Populus Group reviews

3.7

49% would recommend to a friend

(463 total reviews)
avatar

Bobby Herrera

74% approve of CEO

53% positive business outlook

Populus Group has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 463 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Populus Group employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Human Resources & Staffing industry (3.8 stars).

Reviews by job title

463 reviews
1.0
Jul 13, 2018

Contracted Employee

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

My paycheck is on time 90% of the time

Cons

I am going out of my way to post here just so I can save someone from taking a contracted position at Populus. My assignment manager is unreachable, my paycheck has been late multiple times, and I spent over 2 hours just trying to get my tax documents from them which takes away significant time from my actual assignment. Ive worked for a few contracting companies now and I could not believe how unattentive and straight up dumb people are at this company. Horrible management, benefits are terrible, avoid at all costs.

1.0
Jun 6, 2017

Don't Drink The Koolaid

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The people who work at Populus Group are some of the smartest, most fun and talented people I have ever worked with. I really enjoyed working with most of my peers and everyone seemed to have fun.

Cons

Populus Group preaches about their “unique culture”, but their culture is anything but unique. They’re all bark and no bite and never follow through with anything that is discussed in the culture. They preach about initiating change and having a voice, but if you ever say anything about creating change and bettering the work environment, you are reprimanded. In all honesty, the culture at Populus Group reminds me a lot of a monarchy. We have the people in Payroll, who receive little pay but do the most amount of work. They make up most of the company and bring in the most revenue. However, they are overworked, undervalued, and underpaid. In contrast, Recruiters are worshipped for doing absolutely nothing. They sit around, play games, do puzzles and as long as their spread looks good, no one cares. Then we have management. Managers don’t receive any training and if you work there for 5 years and make friends, you’ll become a manager. They never help and are more concerned with the company than the health of their employees. Lastly, we have the CEO and his exclusively male executive team. In the 15 year history of the company, not a single woman has been hired to an executive position. They are an HR nightmare, and a walking lawsuit just waiting to happen. Not a week went by, unless something blatantly sexist or racists poured out of the mouths of the CEO or his executives. My biggest issue with this company is their HR department. The HR department is essentially nonexistent and has 0 experience in the field. Every time I went to HR with an issue or with a question, they either didn’t know the answer or would refer me to other resources. A lot of illegal and unethical things occurred daily, but HR didn’t seem to care. This is a 15 year old company and should be well-oiled machine by now. It isn’t. Also, the pay sucks and they never give raises, even when promised.

avatar
Populus Group Response
9y
Thank you for taking the time to give us this candid feedback. PG prides itself on being a fair workplace and providing an open, honest and welcoming culture for everyone. Since this isn’t what you experienced, we’d like to talk to you and get more specifics on how to improve. When you have a moment, please email us at PGFeedback@PopulusGroup.com. Hope to be in touch soon.
5.0
Nov 11, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It’s been over a year since I worked at Populus group. In that time I have had plenty of time to reflect on my tenure there. To give you some back ground Populus was the first company I worked for after spending the better part of a decade in the military. I was nervous about crossing over into corporate America. I had interviewed for a few other companies and had a couple of offers that looked like they would be coming in. My first round of interviews with Populus, showed right away that this organization was different as far what they valued. I was asked questions about character, behavior and influencers. The resume was brought up but only as a spring board to get to know me. Long story short after the third interview I found out I had lost on the position I was applying to another more experience candidate. I went on with my job search. I was getting ready to accept another offer when the call came in that there was another opening that they thought I would be a good fit for. I went in for one last interview as it was with another team in the same office. I was very impressed again at how much they wanted to get too know me as a person. I received an offer that same day in writing and accepted. Three days before I started I received a call from the CEO to welcome me to the team. I found out later that he calls every new addition to make sure they know they are important. We talked for almost an hour. The one that stood out to me was that he asked me to contribute to make the organization better and to: “Judge the company harshly by our actions!” In order to evaluate if they really lived up to what they said they stood for. Populus is truly unique in the aspect of what they believe and how they work. Many organizations and people don’t actually try to follow the ideals that they profess to believe in. I say try because no organization or person is perfect. The difference with Populus is that instead of trying to pretend to be perfect they give agency to you as an employee, and say: “how can you help us get better while we help you get better?” This seems a bit philosophical for glass door so allow me to elaborate. My first two weeks were a combination of training both role focused and company culture focused. Every executive leadership member from across the country and some point made contact with me to welcome me aboard. If you have worked in any producing role with metrics attached, you know this is a rarity. They want to make sure you know what you need to know before starting. My calendar for lunch was booked solid for the first month as everyone in the office wanted to get to know me. The CEO of the company Bobby made it a point within my first 3 months to take me to lunch to talk through some important aspects of the company and my personal goals. When my daughter was born they were only required to give me a couple of days of PTO. They gave me over two weeks of PTO in addition to sending gift baskets and throwing me a baby shower. I learned more about recruiting and sales and the behaviors that make you great in my time hear that I truly believe will be a big part of my foundation for success in the future. Customer service is something that was very important to the organization and if the mark was missed it was very important to get it back on track. It is important to note that is by no means a fiscally small company. And yet they give/require access be given to all employees to leadership, for idea cultivation and implementation to mentorship and career planning. I have seen many people create positions and opportunities for themselves. They make a very strong effort to not look at only a person’s credentials but a person’s character and behaviors in order to determine if he or she is the right fit. When I went through some personal problems and was going to have to relocate the policy would have normally been to let me go once they knew that I would no longer be there. However, they extended every possible courtesy in order to help me try and stay with the organization if possible. When this became untenable the CEO was reference for me and helped me transition to a new role within two weeks. If you want to work for a company that values your personal and professional growth. And, if you want to work with a team that values your accomplishments and will make you better than this is the place for you.

Cons

This might seem counterintuitive from the pros section. However, at first I didn't like the interview process as far as length is concerned. I loved the questions, but had too much pride and thought that they should know within 2 to 3 interviews if I was right or not for the role. I then realized how protective of the culture and team they truly are there. They are careful who they allow into the circle as quality enhances quality and vice versa. So once I realized why the interview process was more drawn out it was no longer a con, but a pro as I realized that the person sitting to the right or left of me was selected for the right reasons and not just a check list or knowing the right person.

Viewing 19 - 21 of 463 Reviews

Glassdoor has 729 Populus Group reviews submitted anonymously by Populus Group employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Populus Group is right for you.