Pros
• The collaboration and team efforts at Arden are great. Everyone on "strat" really does have an open door policy and is easy to talk to about any subject. • All the employees are very personable and helpful regarding any questions or issues you have. • There are a few great incentives such as leaving early every other Friday, free lunches on Fridays, spirit days such as Employee Appreciation and celebrating Halloween, and the Christmas party and raffle are always done very well. • The company is also good about moving you between departments if you feel you are a better fit there or could grow your career within another group.
Cons
• The entire "strat" structure is so unnecessary - why does any company of that size need more Vice Presidents than the entire United States? • One of the biggest issues Arden faces is lack of management training - don't throw someone into a Manager role who has never had an ounce of management experience and expect him/her to lead employees who would rather be self-sufficient (and could get more work done that way). It seems like employees being promoted is more about sucking up to strat than qualified experience - i.e. someone put into the head of a department who literally has no experience relating to that group. Additionally, this makes it hard to move up the ladder. The executive team is predominantly made up of white males which also deteriorates the chance of non-white, females to rise to the top (there are 2 females on strat which is a plus but they are also white). • The company needs to adapt to flexibility - Arden is one of the only companies I know that does not let their employees work from home if needed, and makes them take a sick/personal day instead. This combined with the lack of work/life balance for some makes it intolerable on days. A manager should not keep an employee in the office until 9pm, four days a week.