KLAS Research reviews

When I was interviewing for the position, I got the impression that KLAS was a place that I could stay for a good amount of time and help my career grow. It was rather disheartening when I began to realize that not only was I not developing professionally at the rate I expected, but that the people who were running the company severely lacked the knowledge and disciple to mentor me and grow the company. For example, in our last all staff meeting, an executive said that the owners have challenged him to make data-driven decisions. I was surprised because anybody who has taken a business class knows that almost all decisions should be based on data. It confirmed that decisions were being made based on a gut feeling, which doesn’t help me learn how to make complex business decisions. I wanted to remain positive so I decided to be the change that I wanted to see. I would offer suggestions and even bring suggested strategies to meetings to see if I could spark discussion. It always seemed good when we were in the meeting and I’d think that my suggestions would be incorporated, yet they fell on deaf ears. The leaders can understand when they hear a good idea from a business leader, book or somebody within the company, however, they have absolutely no idea how to implement or manage change. The KLAS culture is a bit odd. I recognized soon after starting that the majority of my colleagues were acting like they still attended BYU. Self-righteousness abounds, as well as subtle bullying. One of the executives will disagree with anyone for what I can only think is to watch them squirm. It’s awkward…oh so awkward and you just pray that you won’t be singled out. I’ve never interacted with a group of men (there aren’t any women executives) professionally who play mind games. It’s indescribable, but if you take a job at KLAS you’ll soon know what I’m talking about. I was hoping that there would be someone at the company who would be my go-to for questions or if I was struggling to understand a specific function, but after I saw a colleague fired after he admitted he was struggling, I hesitate to ask for help. I’ve found that my best option is to keep my head down, be a YES-man, attend the company parties so it looks like I want to be apart of the group, don’t rock the boat (even though they say they want to hear your ideas….trust me they don’t), don’t talk about the change I’d like to see, and stay away from the HR offices (gossip central) then I can ride the wave while I try to find a new job. KLAS isn’t a bad place to collect a pay check, but if you stay longer than 3-4 years then you’ll find yourself behind in business. It isn’t a place that fosters growth or innovation. They simply want to do what they’ve been doing because they’ve been somewhat successful. My recommendation is to decide what you want/need out of KLAS and find it quickly and then leave. It isn’t a company that you’ll want on your resume for a long time.

There is an unwritten fraternity or club and there are two different company cultures at KLAS. One for the “in” group and one for the “out” group. Getting in the club takes a long time and is highly subjective based on if club leaders like you or think you are passionate about KLAS. At times you may feel like you can do nothing right. If you are not in the club your expectations, support, resources and experience at KLAS will be drastically different. The feedback loop at KLAS is broken and passive aggressive communication and fear tactics are used frequently to get employees to comply. As of late the culture has improved in this area but it is more because the senior leaders have become more removed as they have installed a new level of middle management, which has created new challenges. KLAS culture is built on the principle of self management with little guidance, mentoring or coaching and managers consciously choose to not do these things with any employees. They say they just hire people to be owners and to figure out their job by themselves. However, they are more than happy to look at some numbers or metrics and tell you how you are not performing after not talking to you for weeks or months. Suggestions often fall on deaf ears and initiatives only get pushed forward if the ideas are in line with leaders thinking and beliefs. Information in often withheld from leaders because of a lack of trust. These are the core reasons in my opinion the turn over is so high at KLAS. There is more of a drive to be conservative and safe as not to sink the company than to take risks and be remarkable or become a great company. KLAS is not developing into a great company because they are content to be a good company. KLAS claims to fail fast but the structure disincentives risk and failure is frequently punished so few try to innovate or seek improvements as most just play it safe to avoid the consequences of failure.