Pros
-Breadth and depth of business exposure: If you are new in your career and don't know very much about 'business' as a whole, this is an excellent place to learn.
-Hire great internal staff
-Strong core values: (including the vision of the late company Founder, Elmer Winter) that are lived out daily (Worker Safety, Compliance to Process, Client and Candidate satisfaction, to name a few).
-Good processes: the temporary employment side of the business is a very process oriented, well-oiled machine with a 'fast-turnaround' model.
-Feel-good factor: Although the process leaves some candidates feeling that it isn't very personal, Manpower offers free, on-line skills training for their temporary employees, mandatory safety orientations and some operations also provide health care benefits once temps qualify by working enough hours.
-Overall, good working environment: Staff have a lot autonomy, many responsibilities & high work load, but management doesn't DIRECTLY encourage or pressure staff to work beyond regular hours.
-Positive, team culture: (vs. being ultra competitive) makes it a fun, dynamic place to work. Since there isn't a huge focus on commissions, internal staff works together and use the database to employ and re-deploy their reliable, top performing external employees/temps.
-Focus on relationships: Manpower encourages the team to be accessible & visible on-site for the clients and temporary employees.
-Strong, reputable brand: they work with great companies because of their size and span, nationally and globally.
-Information/Industry knowledge: white papers and other value-add publications & reports, knowledge of market trends and employment statistics world-wide are available to clients and staff.
-Technology: They do a pretty good job of bringing new practices in to the 'Agency' market.
Cons
-Salaries aren't the highest in the industry
-Limited opportunity for commissions in temp, if you're driven by that, it could be a big disadvantage
-No pay for overtime
-High volume work load and limited support
-Work/life balance can be hard to achieve due to work loads