Pros
A lot of the pros are obvious and repeatedly stated: autonomy on projects and setting your own schedule, 18 days of PTO per year with an additional added per year in seat, nice office spaces, smart people, respectful environment (it's hard to imagine someone ever yelling or getting yelled at), access to senior leadership (monthly coffee hours of the option to simply ask to meet), happy hours, team events, etc. Overall, I like working here, and am generally happy. To some of the points about cons, there have been obvious attempts from leadership to fix some issues repeatedly criticized: 1) performance reviews: the summer session is now expedited after feedback that the process is too lengthy, particularly twice a year. Summer is also informal for managers who tend to be in seat longer. It's probably a more appropriate frequency for those positions. 2) employee feedback surveys: results from the largest one of these were shared (high level, not the whole data set, but a good amount of detail) via PowerPoint to the whole company. 3) project ratings: the VP recently sent out a Content-wide communication asking for feedback on current ratings and including plans to overhaul ratings with less or no numerical feedback. 4) transparency: so far, sporadic attempts to answer questions from the online suggestion box and provide communication about ongoing projects (such as the content process improvement initiative with strategy). Hopeful that this will become more regular. What they have done has been good to see. 5) project quality: there has been a major initiative focus on finding efficiencies in project structure and timelines, aimed not just at making projects faster but at giving researchers more time to work or to focus on development. The project quality will never be like a firm where you work on a project for 6-9 months. That's not what we do. We are the "value" option which means we do things quicker, and there's less time to polish. You should be ok with turning in imperfect work if you come here. It does provide value to the client. 6) pay: this isn't really a pro or con. Entry level salaries are lower for some positions than others but any promotion is accompanied by a large raise. They probably want to reserve higher salaries for people who demonstrate great work and stick around for a bit.
Cons
There is still room to grow: 1) transparency: there have been updates on what is happening and answers to questions from the vp, executive in residence, strategy, etc., but they are still sporadic. Until they become regular and Hanover starts regularly soliciting employee input for major initiatives (again, like the cpii) there is more room to improve. 2) long-term professional development: Hanover's l&d team is there to get people trained to start working and to support newer employees. The CHRO had a q&a about what professional development in year two would look like and right now that's a good question. People want to keep building their skills and when they feel that stops they get frustrated. Without a plan in place for supporting people who have the basics down, this issue will continue. L&d cannot do all of this when they are spending time getting everyone up and running and also are the same age/general experience level as the analysts. 3) positive workplace culture: perhaps the biggest issue is creating and sustaining a group of happy people. No matter how much incremental progress is made, clearly some people are unhappy. This is more complex than just trying to be more transparent or respond to criticisms because the anger feeds on itself, and incremental progress from Hanover does not satisfy people who are already upset. 4) 401k has good investment options but, yes, the vesting is low and slow. When the rest of the benefits package is very good, that stands out. 5) project timelines, employee boredom, etc.: with constant quick turnaround it is only a matter of time before many people get bored or tired. Some of #2 will help. If improvements in efficiency can provide people a break to focus on their own development that will go a long way for those who get bored or tired. Timelines are not impossible but it's the way that the projects come one after the next.
