same basic cons (please see my previous review for details and examples) --
1. Difficult to collaborate across lines of business
2. Very difficult to move from one line of business to another
3. Seriously underpaid and undervalued junior- and mid-level employees
4. Significant lack of work/life balance
and one new con (an additional example of undervaluing employees):
5. High forced turnover -- As an executive, I'm asked routinely to help welcome new hires. Of course this orientation support is part of my role, and ordinarily, I'm more than happy to do it. In fact, I need no encouragement for this activity -- just help from HR identifying all of the many new hires in a line of business or division. What has started to disturb me, however, is the fact that ICFI hires several new employees weekly AND lays off as many or more employees weekly, as well! I approached other executives, hiring managers, and HR about this problem. Why do we lay off so many dedicated, experienced, and gifted employees when we are HIRING? I won't go into all of the details of looking into this basic problem. Suffice it to say that every week, we hire several managers, RAs, etc., oand lay off people with the exact same functional skills. It drives me crazy. Where is the business sense in this? Where is the loyalty to people who have committed their energy hard work, and expertise to ICFI's clients? Too frequently, talented junior and mid-level employees contact me, looking for billable work for fear of being laid off. These are not slackers, but people with exceptional skills. Yet, ICFI is quick to lay them off AND hire others. It seems so senseless, and it damages morale, corporate culture, client relationships, and even the bottom line!
After looking into it, I now understand the reasons this forced turnover happens.
1. Competitive advantage -- ICFI prefers bidding perfect/best fit new hires to bidding merely good fit existing employees, who are dedicated, skilled, and in need of work (due to contracts/projects ending or changing needs). ICF routinely hires new people with the EXACT experience match for a new bid and lays off existing employees whose experience aligns well, but is not as perfectly matched as the new hire's. For example, an employee with USAID experience in international health in developing countries may be laid off in favor of bidding a new hire with experience in local community health clinics, for an HHS public heath bid. The laid off employee and new hire could have the same functional skills and level of experience, but simply have worked for different agency clients.
2. Lack of internal systems and no accountability among senior staff for retaining employees and keeping junior and mid-level staff billable. So, in the above example, senior staff was aware of the issue, and chose to lay off the existing employee anyway for competitive advantage. But, more often, senior staff is unaware that there are excellent employees in other lines of business or divisions who could easily, readily, and seamlessly fill a role on a project or bid. Why? Because there is NO internal HR system that indicates when an internal candidate needs work, little or NO effort is made to place employees whose contract has ended, and so on. It's up to the employees to do all of the work to place themselves. The employee who is more outgoing and networked across the firm has a greater chance of landing somewhere internally, but even then, it's tough (because these employees run into competitive advantage -- are you the PERFECT fit?
