Pros
Having worked for Hanover for the better part of a decade, I have seen the company mature through many stages of growth and development. While this may not be the experience of all employees, I have come to gain understanding, to get to propose and implement positive changes, and to appreciate improvements over time at this (still relatively young) firm. As I am now in a management role, I have been able to see how the company works to balance business strategies and imperatives with a desire to create opportunities and provide support to staff. I feel supported and respected by my supervisor in advocating for my team while we work together to balance business needs. As Hanover grew out of a start-up phase, its leadership team recognized the need to invest in training and in strengthening communication. These priorities are beginning to bear fruit. The talent Hanover recruits is exceptional. The firm requires employees to learn quickly, to produce high quality work from the onset, and to manage a challenging workload; my colleagues do a remarkable job of balancing these expectations. Over the years, the firm has become more attuned to the need for work/life balance as a foundation for sustainable productivity. We enjoy generous PTO benefits, very good health and retirement benefits, and maternity and paternity leave. I've heard several colleagues -- most of them mid-career professionals -- describe Hanover as one of the best jobs they've had, and one of the most supportive employers they've worked for. For my part, I appreciate the many opportunities for professional growth and challenge that Hanover has afforded, as well as the compassion the company has extended me and my colleagues at various points across our tenure. I recommend that employees searching for their footing here speak up about their concerns and ideas, and balance the suggestion of solutions with patience for the firm's capacity to assimilate the impacts of rapid growth. Many Hanover employees have had an experience like mine of navigating their way over time into roles they really enjoy. To those who ultimately move on from Hanover, I would anticipate that the skills and capacities gained here will benefit them in future employment.
Cons
I agree with some other reviews that acknowledge the opportunities created by Hanover's emphasis on growth over the past decade, while pointing to new avenues for improvement as the firm matures. I believe an important aspect that can still be shored up is the cultivation of a more concrete and widely shared sense that the day-to-day work being done is having a meaningful impact on our clients and the communities or markets they serve. The link is there, but it is not always tangible to front line employees. What can leaders do to cultivate a more embedded sense of mission, such that this orientation helps to guide decision making at every level? While many at Hanover have enjoyed the experience of relatively rapid career progression into roles that provide a great variety of challenges, I worry that many talented employees run the risk of burning out in roles that can be honed after a few years and then become (for some) repetitive or tedious. Could investments in collaborative product creation and service delivery allow more employees to benefit from a variety of tasks, challenges, and encounters with real world impact? I am aware that there are avenues within Hanover for proposing ideas around these challenges, and I look forward to continuing to utilize them.
