PAREXEL Reviews

Pros

Career development,Team chemistry, Customer Focus, benefits

Cons

Salary, career development past a point,

Advice to Senior Management

none

Pros

There are many good hard working focused middle management persons within the Company. It seems that some upper management has lost control and priority of day to day activities. Some Managers need to take ethical behavior coursework based on their language, inuendos, and overall lack of professional style. There are new persons coming to leadership roles from other industries and having impact on business direction and team members (cause for dismissal).

Cons

There is a profound lack of working your way up to more senior roles. Divisional splits also represent huge challenges in credibility, project direction, tasks, budgets, projects. There is a definite lack of defined policies. Despite the Company growth rate, inadequate business policy exists, adding confusion to daily direction. Huge knowledge loss as many persons leaving the Company. Outdated SOP's and GOP's. Lack of real business roadmap complicates division direction and stability. Many projects that are not led properly and huge wastes of resources and money.

Advice to Senior Management

A serious overhaul needs to be completed with regard to business policies affecting management and how things need to be alinged. Critical direction from US or Germany needs to be decided upon. Promote from within. Retain company knowledge. Create sustainable risk management policies for all groups. Limit projects to realistic or achievable business benefit and resources. Increase project management to realistic styles; Agile is not an answer for most projects. Written policies from Senior Management down to rest of company is not a bad thing when done properly.

Pros

Experience working for CRO , working with many clients, constant challenges, working with current technology, Flexibility.

Cons

Lack of planned training, global challenges, lack of career direction and weak management .

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on training before implementation, proactive career management, enhance knowledge in the area of management and provide better advice, promote work -life balance.

Pros

Continuous opportunities for further training in clinical research activities. Exposure to a number of IT technologies used by the drug and medical device industries. Diversity in therapeutic areas to be working in over time.

Cons

Petty micromanagement activity by inadequately trained line management staff. Lack of appropriate IT support on weekends when work needed to be done. Real lack of work and life mixture for decentralized staff ends up being a 24/7 work environment until you quit or move on.
Poor resource management for projects.

Advice to Senior Management

Quit micromanaging staff. Give trained and experienced staff credit for thinking on their feet and adapting to the changing work environment they encounter in the field. Stop corporate MBA types from setting employee metrics when they have never done the job themselves nor do they understand what it entails.

Pros

a great place to put your feet at the door if you want to work for a CRO
a good level of cooperation between regional hubs and other offices

Cons

you can burn out quite fast due to the huge workload and lack of recognition
significant difference in compensation between staff members
dead-end positions
the internal structure of the company (world-wide) is very inflexible
salaries are not competitive at all, ridiculous "increases" for non-billable staff
performance reviews are useless. results depend on your relationship with you manager as well as the promotions
if you work fast and well, they give you even more things to do as a "recognition" and maybe a bar of chocolate...
having already worked there, I cannot tell one single reason why I might consider going back...

Advice to Senior Management

hire managers who have great leadership skills and experience in the industry
train your staff
make international mobility possible
if you are not willing to offer competitive salaries, at least you should try and care about career management

Pros

Good training for regional staff that can be used in other clinical research settings outside of this huge CRO. Many alumni exist from their PAREXEL experience globally. Gain the experience and use it elsewhere where you'll be appreciated.

Cons

Lack of IT support on the weekends. Petty micromanagement policies by line management staff.
Inconsistent resource planning for projects. MBA types setting company metrics that lack an understanding of a range of job titles that people actually perform.

Advice to Senior Management

Give decentralized staff credit for having the ability to think on their feet and adapt to changing work environments instead of micromanaging them to death.

Pros

it's a big company to get your foot in the door if you are looking to get into clinical operations.

Cons

they are not really interested in people moving up. most positions are dead ends and if you want to move up to a CRA role you need to make a lateral movement and go through 4 different positions.

Advice to Senior Management

there should be a career path from senior records management assistant to CRA without having to go through SSU

Pros

Excellent environment, flexible, friendly, international environment

Cons

Workload, turnaround timelines, line management should be improved for quicker and more effective results

Pros

As long as you do your job and work ahead, you can enjoy time to "chill" without a manager breathing down your back.

Cons

Too much work to do. If you don't finish, you stay until the job is finished. This is in regards to people on salary although as an hourly employee, they subliminally tell you that you have to stay to get the job done.

Advice to Senior Management

Give your employees a piece of the cake. We work hard to bring in studies and we ask that you share that success with us.

Pros

Oppurtunity to learn on the job, sense of team work and evolving methodologies to improve quality of deliverables

Cons

Work loads to heavy, lack of recognition / compensation for job well done, even after acknowledgement of this in performance reviews. Culture seems to be moving more towards what else can be taken away from employees to increase profits - example annual bonuses, cell phones - all this while profits already seem to be soaring.

Advice to Senior Management

Recognize your top performers or you will continue to see high turn over