Pros

PA is transparent and metrically driven which means if you are a high performer you will receive the rewards and recognition you deserve.
I have met some of the kindest most generous and selfless people whilst working at PA. PA hire people with strong social consciences- which is extremely important to me as it reflects my own values.
PA is a tough environment where you must learn to multi task. It requires you to be better than you possibly thought you'd need to be to work in professional services. You need to be organised and have a strong work ethic to progress. It is at the tougher end of professional services for senior people. In fact, senior people get found out quicker at PA.

Cons

Like any professional services firm, you will find tension over work/life balance.
PA is very process driven which can often undermine taking a common sense approach to key issues.
Diversity is a big issue which needs addressing.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your people more and be courageous enough to change the things you know as a leader need to change.

Pros

The people - many talented individuals, genuine industry leaders in their field.
Interesting work.
If you're a high performer, you will be recognised and supported.
Good training and support for career enhancement.

Cons

Too much focus on cost cutting from senior management.
Some aspects are in need of modernisation.
Communication not always as strong as it should be.

Advice to Senior Management

More communication of what our long term goals and visions are, less enthasis on the short term in terms of costs.

Pros

Great people with tons of experience, insight and ambition.
Large degrees of freedom - as long as you perform, which allows you to focus on many of your own interests, ideas for business development, etc.
Have become more focused on the need for directed business development as a result of the crisis (more focus on client themes, account work, getting out in front of clients), which will give you great experience in thinking commercially/thinking business development
Surprising focus on work/life balance, given that we are in the consulting business
Fairly few 'clones' - as many people are outside/experienced hires.
When everything comes together we can hit a very high standard when it comes to issues important to the client (insight in issue at hand, team experience, ability to challenge, ability to deliver, etc.)

Cons

Very focused on costs - could do with loosening up a bit and spending some money on the social side of things.
Somewhat tightly run from the UK top (however, this IS getting better)
The flip side of the large degrees of freedom is that you can find yourself very much alone if you are not performing or not able to join up with good performers
You are measured on a lot of things (personal and professional) but in the end really only rewarded/punished for your utilisation (and sales at higher levels)
Partner group not all up to what you'd expect. Quite a few whose only reason for success is their ability to 'play the system'
Only measured on your own results - no plus points for team work, cross-practice work, etc. - you end up doing only what is good for you and only for the short-term.
Have lost quite a few people these last 12-18 months (Denmark)

Advice to Senior Management

Give more management responsibility to local partner group
Find a way to reward us for team work, cross-practice work, etc. - you'll be surprised!
Make the direction of PA clear to us all - show us the top management team more often
Start recruiting again - we need some new blood!

Pros

Work with some really creative and professional people who support each other
Varied client base
Good training early on
Good professional netowork

Cons

Poor management of change and not good at communications
Drive unhealthy sales competition, not very cooperative
Consultancy side driven back by corporate functions

Advice to Senior Management

Listen more

Pros

The work that PA mostly does is stimulating and rewarding. The consulting assignments last typically 3-12 months and the variety of work and opportunity to learn is very rewarding. The company is very ethical and generally treats the staff fairly and is very good on training, though the career development process is something of a black hole.

Cons

They can be very penny-pinching and strict on things like expenses and freedom to do some roles which makes you feel like you're not trusted. It's also a lot about knowing the right person and getting in their good books to help move up the ladder.

Advice to Senior Management

Loosen up a bit and give some greater autonomy to the staff. Clients are often far more trusting and better at delegating to consultants than PA management is....

Pros

Outstanding peers for the most part for Principal Consultants and below, Managing Consultants and partners can be hit or miss.

Great training for the consulting way of thinking

Work life balance

Cons

Policies are too UK centric

Don't practice what they preach sometimes

Cross-practice work never gets full recognition people deserve or full credit during year end reviews

Advice to Senior Management

Stop pushing UK centric views to offices around the world and let the regional (country) offices decide the best decision for their region. Stop having short term views and take a longer outlook in the business and growth.

Pros

Working environment conducive with colleagues who are ambitious, skilled, experienced

Net speed quite good as it's a critical factor for secondary research

Work From Home for people with laptops

Annual leave days and medical insurance coverage etc.

Monthly briefing sessions and getogether follwed by lunch/snacks etc;

Yearly conducted fun days

Cons

Not quite bright future for KPC as it is still stuck with Secondary Reserach alone

Not all consulting departments with PA quite supporting KPC with sufficient engagements

Poor support from consulting practices within PA in terms of client facing work/sold jobs

0% travel for middle management seniors(AS2 cadre)

Less than market average fixed salary component

Salary disparity with memebers of same team. This relates to the fact that referred employees and ex collegues tend to earn more money irrespective of the total experience in hand, when compared to employess who have been in roles for more than 2 years within KPC

Great place to settle down for people in late 30's and above.Focus on some less value add work on a day to day basis and one can retire with some good fortunes in hand

Provision of lap tops and black berries only to key specific individuals. There are people(married and un married individuals, mothers etc;) within a team who from 2007 haven't had a lap top. On the other hand there are peole who have been issued laptops from the first month they had joined.

Top management not so keen on taking the KPC to next level inspite of key inputs from it's key employees. Management of KPC needs to see around and understand where they are placed amongst it's competitors and where the other KPO's are moving to. Most of the KPO's in Bangalore, Noida, Hyderabad (captives and 3rd parties) that support consulting are well ahead of PA's KPC catering to multple areas apart from Secondary Research alone.Focus on Secondary reserach alone would tend to be factor to abitious employees who wanna look at careers outside PA owing to the reason that the demand for people with secondary research skill sets alone is very miniscule.

Lack of clarity around roles and responsibilty prevails. One could find peole at different designations doing the same job at the end of the day.Senior research analyst(SRA),Principal Analyst, Team lead all do the same job at the end of the day.There is no differentiating factor between different roles and responsibilties with respect to an employee's designation.

Opportunirty to travel is granted to levels above Manager and above and the lower levels are expected to feed them with inputs lke power point presentations, key contact details, meeting arrangements, key dashboard details etc.

Higher cadre emloyees especially the head of division with other personal interests(family owned business) and stock/share investments find KPC a great place to work owing to minimal control over these within office environment. While lower level employees are nailed down for indulging with their personal matters.

Some low level employees were even asked to resign owing to the above related issues as unfortunately their performance was portrayed to be coming down

Improper behaviour of the top management people, use of abusive language during meetings and employee briefings.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on the Con's.It's better late than never.

Pros

Bonus alone. Fixed component less than the market offer
Good for freshers alone
Monthly free lunch

Cons

1)Lack of vision at top management
2)0% travel for employees below top management level
3)Lower ranks to support the top management travel by preparing report,data sheets and ppts.
4)Salary disparity at it's high within memebers of a team
5)Lack of efficient HR department owing to frequest resignations at HR manager level
6)Government offices ar much better when it comes to an approval,sanction,decision of any business relevent issue/matter
7)Not a great place to work for working mothers as work life balance wouldn't be met most of the times
8)Day in and day out it's always secondary research.No scope or thoughts at key menegement level to move into other areas apart from Sec.Research
9)Referred emloyees tend to receive outstanding gains when it comes to salary. Salary depends on key contacts that one has with the current employees at the firm and the referrers internal marketing capability
10)Have stock investments? You could some expert advices from seniors who only do that in office day in and out
11)"it's my least priority" kind of an attitude when it comes to employee career goals,progress and grievences
12)Lap top and Blackberries issued to senior most people who don't now how to operate them and who have no use of the same owing to nature of work.
13)Incapable and lethargic people at top management who are at their early 40's who have the ambition to retire from KPC alone.So not the right place for one who has the urge to learn new things and build a career for self

Advice to Senior Management

Delete old/incompetent/lethargic people from the top
Shrewdness is not a part of management at work
Think beyond secondary research. See for self where other KPOs have progressed already in Bagalore/India
Eat for self and also let others eat,else,the result would be indigestion causing Flatulence

Pros

Management truly support people
Entrepreneurial spirit
Reasonable compensation model
Benefits are excellent (22 days vacation, very good medical, etc)

Cons

Travel expectations
Difficult to become a specialist as short-term utilization takes precedence
There is too much focus on the bottom line, without taking into consideration impact on staff moral
Company is becoming SOP centric

Advice to Senior Management

Keep focusing on making PA a great place to work and we will be successful

Pros

Good opportunities to work with government at a senior level. Graduates and midlevel consultants are mostly very competent and ambitious. A place where you can reasonably build a long term consulting career if you work hard - no "up or out" approach. Reasonable in house training opportunities and a few nice benefits - sabbaticals, option to purchase additional annual leave, travel allowance for principal consultants and above. Bonuses can be very good if you join the right practice. Also, in the right practice in London, there is generally less travel than with competitors.

Cons

Senior partners can come across as "old fashioned" and not as contemporary. This is largely due to the firm's history of hiring ex-civil servants to senior positions. Although it helps with networking and sales, it often leads to less innovative approaches to projects and a highly risk averse culture. The whole corporate culture feels like being back in the public sector.

The longstanding practice based model works in London, but causes huge problems in the smaller offices. Stories of 2 PA practices bidding against each other for the same piece of work are not uncommon.

PA advertises itself as a "global firm" but this is a fallacy. It's history of trying to operate in geographies outside of the UK and Scandanavia, especially the Middle East and Australia has been fraught with problems. Centralised corporate control does not provide enough local autonomy to allow the business to develop. Key decision makers at the London headquarters seem to have little understanding of the particular nuances of different local business practices making PA less competitive in these markets. Local HR policies in these international geographies can also be substandard compared with competitors - this frustrates employees transferring to these regions. If you want an international career - don't even contemplate joining PA.

Finally, PA's brand is built mostly on project management, which can make some jobs feel more like being a temp than a consultant. Fewer opportunities for intellectually challenging strategic work than with competitors.

Advice to Senior Management

A tough decision needs to be made about whether PA wants to largely remain a public sector consulting firm for the UK and Denmark or whether it wants to become a truly "global firm' successfully growing and competing in new markets. It will need to take more risk and decentralise in order to achieve this.