Slalom Consulting Reviews

Pros

Thriving company, and fast paced

Cons

consultants are favored over internal ops

Advice to Senior Management

better knowledge sharing among consultants

Pros

The culture and the events set this company apart from the rest. The talent level at this company is very high and I hope it stays that way with all the growth.

Cons

Less PTO then other companies

Advice to Senior Management

Increase PTO and maintain high talent levels with hires but otherwise doing a great job.

Pros

Incredibily bright people to work with; great work life balance; fast paced growth environment; dynamic culture; leadership that truly cares for you as a person; freedom to pursue growth in the areas you want them most

Cons

The health benefits aren't amazing; but that is a minor detail and really has no impact on the experience of working at Slalom

Advice to Senior Management

Keep on doing what you're doing! It is clealry working, as the awards keep coming in and the growth is so strong

Pros

Non-competitive culture, great leadership, and fun fun fun.

Cons

Move towards staffing more project work

Advice to Senior Management

promote more within

Pros

- Everyone that works here is extremely smart and has excellent experience
- Slalom practices what it preaches in regards to work/life balance
- Slalom really wants to make employees feel like family
- Start-up culture. Everyone is encouraged to do whatever they feel they're good at

Cons

- Benefits and PTO are below-average

Advice to Senior Management

- Improve benefits

Pros

- Fantastic, experienced, smart people to work with (no junior consultants!)
- Lots of opportunities to help grow the business - both internally and externally (sales)
- Super friendly culture with lots of social events
- Low key, laid-back attitude balanced with high standards of delivery
- Great facilities for such a small company
- Highly flexible work environment - you can really live the consulting lifestyle here!
- No travel unless you want to
- Great salary and vacation
- Very hands-off management, because they only hire senior consultants they trust you to do your job, manage your client, and work with your team

Cons

- Small market limits type of work and clients, which means sometimes you just have to do what you have to do!
- No junior consultants means you have to do all the dirty work too :)
- Benefits package is mediocre at best, I'm paying a lot more out of pocket
- Flexibility comes with risk - if you're on the bench you only get paid 50% of your salary
- Because it is a growing, small company - bad infrastructure (slow network, no knowledge management, very little process in place)
- Just starting to define career paths - very little career management in place so you really have to find your own way

Advice to Senior Management

- A more robust process around the biz dev pipeline that leverages people who want to help could result in a more stable pipeline and improved account management
- Need some more focus on building expert communities and intellectual capital that can be shared across the nation

Pros

Good reputation. Some smart folks with lots of experience.

Cons

Not sure how on earth they got their good reputation! Poor management at a the consulting level. This firm is really a staff aug firm that diguises themselves as a solutions firm. Very disappointing experience if you are a seasoned consultant. Very territorial behavior by all and very cliquy.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't lie to folks during the interview process. Be clear of job role, type of work and the fact that you will to keep yourself billable.

Pros

I spent a long time with Accenture before joining Slalom Consulting. Coming from a Big 4 firm, I wanted to get away from the things that had begun to wear on me over time: overwhelming bureaucracy and controls, little to no input on my own staffing, political maneuvering, and increasingly less interesting work. I was looking for a place where I could move at my own pace, have the opportunity to do the kind of work I wanted to do (as opposed to what the firm wanted me to do), return to a more merit-based rewards system, have more of a say in my client engagements, have the ability to impact part of the business, and be able to work in a truly consultative model.

Slalom Consulting has provided all of this and more. Leadership encourages people to find their strengths, take risks and go after opportunities that you would not be able to pursue in larger, more controlled firms. I think that Slalom Consulting is a best-fit for consulting professionals who have figured out what they really want out of a job AND what they want out of a personal life. I have found that it is possible to enjoy both in equal measures.

Summary Pros:
 - Compensation is Strong
 - Entrepreneurial Mindset
 - Supportive and Fun Culture
 - Interesting / Game-Changing Work
 - Amazing People
 - Broad Offering of Services for Clients
 - Flexible Career Model
 - Great Social Events
 - Ability to Work with Clients in Your Local Community
 - No Forced Alignment to Industry Verticals

Cons

Internally, I think that Slalom Consulting could do a better job at communicating with its employees; maybe celebrating successes more. Additionally, PTO could be stronger; I lost some time coming from Accenture. I understand that the model is different and I no longer get on a plane every week, but still a bit more PTO would go a long way.

Summary Cons:
 - PTO is Average
 - 401k Match is Average
 - Training Budgets are Average

Advice to Senior Management

I think that leadership should consider the following - there aren't that many complaints, but fixing these would go a long way:
 - Add a week of PTO to compensate for sick days / be more competititve in the market
 - Eliminate the complexity around the current training model; just pay for time and/or increase training budget
 - Maybe boost benefits a tiny bit

Pros

The placers at slalom, xversity, or 2 degrees are excellent at what they do. They are very informative and make the experince very enjoyable.

Cons

The only con that i could think of is for people with less experience just entering into the work force could use some better options.

Advice to Senior Management

I think they could create another division for people that are just getting out of college looking for jobs.

Pros

- Flexibility
- Some variety in the work
- Network development

Cons

- Lack of substance on being "consultant focused"
- Managers are time approvers and focused on filling staffing opps, little more
- Poor career path or advancement opportunities. The overly hyped "Career Development Framework" is poorly supported and barely used
- Installed base of leadership are a clique
- Work/life balance is a joke
- Totally reliant on a small group of big clients - be prepared for "wash, rinse, repeat" from engagement to engagement
- PTO is poor - leaders are always "looking at it" and never doing anything about it
- No tolerance for differing points of view or those who don't drink the leadership kool aid - assimilate or leave
- Shark tank attitude between incompetent sales team and customer account mgrs to land any role and get a warm body on it
- They market the life out of the "best place to work" surveys that aren't really credible
- Absence of "straight talk" internally, typical Seattle "fake nice"
- Obsession with national growth and driving revenue for the owner with little opportunity for others to share in the success or maturing Slalom's practices
- Slalom's spin on non-profit "contributions" are limited to employees doing things on their own time with no real investment from Slalom

Advice to Senior Management

Slalom needs to stop pretending it's something that it's not. Management needs to back-up their words with tangible actions.