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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
      2.0
      Jul 20, 2015

      Factory model - Ok for Short-Term

      Research
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Hanover attracts some truly stellar, bright people who become great friends. The company is young and there is a lot of opportunity for growth and for employees to carve their own paths. Recent grads have a lot of autonomy over their work in Research and the potential to make a high salary within a few years in Sales.

      Cons

      The culture at Hanover is frustrating. Researchers are given 5 days to complete projects (usually long form reports) and are almost always scrambling for time. Salaries are low and there are no bonuses or overtime compensation for employees who work late in research, even though working late is often necessary to meet deadlines. The 5-day project cycle wouldn't be as difficult if researchers' daily activities were more varied; A typical work day for researchers involves working independently on the same project for most of the day and maybe attending one or two meetings. I found it difficult to complete the work within the time constraints in this setting, as it is difficult to focus on a single task for the entire work day. The research floor is literally like a library and researchers have to create opportunities for social interaction. The time pressure and independent work environment would be less problematic if Hanover paid researchers higher salaries. Research salaries are not competitive with other firms in the industry and barely cover the high cost of living in DC. As a result, I found myself frequently exhausted, working late to finish projects, and not making enough to cover basic living expenses. Needless to say, it was a highly stressful environment. Employees jokingly liken Hanover to a research factory, which is not an inaccurate description of the business model.

      avatar
      Hanover Research Response
      10y
      Thank you for your feedback. I am sorry to hear that you are not enjoying the work you do at Hanover but am glad to hear that you enjoy your coworkers and see them as friends. Hiring nice, smart people is important to us because we acknowledge the solitary nature of the roles in research and are upfront about the nature of the work including tight deadlines and a constant flow of projects during the interview process. A big part of providing happy hours, field day, company parties and other social perks to employees is to help offset the independent nature of the work and provide ample opportunities for colleagues to engage with each other. Our compensation is benchmarked regularly and we are transparent about the salary ranges during the interview process. Our clients expect fast turn around times on their custom projects and we strive to deliver this to them consistently. As a subscription service, it is unlikely that we would change our business model in the new future but I do appreciate your perspective. I also encourage you to speak with your Personal Manager, Managing Content Director or directly with me to address your concerns and discuss possible solutions. Change can only happen if there is an open dialogue between employees and managers.
      1.0
      Jul 5, 2015

      Researcher

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Hanover attracts really bright, kind people. I made lasting friendships there. Also, you get a lot of autonomy and trust as a researcher, and you're constantly learning about new topics.

      Cons

      Despite getting a couple promotions pretty quickly, I found it hard to stay positive and balanced. The churn and burn culture in research is frankly demoralizing - constant inflexible deadlines, generally unsophisticated methods that can be implemented quickly and mindlessly, and limited communication and support between researchers and project managers. Everyone is squeezed as much as possible at each level, forced into a narrow reactive mindset, and not attuned to what's going on above or below. In the DC area, people with a research profile have LOTS of alternatives, and everyone I know who has left Hanover is happier at their next job.

      avatar
      Hanover Research Response
      10y
      Thank you for your feedback. I agree that our employees are bright and kind but I am sorry to hear that you did not enjoy the rest of the aspects of the role. We have found that employees value the autonomy of the role as well as the ability to work on a variety of projects. Our clients have very high expectations and our project timelines can be tight at times but we strive to provide them with high quality, custom work within these deadlines. As a service organization, we do not create the research agenda for our clients but respond to their needs and I can see how that might appear reactionary to someone working on one or two projects for a client. As our company grows we continue to invest in professional and management training opportunities to improve the skills of our middle managers. We do strive to build the management culture mentioned in your review and have a clear business strategy to get there in addition to our plans for continued organic growth. Again, thank you for your feedback. We hope that you feel comfortable sharing some more specific ideas with your former manager or L&D representative so that we can learn and improve.
      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.

      avatar
      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.
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      ReviewsHanover Research reviews

      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.