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Hanover Research

Engaged Employer

Hanover Research reviews

3.6

66% would recommend to a friend

(105 total reviews)
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Wes Givens

53% approve of CEO

44% positive business outlook

Ratings by category

3.8

Culture & values

3.7

Work/Life balance

3.6

Diversity & inclusion

3.4

Career opportunities

3.3

Senior management

3.2

Compensation and benefits

Ratings by demographic groups

Reviews by job title

105 reviews

Reviews about "Compensation"

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2.0
Jun 13, 2015

Decent last resort

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

As a researcher, you're given a lot of autonomy with how you manage your time as long as deadlines are met on time.

Cons

Despite being given a lot of autonomy on project and time-management, deadlines are tight and researchers quite often work late, with little to show for their hard work. Many companies give performance bonuses to incentivize employees to perform well; Hanover has just only just started awarding quarterly "star awards" to a select FEW researchers who have to be nominated for it (considering the solitary nature of the research position, I find this to be irrational). This award seems like a stingy alternative to providing performance bonuses and boosting employee morale. Compared to DC standards, employees at Hanover are underpaid, which explains high turnover rates. I think Hanover has potential to be a place where employees love working, but the current business model and poor compensation does not provide employees with much incentive to stay at Hanover.

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Hanover Research Response
11y
Thank you for your feedback. I am sorry to hear that you are not enjoying your time with Hanover. We are very upfront about our salary ranges during the interview process and are constantly benchmarking our salary bands against other similar business models to ensure parity. We acknowledge that there are companies able to offer higher base salaries because their business model is structured on billable hours or traditional per project client billing however we are continuously looking at various other ways to demonstrate how much we value our employees. Some of these ways includes firmwide events such as Field Day and Day of Service where work days are used for non-work events; we increased annual PTO in the first year of employment by 3 days and have removed the roll-over cap essentially allowing unused PTO to continue to accrue and be used in larger chunks of time and we’ve built in an ‘emergency PTO’ fund to assist employees dealing with serious medical issues so that they are not forced to use their PTO or go on unpaid leave while in hospital or recuperating from a major illness. Our investment in our employees’ professional development remains a key focus as well. We continue to add more training and more opportunities for employees to learn and grow professionally. We continue to promote high achievers on a bi-annual basis during performance reviews. Our Star Awards campaign is a way for individual researchers to be acknowledged for their dedication and teamwork especially when researchers work individually or project teams are siloed. It encourages managers to share the positive feedback with the entire research cohort. The financial reward that accompanies this is a token of appreciation, not intended to serve as a financial incentive. Our researchers have an enormous amount of pride in the work they produce. We want to use the Star Awards to showcase their achievements. Turnover at Hanover remains very low (less than 20%) despite the perception that a high growth company would also have high turnover. I encourage you to bring your concerns to your Personal Manager, your Managing Content Director or directly to me. We rely on honest feedback as we continue to build our organization.
1.0
Nov 23, 2014

Swipe left on Hanover

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I’m not sure where some reviews come off with positive and gushy things to say. I must live on a different planet. If you read anything positive it’s because these individuals have low standards. Hanover 101: products lack quality and consistency. Target clients are middle market companies who join because of Hanover's cost effective value prop. For the little guys, it's all about the Benjamins and Hanover sells itself on price. If you're a type A perfectionist stay away. You won't have the time or resources to do a quality job and it will drive you insane. You may be intrigued by Hanover receiving #16 on the 50 fastest companies in the Washington DC area ranking. This growth is deceiving because when you look behind the curtain you'll find that the ship is sailing without a captain. Every Hanover strategy is short term and fails to consider long term implications. It's always "how do we save this quarter?!?" rather than "let's build a road map with ROI three years from now." Failure of upper management to challenge the CEO's short term theories is largely responsible. I get that you were successful in creating a custom market research firm, but that doesn't mean every subsequent idea is a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.

Cons

For the TLDR version and all you Tinder users: I advise you to swipe left on Hanover. First off, I anticipate a CHRO response to this review. Don’t believe it. Words are words and actual changes to back these comments are about as rare as finding Santa and Rudolph on Christmas Eve. People Most Hanoverians are fresh from school and riding the post college bro-ski high (sales/development/whatever you call them). I can't tell you how many times I heard unprofessional discussions on the floor or heard stories from other people. HR is "trying" to bring in people with outside experience for managerial roles, but it proves challenging to retain them because they aren't brought in at the proper level. You start at the bottom and they give you the spiel of short review cycles to allow you to move up the ladder quickly. Enter: the age and experience complex. Years at Hanover are more important than years before Hanover. Read that again. You’ll have to suffer working with people in higher positions that lack outside experience and are younger than you. Let me clarify, I’m all for smart, qualified people advancing, but these individuals are not Steve Jobs caliber. It’s hard to want to emulate or take direction from someone that only has 2 years of Hanover under his/her belt (for some context a 1 year work anniversary is akin to celebrating a 50th wedding anniversary – it’s rare these days because "society is so disposable" paraphrased per an HR email). As a result, if you need a mentor you’re not going to find it here. Additionally, they’ll gloat about personal managers, but that’s a joke. Instead, they should just be called “managers” because it’s all in the luck of the draw who you get and unfortunately, most managers are poor. Interpersonal skills are prime managerial traits that most Hanover employees lack, or better yet some believe they have which makes them delusional. This sentiment is expressed in other reviews. It’s still true. Exhibit #1092209: Mine took no interest in me and was not concerned for my career development at all. And don't get me started on the whole "managing up" shindig. Any relationship (professional, personal, etc.) is a two way street. When the other party fails to deliver, you can manage up all you want, but it's not going to move the needle. At the end of the day, if you want to feel valued this isn’t the place for you. Maybe it’s my years of experience, but I’ve worked at other places where it’s not so blatantly obvious that we are just a gateway to more dollars. No matter how much you like work, if the people are awful it will impact your work satisfaction levels. As that dude says in the Men’s Wearhouse commercials: “I guarantee it.” Pay If you’re not in sales or account management, pay is static without real performance based bonus potential. In Content, you may receive an increase at review time, but they are also known to just promote you to a new title without a pay bump (I've heard this on multiple accounts). While this looks great on your resume, your bank account will be like the Sahara desert – barren. My advice is to go elsewhere if you have high rent and student loans to pay. I had several years of experience including a graduate degree and my starting salary was difficult to make ends meet even with a roommate. I have a spreadsheet in excel tracking all expenses. If you think that’s a fun exercise every Saturday morning, then this is the place for you! Talking with your manager about a raise is most likely fruitless. If you don’t reward people for good performance reviews, the incentive to do a good job flies out the window. Work If you’re in Content, expect to stare at a computer all day with minimal collaboration. Yeah, you have Content Directors, but they are busy trying to retain clients and you’re pretty much on your own to get the job done. I’m not sure what they tell you in HR (it’s been a while for me), but ask to meet with individuals who have the role you are applying for. I did not do this and regret it.

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Hanover Research Response
11y
Thank you for your feedback. I am sorry to hear that you have not enjoyed your experience at Hanover Research. Hanover has grown tremendously over the last few years, and we are proud of our recent addition to the 50 Fastest Growing Companies in the DC metro area list. That said, with the privilege of high growth comes the challenges of high growth. To that end, we have been on a path of continuously improving the company’s products and services as well as employee experiences – because we believe that the two are bound together in a reinforcing loop. How do we do this? Hanover hires smart, capable and ambitious individuals from a variety of levels and increasingly deep skill sets, while valuing our tenured employees who have invested in and grown with the company. Our promotions come from great individual performance and not tenure. All promotions come with a salary adjustment to the corresponding pay band. When an employee is not eligible for a promotion for whatever reason but his or her performance has been exceptional, we make a salary adjustment (without a title adjustment). Day in and day out, Hanover employees are given a lot of autonomy and freedom to complete their assigned tasks and projects on deadline. As employees demonstrate that they can handle more sophisticated work or greater responsibilities, they have the opportunity to do so. How do we know if we are on the right track? We go back to basics. Each year, we survey segments of our employees and our clients to understand their needs and craft strategies to address them. We have been so thankful that these efforts have generated a robust set of ideas and feedback for us to use. In the last two years alone, we have invested heavily in building professional development resources in the form of training, coaching, and mentoring programs for our employees. Moreover, we have also invested heavily in increasing the ratio of staff to clients to ensure the very best possible work product and service experience. We thank you again for your feedback and encourage you to work with us to make the company the best that it could possibly be for all employees. Please feel free to come speak to your manager, your manager's manager or anyone on the executive team to address your concerns and help us find solutions.
1.0
Jul 24, 2014

Company taking a nose dive and treating employees terribly along the way

Content analyst
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The peers I worked with were fantastic. Bright, driven people I am happy to call friends. It was hard to watch them getting crushed under the demands from our executive team. Very good salary when I entered the company although I've heard they've started reducing the offers for newer employees.

Cons

For a company that seemed to have so much promise in 2010 - 2013, the insane goals the CEO has set for the company and the subsequent failures to hit that goal has significantly impacted the company as a whole. Several new executives have been added to the team and have influenced the company in an extremely negative way. While attempting to copy the Advisory Board's strategies (several execs came from there) but failing to invest in keeping talent happy, the company is a rapidly sinking ship with many employees fleeing from it. The executive team seems to only care about the bottom line. The CDO has been quoted to say he doesn't care about business ethics. The CEO refuses to speak to anyone but his executive team and drives them to push their mid level management to the max. My advice is to stay as far away from this company as possible. I'd be shocked if they make it through the next 5 years.

avatar
Hanover Research Response
11y
Thank you for your feedback. I agree that Hanover staff are outstanding and that it is the people that make the company a success. As at any high growth organization, we do need to strive towards aggressive goals if we wish to maintain our growth trajectory and serve our clients at the level they have come to expect. A small number of staff have not responded positively to these goals and other management level decisions, however we firmly believe, after almost 11 years in business, that our senior executives and managers are even more invested in the company's and employees' long term success than we were when the company was just starting out. Our attrition level is lower than in previous years and the investments we are making in employees' professional development continues to be a core focus of the company. Our senior level staff operate at the highest level of business and professional ethics so I am very surprised by your statement to the contrary. This is a serious allegation and I highly encourage you to bring this directly to me or our CEO. Thank you again for your feedback. I encourage you to engage in this type of honest and open dialogue with either your manager, HR generalist or me directly.
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