which were graduated so that lower earners took a smaller pay cut and the lowest earners took no pay cut at all. I believe this "shared sacrifice" enhances loyalty to the company and makes us all stronger as a unit in the long run. In my experience, the workload is reasonable, although it can be heavier during quarterly reporting time as might be expected. Overall, work/life balance is great, and the health care and other benefits are comparable to those of other companies. I have had to work some weekends in order to meet deadlines, but this is the exception rather than the rule. People are encouraged to take their PTO and disconnect and not be "always on" and available, which research has shown actually makes people more productive and engaged during work hours. The company recognizes and rewards extra effort and initiative. In large organizations, it can sometimes be easy to be overlooked but I have not found that to be the case at Ipsos, so long as you put in the effort to be visible, step up to contribute, forge relationships with those both in your immediate team and outside of it, and ensure you are a team player. The company often promotes from within, and provides a fair and thorough performance review process, so that employees can understand where they excel and need improvement, and what skills and steps are necessary to advance to the next higher role.
Cons
Ipsos is a large organization and with that comes a cumbersome internal bureaucracy that makes it difficult to get things done, from submitting and approving a budget, to getting a questionnaire programmed, to getting data tables and results back. At times, this can be frustrating, especially when working on tight deadlines for demanding clients. Internal tools and procedures are often cumbersome and take a long time to learn. Even people who have been with the company for years find it bewildering. If you are used to working in a smaller company, with less red tape, you will probably find this frustrating - although thankfully most people here are willing to show you the ropes. Also as a result of being such a large organization, some parts of the company seem "detached" or less responsive than other parts, particularly the data collection and data processing teams. As is typical of bureaucracies, some people will defend their "turf" when mistakes or problems arise, rather than try to work together cooperatively to resolve problems. As someone who has a client-facing role in the organization, I often have to keep a sharp eye out for data integrity issues that have been overlooked by those responsible for collecting and processing the data, who can seem rather cavalier about these issues.
