PRA International Reviews

Former Employee – worked at PRA International full-time for more than a year

Pros – Corporate facilities are very nice, company events scheduled (only for corporate employes) throughout the year, good benefits

Cons – Very poor management on all levels. On-site corporate employees are valued while those in the field are under-valued and over-worked. Merit increases have been stripped away and the environment reminds me of high school, rumor and innuendo are rampant and upper-management is just as much a part of it (including HR/Recruiting who should know better)

Advice to Senior Management – Spend less money on catering breakfast every Friday and expensive corporate lunches and more on rewarding individual performance.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at PRA International full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Developed some great personal and business relationships.

Cons – London-educated CEO has hired numerous executive vice-presidents, directors, and “consultants” – staffing them with friends from the UK and former cronies from PPD.

To maintain the illusion of profitability, the executive team under-resources studies. They also cancel raises and bonuses (except to themselves) shortly before payout is due.

The effect on employee work/life balance and morale is deplorable. Hundreds of valuable and profitable employees have resigned over the past three years. Vacancies remain unfilled due to lack of applicants. In the end, it’s the customer who suffers; so they are taking their business elsewhere. High turnover, poor sales, etc… Basically, every metric is going in the opposite direction that it should.

I am shocked that the private investors who own PRA tolerate this. PRA was once a great CRO and employer. I have seen PRA executives fired for much, much less in the past.

Advice to Senior Management – Those valuable and profitable ex-employees are now competing against you. At the same time, your revenues and profits are in free-fall. See the connection?

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at PRA International full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – can meet some nice people below the level of management

Cons – Managers are selected depending on social connections not competence. These managers then go on to micromanage, selecting arbitary rules that are applied to those out of favour (have openly stated their issues) whilst blatantly breaking the rules themselves. HR protects bullying managers, going to extraordinary lengths which in the end make them look ridiculous and all credibility and respect is lost from the top down. There is also a subtle culture of age discrimination, those reaching a certain age start to have 'performance issues' that are manafactured by said micromanagers, backed up by HR forcing people out of work.

Advice to Senior Management – go somewhere else!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at PRA International full-time for less than a year

Pros – good vacation package
good insurance
good salaries

Cons – Employees are poorly treated, with no family/work balance. Very arrogant management that think they know everything and consulting companies are the holly grail. Many good people have left the company and still no one cares, employees (especially good ones) are thought of as replaceable.

Advice to Senior Management – Take a good look at how you are leading this company, your people are your MOST valuable asset.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at PRA International full-time for more than a year

Pros – Good Coffee and Free Gross Breakfast on Fridays [for fat loving southerners!]

Cons – 1) Very poor management at all levels
2) Many Napoleons & Hitlers running the company
3) CEO non-existant and hires his friends in UK as consutants, not very ethical
4) No understanding of work life balance at all
5) Discrimination and harrassment in many depts within the organization
6) HR dept. non-existant
7) Too many chiefs and Indiana are treated like dirt
8) Unethical behavior by management very acceptable
9) Stay away from this sinking ship!

Advice to Senior Management – Wake up and smell the coffee that you serve so freely!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at PRA International full-time for less than a year

Pros – Keurig Coffee System - yummy coffee at your fingertips!
Great Christmas Party
Monthly activities for employees

Cons – Managers are power hungry
Lack of flexibility
Not family friendly work environment
Inept bonus plans
Good Ol' boy system at work
Merit increases unfairly distributed

Advice to Senior Management – follow the path of the turnover and it will lead to managment issues - severe, unaddressed, management issues. in many cases, managers have full power over who gets promoted, who gets salary increases, and how merit is distributed. In my department, there were gross salary inequities and those issues were raised, but ignored. there were numerous complaints about our manager's lack of flexibility and harsh and unpredictable attitude and communication style...again, that was ignored. Employees are frustrated and fed up to the point that they are leaving in extremely high numbers.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at PRA International full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – Good benefits, breakfast every Friday, and nice office space.

Cons – ZERO accountability for management and lack of flexibility! If your manager is kissing the right (rear end) or making his/her boss look good, it doesn't matter how he/she treats you. It's a shame to feel forced to leave an otherwise decent job because of managers who are allowed to bully employees! This company purports to being big on Work/Life balance but employees no longer enjoy the flexibility that we once had! You are coerced into using PTO for practically every 30 minutes that you're not at your desk! This company also used to allow work from home privileges; however, that has dissolved. Pucker Up: This is a company where only kissing the right (rear ends) pays off and bullying/poor managers aren't held accountable.

Advice to Senior Management – Re-evaluate the people you allow to manage others!!! Offer employee surveys - at least "pretend" that you're interested in hearing employee's concerns. You're losing talented people in droves!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at PRA International full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Working environment allowed me to acquire the skills and motivation to get much better employment elsewhere.

Cons – Senior management has been trying to sell the company for quite some time. To make their bottom line look sweeter to potential buyers, they have been denying decent compensation, raises, and bonuses to everybody but themselves. Now even their most loyal employees are leaving in droves.

Earlier this year their website had several hundred job openings. Most of them have since been removed. They can no longer justify them due to negative growth and lack of interest.

Advice to Senior Management – Several of your former employees are now working for competing CROs. Many, like me, are now key decision makers at pharmaceutical companies, i.e. your customer base. This is why you are experiencing negative growth and cannot find a buyer for your company. It's all about how you treat your employees.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at PRA International

Pros – Benefits are great
PTO is pretty fair
Nice xmas party
Seems like each department is run uniquely- some departments are better than others.

Cons – Lack of administrative and equipment support ( ex: budget negotiators weren't given proper equipment to do their jobs, i.e. a calculator!)
No training and high turnover so you are thrown onto poorly-run studies and constantly putting out fires you didn't create.
Horrible communication between executive management, middle management and those on the ground.
No transparency, bad aura.
It is clear that executive management believes that monkeys could do the work, so you are easily replaceable.
Back-stabbing and gossip run rampant, so better make sure your managers like you.
Promotions and raises are hard to come by and are completely political and subjective (not merit-based).
One of the most demoralizing places I have worked- no recognition for going above and beyond, no real incentive to do better, and a lack of respect toward employees.

Advice to Senior Management – Respect your employees and give them a reason to work hard for you. Treat people like crap and work is always going to suffer and good people are going to leave.
There are good people who work under you. I'm sure you don't know it. But if you actually supported employee professional growth, you'd be much better off down the road when you are looking for a buyer.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at PRA International

Pros – Always busy and productive. Pleasant work setting. Good diversity of assignments, clients, and therapeutic areas. Lots of wonderful non-management employees.

Cons – Stingy and greedy management. I quit after working there 11-1/2 years. The past two years were unbearable. Excessive workload and hours; no recognition from management of any kind - in spite of record revenues and profits from studies I led, outstanding personal performance, and high client satisfaction with my work. Employee turnover is rising, especially amongst their most experienced and competent staff; and clients are following them. I am now an independent contractor earning 40% more doing the same work for some of the same clients. I look forward to continuing to take business from PRA.

Advice to Senior Management – It'd be a waste of time to advise PRA senior (mis-) management

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend