Does Initiative pay their employees well?

According to anonymously submitted Glassdoor reviews, Initiative employees rate their compensation and benefits as 3.2 out of 5. Find out more about salaries and benefits at Initiative. This rating has been stable over the past 12 months.

How satisfied are employees working at Initiative?

57% of Initiative employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews . Employees also rated Initiative 3.4 out of 5 for work life balance, 3.8 for culture and values and 3.4 for career opportunities.

What are the top reviewed jobs at Initiative?

Manager (32) , Communications Designer (31) , Associate (29) , Director (29) , Negotiator (29) , Media Planner (28) , Assistant Media Planner (21) , Associate Director (19) , Analyst (17) , Associate, Communications Design (12) , Group Director (12) , Senior Analyst (10) , Account Director (8) , Account Manager (8) , Associate, Digital Partnerships (8)

What are the pros of working at Initiative according to real employee reviews?

"The people there are great to work with in a friendly environment." ((in 95 reviews)); "Great culture and engaged leaders." ((in 65 reviews)); "Great benefits and PTO allowance" ((in 37 reviews)); "It's a nice office" ((in 26 reviews)); "Strategy lead agency that has great leadership and is growing." ((in 21 reviews))

What are the cons of working at Initiative according to real employee reviews?

"low pay compared to same positions at other agencies" ((in 68 reviews)); "understaffed and often requires long hours" ((in 52 reviews)); "Absolutely no work life balance" ((in 40 reviews)); "Low salary and not much movement" ((in 32 reviews)); "Good job HR and Upper Management..." ((in 16 reviews))

What are employees saying about Initiative redundancies in 2026?

Explore Glassdoor’s employee reviews to understand what current and former employees are saying about Initiative redundancy and their outlook for job security at Initiative in 2026.

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Initiative

Part of IPG Mediabrands

Initiative Reviews

Compare reviews

3.5

57% would recommend to a friend

(778 total reviews)

Mat Baxter

67% approve of CEO

48% positive business outlook

Ratings by category

3.9

Diversity and inclusion

3.8

Culture and values

3.4

Work/Life balance

3.4

Career opportunities

3.3

Senior management

3.2

Compensation and benefits

Initiative has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 778 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Initiative employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media and communication industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

778 reviews

5.0

13 Sept 2022

Fantastic place to work

Anonymous employee

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

Culture, leadership and great clients

Cons

None than aren’t specific to the industry

1.0

14 Dec 2021

Don't expect any freetime or proper training

Negotiator, digital partnerships

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

Unlimited PTO (if you have a good manager) is nice, but if your manager wants, they can veto it at any time. That's pretty much it...

Cons

Completely oblivious to people's time outside of work. Expected to work 10+ hours a day without ever putting into consideration your time outside of work. The managers are completely overworked, so training is non-existent. Will load your schedule up full, then schedule 5+ meetings a day that slam you even more. Will have random "company" meetings basically saying "we love you" which take up a chunk of time and make you fall even more behind.

1.0

7 Jan 2020

First Job Out of College

Associate, digital partnerships

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

-Easy agency to land your first role, get a few months' of experience and you'll easily get hired somewhere else. I worked there for six months and landed a $25K+ pay increase and better role. -Good environment to be thrown into in order to learn the realities of media agency life -Will allow you to quickly learn what you like/don't like in a job and what you want as an employee for your next role/agency

Cons

-Below industry-standard pay (35K starting salary). -Siloed teams -High turnover rate -Poor upper management -You're just a number, not an employee -IPG doesn't value personal growth and development -No training for new employees/difficult for team members to help you -Poor structural organization -Boring accounts -No work-life balance, everyone stays at their desk for lunch and extra late to appear 'hard-working' when in reality, teams are not efficiently run and could easily do their work from 9-6. -Catty environment, people tend to blame others and focus on their self-work -Difficult to feel unified and communicate as a team

Viewing 1 - 3 of 778 Reviews