Odgers Reviews

Unprofessional in promotions, performance or any HR related issues. You either need to be a "favourite" (female and very attractive), or from the right background (public school), to get ahead. Sadly, it is much harder to get promoted if you are a woman who isn't prepared to flirt / flatter. D&I is paid lip service. HR are indiscreet. They have little influence over the business or ability to drive a positive culture or working practices. Whilst there are many great Partners in the business, the most influential are ego driven bullies, surrounded by people who flatter their egos. They are rude and regularly throw their weight around. Everyone else is expected to tip-toe around them. It feels like being in a 1980's law firm. The Group Leadership don't really have the clout to hold the Partners to account either. They talk a good game but in reality can't do much. On the outside this looks like a great firm, but unless you are male, privately educated and know senior people in the business this is not the place to progress.

The list is so long I wouldn’t know where to start. - very limited career progression, they only promote based on how long you’ve worked at the company and not performance related - zero regard and recognition for researchers or EAs, so many of them are expected to do all the leg work for the consultants or partners. We do all the sourcing of candidates, write candidate reports, write proposals, send emails and have to do all the work and then the partners take all the credit with clients for their “hard work”. So many of my friends were in tears because of their unfair treatment - really inappropriate behaviour when looking for candidates, ask you to look for and target diverse candidates whether on skin colour or if their name is ethnic, gender or if they’re LBGT candidates!!! (The irony when you can count on two hands the number of diverse employees across a business that’s over 300 people) - really bad redundancy process, got rid of good people and left the rubbish ones only to replace them 5 months later or hire people under different titles. The number of researcher resignations since the start of the year is shocking, basically half the research pool which says a lot - processes and systems are so outdated and illogical, they just make admin for the sake of it - The IT help are a joke, never actually help you until a week or so later unless you’re one of their favourites or seen as an important person to please - HR should never be trusted, anything you confide in them is used against you and shared with other people all the time. All they do is gossip But the worst thing of all is that they sell you on this amazing company culture and that they’re forward thinking but they emotionally blackmail you and brainwash you telling you that you’re lucky to work for them, when really they’re lucky that they had you. If you’re into being belittled join the company! That being said, I was relatively fortunate to be in a team that ignored what the senior management would tell them so my experience was mediocre but what I witnessed at my time there was shocking.