Forward Financing reviews

Forward Financing used to be a place that was genuinely “people first” and a great place to grow your career, but unfortunately over the past 6+ months their philosophy has changed to a “profit over everything” model which has come at the expense of their people. This would be acceptable if they were making smart business decisions, however they have empowered decision makers who have no experience whatsoever. For example, the person leading sales is a former director of HR who has zero sales or industry experience. When leaders don’t understand product, process, or industry they resort to heavy micromanagement and uneducated, poor decision making. Morale within the company is hitting new all time lows each week, and those not laid off are starting to flee. The CEO has his head buried in the sand and is letting his best friend (the president) run the once great company into the ground. There have been numerous quiet layoffs the past 6 months, as the company has made the strategic decision to outsource jobs to the Dominican Republic for cheaper labor. One of the company OKRs this year is to “hire 90% in the DR” and they are expecting US employees to celebrate that. My recommendation is to not walk, but run away from this company when considering employment.

The executive team claims that the expressed desire to hire most roles in the DR this year, along with the tendency to let US-based people go and re-open those roles in the DR, is 'in the interest of DEI'. Moving a a signification portion of operations to the DR is a perfectly sound financial strategy, but trying to make the motivation seem cultural and not financial erodes peoples' trust in executives while betraying the executives' lack of trust in their employees. Forward has an undeniable track record of promoting leaders who treat employees poorly into less people-oriented roles. While this not only clearly holds ICs (who are terminated for much less egregious behavior) to a higher standard than their leaders, and highlights that leadership qualities like treating people with respect are not required for executives at Forward, employees who were mistreated by these leaders are asked to celebrate their promotions. These are two examples of what I think is the biggest con, and the reason there is no amount of money that would make me return to Forward in its current state. The executive team claims to value transparency, but the positive 'spin' they put on choices they believe will be unpopular highlights the simple fact that trust is non existent in this organization and 'transparency' is carefully crafted smoke and mirrors.