surveillance investigator

siu investigator

private investigator

investigator

document specialist

Insight Service Group, ISG

I don't recommend applying to ISG if:    

-You consider yourself more than a tool as an employee.  At ISG, you are nothing more than a tool that they will only USE.

-You value your time and don't like to work for free.  At ISG, this isn't always the case. 

-You expect your employer to be transparent, honest and accountable to staff.  In most cases, ISG Management simply won't reply when you ask questions requiring accountability.  So much for Leadership.

-You expect reviews and raises as promised upon being hired. Based on my experience (and others) this is not the case at ISG. 

-You want to work for an employer that has stable management. For whatever reason, ISG has had 8 Case Managers leave the company over the last year. Very telling of a company's health and stability or lack there of.

-You like working in a consistent environment (i.e. not being told one thing then told another, right hand not knowing what the left is doing as the saying goes).  Not always the case at ISG.

-You like to be compensated for your efforts and for doing your job correctly and competently.  At ISG, you "might" get compliments from time-to-time but nothing more.  EVER. 

My recommendation comes down to this.  If you have prior investigative experience (Law Enforcement-Road Patrol/Corrections/Village/City/County/State/Federal) then I recommend looking elsewhere.  Your prior experience will afford you better investigative opportuninities. In addition, your prior experience and expectations will likely lead to frustration if employed by ISG.  If you don't have prior investigative experience, then ISG MIGHT be a good place to start an investigative career.  Just be aware and mindful while employed by this company.

 The pay, for the amount of work that is expected, is quite poor.  The training program is not really training.  It would behoove the company to develop an actual training program.  In the long run, if the employees are actually trained properly, and given the tools needed to complete the job, the company would save a lot of money.  The company has unrealistic expectations of employees for very little compensation.  If the company focused more on quality employees and fair pay, I’m sure they would not have such a high turn over.  The managers I have dealt with are not what I would call professional.  For some reason, they think they can constantly threaten to withhold pay even though work has been done on behalf of the employer.  Each state has different requirements and it is clear the company managers do not understand all the state laws.  It’s a constant battle for constructive communication, for any training, asking for help is not well received.  I notice they never have meeting which include people from the same department in the same meeting whether online or in person.  Appears they do not want any one talking among themselves.  Maybe, to the company, it could bring up issues if everyone doing the same job talked together.  But, if everyone was able to talk together who do the same job, people could help each other and actually benefit the employer.  Unfortunately, it is an Us against them mentality.  Management against the employers.  Good leaders would want to turn that mentality around and see the benefits the company and employees would gain.  A win-win.  I do not see that happening based on the communication I have seen thus far.  

As a per diem SIU investigator, much depends on the number of cases your receive. If your a retired cop looking for a place to settle in-don't wast your time. Deadlines and supervision are at a premium and good quality of work is expected. As a field investigator, I have only met 1 person from the company when I was hired for training. The most essential skill needed for this position is time management and communication. Time management for work-family balance and communication to case managers to keep them up to speed as to where a case is. 

Good report writing skills are essential as are inter personnel communications and networks through various law enforcement and personal injury law firms. These networks facilitate your success in gaining interviews and information. 

I found the more I applied myself, the more cases I received as case managers come to rely upon dependable field investigators. The case managers are young, knowledgeable and have to coordinate a high number of cases with multiple investigators in multiple states. It took a bit to get used to the perfunctory check-ins and the longer I've come to understand the volume and timelines of their work. 

The salary is low, no question about it, however if your seeking part-time employment in your field of expertise, this is a good spot to maintain your writing and interviewing skills while working at home. The other positive is a case manager will always ask if you want a case-so if your tied up with other life pursuits just let them know. The case managers are helpful and professional

The job tasks are the same if your are an investigator, however, The downfall, is the excessive amount of pickiness. Reports need to be in a certain font, and certain style, etc. They have an editing department, but instead you will spend more time correcting tiny errors, that when management, editing or other peoples jobs are to correct those tiny errors and fix them, they spend time seeing them, and then more time to send you a group email on what you need to change, in stead of corrective, and its been done, and save the time. Constant turnover of managers. and having to resend files on accounts already submitted. Time is money, they do not pay for have to train on their constant change system, or what need idea or software they want to add. It is a time consuming non paying task. The biggest is the Top managements idea, that they believe they have coverage in all areas, however, they do not. They have a bad name with other companies, when it comes to pay rate structure. First, the are one of the lowest in the industry. Second, Flat pay on SIU work. You will spend more hours doing SIU work then the "flat rate" pays. They expect you to not only track your hours on the flat rate, but also submit it again outside of the tracked hours, and submit it as a flat rate. Its insane the amount excessive work you have to do, to complete a simple task, and they don't pay you for your time. If you need a stop gap measure to get some money coming in, great. take it, but look for others. 

I have a good supervisor which makes the world of difference, almost quit when i was dealing with other supervisors who i found aggravating sometimes, so it all depends on the supervisor.

Pay is o.k. but not great and no real advancement to full time positions or better pay and benefits.  I do contract work, which is not steady by any means with ISG, they need to give more cases out to the better workers to keep you going.  I find the work's not hard as long as you know how to investigate and talk to people,  Travel pay is to low, should be a little higher, but I accept it for now.  
Overall, its not a bad company, but again the work is not steady enough and thus pay is unreliable.  Again, I find it's all about the supervisor you get, I got a good supervisor that you can talk with (all about communication skills, which some don't have).  I find some of the supervisors have apparent little to no real world investigative experience or they must have investigators who don't know what they are doing, which causes them to over manage to compensate, which if that's the case the company needs to focus on hiring better investigators or training those they have.
I would recommend this company to people, but don't expect to change the world or be loved, its a job...

ISG cares about one thing - profit. They do not care about their employees whatsoever. They overwork you, expecting you to basically take on 80 hrs of work and complete it within 40 hrs. Not to mention, the pay is insulting for the amount of work they expect you to push out. They would rather pile more work onto their current employees before hiring new ones. You are literally chained to your computer all day. The management is horrible and they cannot seem to keep anything together. An employee of the month program was started, but that quickly disappeared not even a year later. Sadly, that was the one thing they did for their employees that made us feel appreciated… and they couldn’t even manage it. Working for this company has brought me nothing but stress. They barely train you on new tasks and when you mess something up due to the lack of proper training, you get reprimanded in a mass email. Most employees are very nasty (with the exception of a few), but I can only imagine that is because they are just as overworked and stressed out as everyone else. If you are thinking of working here, I would warn against it. They no longer match 401k and the benefits are truly subpar. Nothing about this company is employee focused, which can be shown by the ever revolving door that consistently pushes employees in and out. 

I am a current employee working in the private security/surveillance department. I never would have pictured myself working at a private investigative company, but I couldn't be happier with my job! The company is owned by the kindest people I have ever worked for and they care a lot about each of their employees. Although the company is continuing to expand and grow, you will not just be another number here. During the 4 short months that I have been employed here, I have already had the chance to grow and advance as an employee. As busy as management is, they always make themselves available whenever I have new ideas to present or wish to take on/learn new tasks. This is a family-run business and the way management takes care of and looks after their employees truly makes you feel a part of the family. Teamwork is essential for this position as we are always working together to complete files and collaborate ideas. The work environment is extremely productive, but also fun at the same time. We work hard, but we laugh even harder! This is truly an amazing company and I would highly recommend working for this company.

I'm not sure if clients get fleeced since I wasn't privvy to the rates- maybe if the rates are low balled its fine, they eventually get their records.
Hundreds of faxes and emails stacking up in your inbox, with the literal records - the items you are supposed to be ‘retrieving’ for the clients - just sitting there because the priority is the number of phone calls made daily. Redundent phone calls because providers say they’ve already sent stuff multiple times for weeks on end. There's an incentive to work off the clock just to not get swamped. If you do the legal thing and stay ON the clock, you’ll get written up for unsanctioned overtime. 

I've worked with older database systems (including with dinosaur government systems) that's not so unusual.  Its the glaring inefficiencies in the management of workflow that will drive you nuts if you’ve got any common sense or experience. 

But you want a remote job? Try it.. You probably have a chance of rage quitting and another chance of being fired for not meeting unrealistic demands of production or attendance. If you’ve got a (dark?) sense of humor and a will to grind maybe it’ll work out. 

The management here treats their surveillance people like pieces of meat; chew them up and spit them out. Look at their postings and read through the lines. Part time employment offered. You must be a minion of theirs, no subcontractors. That means you work when they want you to work and its part time at that. If they don't like you, your still an employee, but they just wont send you any work. Therefore, regardless of what they say your compensation is, it doesn't apply if you get no work from them. 

I once did a job for them and the case manager thought I did an awful job. I never received another assignment from them. Several months later I'm at a gathering talking to this guy and come to find out he was the client on that case. He tells me how they had been asking the case manager for an answer to a question they had about my case. I gave them the answer immediately and resolved their question. They said it was some of the best work product they've had in awhile. So much for that case managers opinion! The client is now exclusively mine.

Just beware!

I worked for the company and quickly found out it was a struggle to get paid.  Many times, my paycheck would be missing mileage pay, travel pay, the hourly rate or expense reimbursements.  One time the entire assignment was simply not paid.  It would take numerous phone calls and emails to get the money I was owed.  Sometimes it would take months to get the money.  I felt more like a collection agent than a private investigator.  When I contacted the managers at ISG about the missing money, they would always say that they would look into the situation but often they did not, hence the multiple emails and phone calls.  Finally, in disgust, I resigned.  When I advised personnel why I was resigning they advised they would do everything they could to get me the money I was owed.  By the way the woman in personnel talked, it seemed to me that she had heard my story before.  I never did get all my money.  To be clear I am not talking about low wages.  I am talking about the money ISG agreed to pay in a written employment contract but did not.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Surveillance investigator 189 salaries reported	$23.97 per hour
Siu investigator 154 salaries reported	$24.22 per hour
Private investigator 36 salaries reported	$24.56 per hour
Investigator 8 salaries reported	$22.31 per hour
Document specialist 6 salaries reported	$14.00 per hour

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