PRA International Reviews

Former Employee – worked at PRA International

Pros – Intelligent, hard-working employees
Salary
Benefits
Free coffee and breakfast (Fridays)
Central location

Cons – No work/life balance what so ever (10+ hours a day is the norm, 14-15 hours a day on deadline days)
Projects are taken on under unrealistic deadlines.
Upper management with stopwatch hearts.
Hard to increase merit internally (though if someone comes in from somewhere else with an identical skill set, they could easily make 15k over you.)
High turnover
Questionably skilled leadership
Way too many chiefs
Unhappiness across departments.

Advice to Senior Management – Please take notice (and action) of the mass exodus of your employees. Even though PRA is gaining clients, it will fail internally if something is not done.

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 7 years

Pros – Intelligent, hard working employees who work far beyond the typical 40 hours in order to meet demand. Robust benefits package. Excellent training programs allow for quick rise within the organization.

Cons – PRA has yet to invest in the basic infrastructure that is required to grow an organization. We've spent far to much time going things cheaply instead of doing them well. There is little to no communication of corporate objectives to the staff. Information exchange is done behind closed doors and trickled down through whispers. Managers, empathetic to their employees, are given no resources to correct and address issues. Employees are fed up and are leaving as quickly as possible.

Advice to Senior Management – You have far too many "leaders" who are focused on CYA instead of leading their teams to produce high quality work. Implement a behavioral assessment to determine if those applying for Director level and above positions possess humility. Investigate down.

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 – PTO accrual/carry over is AMAZING! People are friendly/knowledgeable. Work/life balance is understood and recognized by all.

Cons – New staff hired in at way higher salaries than those with more experience. Varying monetary values amongst those that are in the same position with same # of years of experience. Manager turn over or rearranging happens all the time - in 6 years of employment I had 5 different managers. Constantly trying to relearn someone and prove that you deserve the next promotion/increase, etc.

Advice to Senior Management – Value your employees. Stop being so secretive about every aspect as this causes rumors to swirl and negatively impact your employees.

Yes, I would 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 8 years

Pros – Fellow employees are on average experienced, intelligent, capable and hard-working. Current CFO is a tremendous asset to the company.

Cons – Sycophantic management culture where people who bring legitimate risks and concerns to senior management are penalized. Top-heavy with VPs, PRA has a labyrinthine and overlapping reporting structure, but not enough 'boots on the ground' to provide a quality product. IT organization is particularly poorly led. Employees are handcuffed by bloated systems and processes that are poorly integrated. Many of the more successful VPs have a kiss-up, kick-down management style. Watch your back (and your front!)

Advice to Senior Management – I worked at PRA for 10 years and left after watching the management structure and values corrode over the last few years. I couldn't be happier to be out of that snake pit, and working for smart people with solid values. As others have said to management: go back to PPD, you have tainted PRA.

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 and medical insurance.

Cons – Very small IT shop, very silo/hierarchical setup means no career advancement or learning opportunities for the IT staff.

Arrogant management that thinks they know everything. Unethical behavior by management is an accepted norm.

Very poor management at all levels, decisions are made behind closed doors and then handed down to the team, there is no open communication. Good old boy’s system at work. Zero accountability for the management. Incompetent management has no long term vision.

Top heavy layer - too many managers, very few workers. Lot of bureaucracy, means decisions are never taken/implemented.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to employees, they are asset to the company.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at PRA International full-time

Pros – Benefits are good
People are great to work with
Vacation is 4 weeks a year
Sponsors are great
Location in Raleigh is good

Cons – Leadership of the company in all departments
No career path for employees
Raises are small
Frustrating environment
Employee turnover is extremely high and management is aware with nothing done

Advice to Senior Management – Fix the things that employees are telling HR are broken instead of just ignoring the problems. There are alot of good people with are employed there.

– I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at PRA International

Pros – Considerable PTO, however not always ability to take due to study deliverables
Flexability and the ability to work from home

Cons – Inefficient practices
Few internal growth opportunities
Inconsistencies within departments/organization
Lack of innovation
often a "this is how we've always done it' mentality

Advice to Senior Management – Employees are your most valuable resource. They best understand your systems as well as what works and what doesn't work. Implement an employee suggestion site, which will automatically garner buy in as a result employees being a part of solutions.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at PRA International

Pros – Opportunities to grow, friendly culture, good benefits.

Cons – Lots of changes, turnover, and there is no clear path to career growth or management.

Former Employee – worked at PRA International

Pros – Salary and benefits were decent.

Cons – NO consistency from upper management. One day SOPs etc. were the Bible; the next day they were being ripped up and thrown in the trash. If you stood your ground on a policy, you got slapped. If you broke policy, you got slapped. Atmosphere in CHO accounting was absolutely horrendous. Incessant infighting, backstabbing and bitterness between managers and directors. RDU treated CHO managers like red-headed stepchildren.

Advice to Senior Management – Reward loyalty.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at PRA International full-time for more than a year

Pros – Salary was the only competitive opportunity I found at PRA.

Cons – Very poor line management, when noting I was unhappy with he role I found myself in compared to the job offer I was presented with and the lack of Coe to progress in my career I was informed that the best way to progress was to threaten to resign and negotiate a new role from there including a promotion. I immediately update my CV and moved on as his was confirmed by more than one senior employee!

Advice to Senior Management – Increase communication, improve leadership by employing managers that are able to manage and lead rather than inspire you to leave

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend