Pros

Protiviti makes noticeable attempts to build a community by communicating extra curricular activities to its employees. Unfortunately, many employees, with their distaste of Protiviti, to not attend; those that do attend are there more to "get ahead" rather than get to know fellow co-workers.

Cons

Upon becoming a consultant, it is not uncommon to work extended hours and begin to associate your home as a place you sleep and only see on the weekends.

Management does NOT practice the philosophy, "I would never ask you to do something I wouldn't do."

Lastly, and this is especially true during our current recession, there is a constant, underlying tone to eat hours.

Advice to Senior Management

The reduction of staff and benefits within the last year was to be expected; the reduction of respect for those left was not.

Pros

Nice compensation and benefits compared to other companies at the time I worked there. Some nice opportunities to learn as well.

Cons

Unfortunately, the place has a very old boys' club feel to senior management. Forthrightness and integrity were not qualities which they strove to attain.

Advice to Senior Management

Take more ownership and responsibility for bringing client work to the table, but truly mentor those coming up to be able to do the same.

Pros

There are very strong leaders in certain practices within the organization, which makes your experience at the company depedent on getting to the correct pracitce.

Cons

The biggest downside is that a majority of the original Managing Directors are formal auditors, which inherently makes them risk adverse and unwillingly to go after interesting, but risky work

Advice to Senior Management

Look at getting into more pure strategy work and continue to diverisfy your work so it's less audit focused and more risk consulting.

Pros

good starting salary
exposure to different industries
Young employees

Cons

working overtime causes burnout
you could be working for the same client for more then a year
not a laid back environment.
commute is horrible if you live far from the client.

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to appreciate the hard work and hours the employees are putting into the company and stop treating them as warm bodies.

Pros

- Great place to start out if you aren't sure if you want to be in consulting
- Travel is not too bad for a consulting firm
- Great people, fun atmosphere
- Good mixture of client industries

Cons

- Public company is different than a private firm
- Lots of compliance/regulatory work that can get repetitive
- Lower compensation for
- Training cutbacks
- Benefits package cutbacks
- Compensation cutbacks

Advice to Senior Management

- Reducing headcount places a lot of additional work on remaining staff who then do not get compensation increases despite additional workload.
- Cutting back benefits package is a very transparent way to boost the bottom line instead of focusing on top-line growth.

Pros

The people are intelligent and the atmosphere is conducive to work.

Cons

Not a lot of work sometimes. Quality of a project depends on the quality of the seniors on the project, and some are terrible.

Advice to Senior Management

I know it is important to maintain client relationships, but make an effort to reach out to Seniors and Consultants.

Pros

My job is flexible and I have a great, supportive team. Stress in minimal and I am given many opportunies to learn more about our business (however, with no monetary benefits). More work, no more pay....

Cons

The only con I have is very low pay.

Advice to Senior Management

Compensate your employees for work well done. If not, you take the chance of losing them to a company that will appreicate them and reward them.

Pros

You are given a lot more flexibility on how you develop and deliver services than at other large consulting firms.
Culture is pretty good - depends on which office but there is generally not a great deal of politics or drama among fieldwork teams.
Access to wide range of clients

Cons

Protiviti has never shaken off the audit mentality of Arthur Andersen. Most non-audit services are reliant on one or two very smart people somewhere in the company. If they leave, the service lines that they led significantly suffer.

As a subsidiary of Robert Half International, Protiviti has significantly suffered in the last year from the short term mentality of an organization where people are interchangable. Here's a news flash - for RHI management. Consulting is a relationship driven business, and when the people go, the business often goes with them or gets rebid.

Very little effort has been made to streamline internal operations. Some of the processes that line managers have to cope with (from rev-rec to setting up a job code) seem designed to take as long as possible. This lack of investment in improving internal operations has knock on effects into the way that knowledge is shared. While the new Protiviti Knowledge and Innovation Center is a step in the right direction - it has an uphill battle to change the existing mindset.

Advice to Senior Management

Work out what you want to be good at and ensure that you have the delivery capabilities to execute on these things. Don't make solutions specialists do SOX for months on end. This will only result in turnover, and unsatisfied clients.

Don't think that you can compete with the Big 4 on everything. You don't have the capacity or bench to do this any more and often it puts people in a difficult position when having to explain that we will have to fly our closest expert from thousands of miles away to compete against a local resource from another firm.

Most of all - either convince RHI management that Protiviti should be run in a different way from the staffing divisions, or push to be spun off so that you can control your own destiny.

Pros

Satisfactory compensation and benefits. Employees are generally intelligent and are not afraid to take chances toward innovation. Social activities are plentiful and there are many opportunities to donate your time or money to charities that are submitted for consideration by employees.

Cons

Communication to employees from mid-management and beyond regarding important and critical matters sometimes lacks comprehension, practicality, or at times is even non-existent. There is an aura of disrespect and contempt towards employees, especially when it comes to listening and empathizing. The lack of fairness is sometimes too visible. Also, if one decides to leave, management often has demonstrated a disregard for personal privacy. Management has the propensity to appear unprofessional when discussing personnel matters with those not entitled to the information.

Advice to Senior Management

It is recommended to listen to your employees and to take them more seriously. You have a bright staff that is afraid to speak out about always being taken for granted. They are your greatest asset during times like these, and they are for sure under-appreciated. Finally, removing annual bonuses for some groups and not for others, no matter the financial climate, only spreads discontent and bitterness. Please be fair to your employees.

Pros

Compensation and benefits are fair.

Cons

Attempt at changing to a solutions-based company is a complete failure. They would not know a solutions approach if it bit them. Company is obviously on the brink considering the extremely high number of layoffs and office closures. Little respect from managing directors. Very stubborn atmosphere - responsibilities I previously had at other organizations were seized by others. Little or no autonomy. Worst part is some people are informed of layoffs during projects, only to be kept on board for months until projects are completed.

Advice to Senior Management

Start listening to your employees. Heed the advice of those who understand solutions. Stop running your organization like Arthur Andersen - that's the ancient way of doing business. More interaction between MDs, Directors and Staff. And hire some dedicated business development experts that understand solutions - otherwise there won't be any business to save your company.