Pros
Generally a friendly and very polite atmosphere. Most employees are easy to strike up a conversation with. Flexible work schedules and an ability to work from home. Willing to provide various and diverse levels of training. This ranges from classes on job specific skills like programing, professional designation, software applications to softer skills like leadership and communication. There certainly are pockets of people that try to 'do what matters' or 'take the higher road' which are some of the core values of the company. After a very rough period in SRS during 2008/2009 virtually all Senior Management have been fired or retired. This has lead to a new focus by many of the new Senior Management to demand tighter controls and procedures be put in place, which can not be overstated how important this is to achieve succesfully. I consider this focus an immense Pro. Family and friends are easily hired.
Cons
Family and friends are easily hired ( yes I meant this to be both a Pro and a Con) Despite the new Senior Management leadership in SRS stating a major focus is to put in place tighter controls and backing this with extensive process control and mapping efforts- with some sucess- there seems to be huge inertia to NOT completely embrace this. There remains huge inertia from upper-mid management and lower against trying to get numerous systems, procedures and financial reporting under tight control. It appears to be a combination of 'my systems' weren't flagged during a audit, or sure it's broke but it's consistent in how it is broke or in some cases it's the old 'I push a button and have no idea if the numbers coming out make sense or not, and I don't care'. Some amount of the above is going to take place in every company but I have seen enough - and been around long enough- to know it's too pervasive at The Standard for my comfort level. And maybe more importantly, we are putting in extensive effort and resources by Senior Management direction to improve processes, this is the time to truely and openly clean up systems, procedures and reporting. If you don't have time to do something right the first time, when will you have time to do it a second time? I spent so much time on the above two paragraphs because I have felt borderline ethically compromised on several occasions. Not a great feeling and even worse when upper management is indifferent to your concerns. There definately is an above average amount of favortism in areas, but not completely stagnating. I know pay is below average ( even my boss told me that) and benefits are weaker then what I have had elsewhere. Many of our systems and capabilities are archaic and almost 'criminally' hamper the ability to make any level of improvement simply or easily. Need to update something worded incorrectly on a page of the website, you get back something like not enough IT resources to do it. Really? need to change one significant word on a web page and The com[pany doesn't have the resources to do that? SO instead we risk a client reding something and getting the wrong impression, or actually the right impression that we incorrectly gave them.