FHI 360 reviews

That moment when Kid Rock and Hulk Hogan headlined at the RNC? That's what it feels like at FHI 360 now. The reorg finally became real this month. The CFO sent out a company-wide email about our new overhead rates. It required expert-level translation but the bottom line is that our rates have skyrocketed. The link: in the reorg, Progam Officers got fired, and Vice Presidents are getting hired. We're more top-heavy than ever, because our COO doesn't know who actually does work. That she has a job is infuriating.

FHI is a highly disorganized, dysfunctional organization. The leadership is completely out-of-touch from the highest levels down to the department heads. The organization still has not reconciled basic matters of how to run an organization, with disputes still lingering from the AED acquisition, despite many years to address the situation. There is no clear leadership or decisiveness on basic issues such as financial management and country office versus project office management. This results in different departments managing projects in different ways, often times in the same country, resulting in management conflicts. It also results in different departments fighting for management of projects. There is no sense of being one organization. Throughout the organization, roles and responsibilities are unclear. Project management skills as a whole are sorely missing throughout the organization. Projects are left to be managed by technical individuals who do not know the first thing about project management. This creates risks and mismanagement. Technical staff are completely paid for by projects, with no organizational funding, so they are constantly searching for coverage on projects. This results in project budgets being over-stuffed with HQ technical staff, which decreases the funds available for activities, field-based technical staff, and project managers (both field- and HQ-based). There is an entire Strategy Department, but nobody has any idea what they do or what value they bring to the organization. Strategic decisions are made without the input of the Strategy Department, so it is unclear what they are contributing. Nobody understands their value or relation to the organization's daily work or how they will affect the organization in the future. There is no clear path for professional development or professional growth or advancement or anything resembling a career. Project managers are not compensated adequately while technical directors are overpaid without adding any clear value beyond a technical knowledge that a consultant could provide just as easily.