Don't Be Fooled - Anonymous employee CDK Global Employee Review

CDK Global has been in a steady race to the bottom over the past four years, since its inception. The only thing that leadership and the executive team cares about is driving up the share price at any cost. Even that strategy has been ineffective over the past 8 months, as the share price continues to fall, mirroring the steady decline in engagement, employee satisfaction, retention, customer satisfaction, and product quality. Over the past 4 years, the company continually finds ways to cut costs, even where cost cutting makes no sense. Small benefits which were once valued and appreciated by associates are slowly disappearing - lunch room snacks, drinks and cutlery; regular lunch and learn sessions; charitable donation matching; paid parking; access to online learning portals; employee recognition programs - just to name a few. Rather than looking for inefficiencies and bloat to save big money, the focus is on getting rid of the many small costs that benefit the most people. Here’s a hint - when you interview at a company and have to pay for your own parking because they eliminated the $150/month guest parking spaces - RUN! Management and the Executive team are all talk and no action. Priorities change from one day to the next, focus shifts with the wind, there is no cohesion or consensus when it comes to what the priorities should be. Even when management has an idea of what they want, they have no idea how to get there and can’t be bothered to consult with associates or SMEs on how best to achieve their goals. Departments are incredibly siloed and often in conflict with one another. What we are going to do and how we are going to do it is driven by finding the fastest and cheapest solution available, often at the expense of product/code quality, client satisfaction, security and sustainability/scalability. Think “Good, Fast, Cheap Triangle” - CDK will always choose fast and cheap. If you are a developer or in the technology space, this is not where you want to be to grow your career or develop your skills. There is a massive disconnect between what CDK presents on their social media accounts and what the recruiters sell you, versus the reality of working in development here. “Agile” is very loosely practiced, but only in the sense that there are a lot of meetings and it allows management to track your hours. They’ll tell you that isn’t what it is for, but often turn around and ask why something took so long or why you can’t do it faster. Hours are assigned to tasks and burned down just because that’s the process - not because it adds any value to a team or project. Agile teams never have the opportunity to become highly functioning because teams change so often, work and priorities come in from all directions, turnover is high, and process is valued over everything else. CDK operates exactly opposite the 4 values of the Agile Manifesto. Further, development work is continually being outsourced to India, which adds a whole host of different challenges to building and supporting products in North America. If you are considering a career at CDK, particularly if you are in a region where there is high demand for your skills and many opportunities available, stay far away from this company. They will suck the life from you, compromise your morals and integrity and deflate your work ethic. If you really want to challenge yourself, learn new skills and grow your career, do yourself a favor and find a better place to work. It won’t be hard, I promise.