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      Hanover Research

      Engaged Employer

      Hanover Research reviews

      3.6

      66% would recommend to a friend

      (320 total reviews)
      avatar

      Wes Givens

      54% approve of CEO

      44% positive business outlook

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Hanover Research has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 320 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Hanover Research employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Management & Consulting industry (3.6 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      320 reviews
      1.0
      Aug 2, 2016

      Look Elsewhere

      Researcher
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      -As a researcher, you will learn how to work with ridiculously short timelines and insane expectations. -You will be forced to learn how to manage up and appease as many people as possible in managerial roles. -Your fellow researchers are incredibly smart and are some of the best people you will ever meet. Your co-workers will regularly talk you back from the edge and will keep you motivated.

      Cons

      - Hanover aggressively looks for researchers with masters degrees or higher, giving the impression that the research requires advanced analytical and critical thinking skills. This impression is completely false. Researchers spend the vast majority of their time doing monotonous busy-work "research" with unsophisticated methodologies and in some cases, shoddy methodology. If you are looking to do "real" education or market research that involves tools other than Excel, Word, and Google, look elsewhere. -Researchers are undervalued, overworked, and not respected. You will be asked to complete one project after another without actually thinking about the work you are doing - quantity is valued over quality. Suggestions for process improvements, new methods, etc. are regularly shot down because trying something new will interfere with the timelines and most people in management positions don't have the methodological research knowledge to even implement effective changes. You will be pushed to continue churning out the same low-brow research.You will be expected to fall in line and keep your mouth shut. Any "constructive criticism" or feedback you provide will come back to haunt you. If you want a job where you are a valued member of a team and your knowledge, skills, and suggestions are appreciated, look elsewhere. -The performance review process is completely opaque and you will be at the mercy of managers who can refuse to promote you on a whim. If you want transparency in how your career can grow in the company, look elsewhere. -Management has little to no interest in investing in researchers professional skills. Professional Development is non-existent. (please ignore the CHRO's responses about PD to other reviews- these responses are blatantly false). If you want to learn and grow professionally in your position, look elsewhere. - Finally, a word of caution about the reviews on this site: current employees are explicitly asked on a regular basis to post "honest" reviews (read: POSITIVE reviews) on Glassdoor in order to help Hanover's rating. Also, do not get the impression that the negative feedback is a result of a disgruntled, FIRED employee- Hanover rarely fires people because they can't afford to lose the talent. These negative reviews are from people who were bamboozled into joining the company or just needed a job - they left because the environment at Hanover is SO incredibly toxic. Again, look elsewhere.

      avatar
      Hanover Research Response
      9y
      Thank you for your feedback. There seems to be a discrepancy between your expectations for the role and the service Hanover provides to our clients. We do not provide academic research studies. Our clients approach us because they want quick turnaround responses to custom queries, not 3-4 month long academic studies. We are upfront about the nature of the work during the interview process so I am sorry that you felt misled in any way. Research staff who excel in the role enjoy the faster pace and that they do not work on one project for an extended period of time. To clarify, I do reach out to staff at various intervals during the year to ask them to complete Glassdoor reviews. This is purely voluntary and since companies have no control over the content posted on the site and Glassdoor guarantees anonymity of all reviews, the most any business can do to generate balanced feedback is to ask for more of it directly from staff.
      4.0
      Aug 1, 2016

      Incremental improvements

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      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.

      4.0
      Jul 5, 2016

      Great Place for College Grads Interested in Sales

      Senior business development associate
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      The company culture at HR is very unique in that there is a work hard-play hard mentality and employees are encouraged to enjoy their time outside the office together. Many company- and team-wide incentives like happy hours, boat cruises around the city, and sports outings are offered. Competitive compensation balances out the not-so-competitive salary. Good opportunities for growth if sales is something you are interested in pursuing long-term. Because of the Associate-Director-Managing Director relationship on each team, upper management is easily accessible and very willing to listen to any recommendations/hesitations you may have. Run-ins with upper management is very common and not something you find at every company.

      Cons

      While HR is valued as a meritocracy, majority of the C-Suite Execs are quite young and haven't experienced many other companies outside of HR. Because of this, there is room for managerial improvement. As for the role itself, sales is sales so make sure you know what you're getting yourself into before you dive in. The job can become tedious and frustrating, and it's easy to feel like you are putting in more time and work than what is being produced and recognized (which is typical of many jobs).

      avatar
      Hanover Research Response
      9y
      Thank you for your feedback. I am glad that you had a positive experience during your time at Hanover. Entry level sales roles can be challenging, as you mentioned, but the skills acquired provide an excellent foundation for other opportunities. Our hope is that employees use their time in sales as a launching pad for their next step in their careers. These are first jobs, not last jobs, where the skills learned can be applied in future roles even if sales is not a long-term career aspiration. Our C-suite is a good mixture of home-grown talent as well as external hires. I think the fact that staff can achieve the C-level at Hanover speaks to our focus on promoting from within which was appealing to me when I joined the company.
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      Glassdoor has 332 Hanover Research reviews submitted anonymously by Hanover Research employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Hanover Research is right for you.