Pros
I loved the people I worked with and felt like I was working amongst friends everyday. I felt the Poptalks were inspirational and liked that the company promoted self-development. There is a fun atmosphere at the surface but underlying are a lot of frustrations and disconnects from the self proclaimed culture and the preachings of upper management.
Cons
COMPENSATION - The pay couldn't keep me there quite honestly. Compensation was a hot topic amongst employees but it was very hush hush. At $36,000 a year, unless you have roommates or live with you parents (which 95% of the office did), you can't survive. Especially being salaried and expected to work long hours due to short staffed teams and high workloads, I was making $13 an hour based on my hours worked / compensation. ATTRITION - The staffing industry itself has a reputation for having high turnover. But after working there for just a year, about 60-70% of the office was either let go or left for better opportunities. Upper management never mentioned it. CAREER ADVANCEMENT - I spent a week in Detroit learning about the company's values and culture and one of the things that was highly emphasized there was to "speak up", "ask questions" and "if you weren't liking your position that there were other opportunities within the company (based on performance and within reason). The payroll team especially had a reputation for being limited in career advancement opportunities but I spend most of my days wondering what my position would grow into and I couldn't see it. EXECUTIVE LEADERSHIP - There is a major tenure gap between PG employees and exec leadership. I think they have issues relating with their millennial employees. I had someone in upper management tell me my compensation was fair because "All the best recruiters he's ever know and worked with made 36K a year. He told me when he was a recruiter that's how much he made". Well in the 1990s, that was equivalent to making about 65,000 today. We aren't in the 90s anymore. Overall a cultural disconnect. PG is at a plateau in their mountain climb. Until they start listening to employees and compensating fairly, they are going to be in the same loop with new millennials until they figure that out. Populus Group has hit a critical moment internally; the company is stagnant. They've hit a plateau and they are trying to figure out how to move forward and are losing employees in the process. The health of the company is failing
