Too many to consider staying at Hanover long-term. Entry-level research, strategy and business development roles are nothing more than repetitive and mind-numbing tasks that could easily be carried out by administrative assistants with high school degrees. As one of the other reviews pointed out, primary research is just window dressing for day-to-day cold calling and digging out confidential company information from Linkedin contacts over the phone.
Granted, professional development opportunities are offered to all employees on a regular basis, but very few of these actually help you become a more effective employee. It is debatable whether - if at all - specific training opportunities translate to, say, higher weekly sales, better rapport with clients etc.
Another pervasive issue that I couldn't help but notice is the lack of transparent performance ratings. Entry-level associates typically receive a set of scores for each specific project they work on. That said, certain assessment categories are overly vague and highly subjective, which makes it hard to tell how well you are doing compared to other employees in the same role.
Because of this, it is not unusual to do exceptionally well in one project and completely fail in another one. On that note, your personal success in certain roles (such as primary research) might just be a matter of luck since it depends on how many people pick up the phone or express interest in market research. Even if you work at the company for several years, your professional success might essentially just boil down to how you come across on the phone. I have personally seen first-hand a couple of people getting fired/laid off (or magically disappearing) within the first couple of months, which calls your own job security into question.
As for the overall company culture, the good ole boys frat ethos is alive and well - very few top-ranking employees are women or minorities, and it is astounding how slowly this is changing. Tight social cliques across virtually all practice areas make it difficult to get to know your co-workers better, since folks fall back on their alumni networks and rarely branch out to other teams.
Although there is a whole slew of buzzwords floating around that suggest openness to employee feedback and participation, the firm structure appears to be fairly rigidly hierarchical - entry-level employees are basically cogs in the machine. Company turnover remains very high and this most certainly reflects badly on Hanover's reputation.
