Daugherty Business Solutions Employee Reviews about "staff augmentation"

Pros

You learn a plethora of skills. If you are good, they listen to where you want to be placed. If you have a good team lead, they will help you advance within Daugherty. Learning sessions are offered quite often. You are encouraged to learn while on the "bench" as you wait for your next position.

Cons

If you are not really good at what you do/do not speak up, you are treated as just staff augmentation. If you have a bad team lead, you will only be setup for failure. PTO policy is honestly not good as you are required to use your PTO if your client has a holiday.

Advice to Management

Honestly, a better PTO policy would go a long way in showing your employees you care and don't feel they are just staff augmentation.

Pros

healthcare benefits are top notch and co-workers are great for the most part

Cons

Local leadership team is sub-par, consulting assignments are low level staff augmentation work. Little room for growth or learning, all training opportunities are in the evening after you complete your 8 hour billable day. Only 2-3 clients so working here is risky.

Advice to Management

Be fair and recognize contributions of all employees rather than just the chosen few.

Pros

* Local consulting model, so you don't have to travel unless on a rare occasion * Offices in each market are small enough that you don't feel lost in a huge company * PTO was competitive for a consulting/staffing type firm * Generally flexible depending on the client, for things like taking PTO or work life balance. * You can have the opportunity to work with good people depending on the project.

Cons

* Executive leadership and direction for the company is lacking in a big way. The CEO focuses so much time and money on his other pet businesses, that the actual consulting business suffers. * The roles are mostly sold as staff augmentation and they hired people to fill roles, not build teams. Which led to a mixed quality of consultant versus just someone there for their 9-5 job. * Promotions can be complicated... and can really depend on who you know. * Sales and recruiting are compensated exceptionally well compared to the consultant salary which generally lags behind other firms in the market.

Advice to Management

For the CEO, don't spend as much time on your other businesses and venture capital pursuits that you forget to grow the actual consulting business.

Pros

Everyone who is terrible at their job gets paid extremely well. All you really have to do is not hit the bench.

Cons

If you hit the bench, you will be fired after 4 weeks waiting for them to sell new work, which rarely happens. Tick tock. Assignments are all staff augmentation, and they sell one person at a time. No project work. They're clinging to one or two major clients in each market. It's a house of cards.

Advice to Management

Sell. Quit holding people's careers hostage. Quit spending money on incompetent sales people.

Pros

Excellent health care benefits, 401K is average

Cons

Too much branch work and initiatives. Also becoming a staff augmentation company instead focusing on core consulting. Depends upon LOS.

Pros

- Market rates - OK benefits - Thats all i can think of but i have to get to a twenty minimum wordcount

Cons

- Bonused based on tenure not performance or billable utilization. $23 for every month worked - No profit sharing or equity opportunities - No office autonomy with regards to closing deals, negotiating rates. St Louis has that 'braintrust' and i use that term loosely. - Paid bench is a farce. Benches are cleared with more frequency than an ill-tempered hockey match - Leadership focuses on the wrong sales... activities and gets drawn into a rates race to the bottom on commodity skills. It really is a staff augmentation model and to say otherwise is decivieng the consultants and potential hires. - Reputation amongst informed Chicago workforce and potential clients is bad. Attracting the best consultants and the most interesting work is going to be a challenge. - Management style and culture is dictatorial and untrusting. Management doesn't lead but rather supervises.

Advice to Management

- Manage and compensate by results - Consider incentivizing business development amongst consultants leveraging some deep networks - Recruit ambition and talent not burnt out 'experienced' consultants that have done things the same way for 30 years. Especially in 'leadership' positions. - Foster a culture with transparency and openness.

Pros

Great health benefits. Local staffing model, but that seems to be changing.

Cons

Although Daugherty leadership positions the company as a consulting firm, the reality is that placement is almost 100% staff augmentation. The survival of the Atlanta office is dependent on one key client. If that company decides to pull out, the office is toast. I've been told that billable headcount for Atlanta has decreased by 30-40% in 2015 - not good. Many of the other office locations are in similar... situations. Although Daugherty has a bench, they routinely let people go if they haven't been placed after a few weeks. Also, they now have a "unified bench" across all offices, and push folks to travel to other offices if there is a need.

Advice to Management

Build a dedicated sales team to pull in some big clients. Try to sell project-based work, which can be more lucrative and interesting to consultants.

Pros

The consultants are awesome. Local reputation of the organization is pretty good.

Cons

A recruiter told me that Daugherty is usually a blip on people's resume and that their consultant pool is very high quality. Here's why...There are very few stars in terms of managers. I am amazed with how poor some of the senior, highly visible managers are. Lack of business acumen, no real formalized experience as a manager, and very poor communication skills with not only the consultants, but the client. ... The business is staff augmentation. You will have very little say in the work that you are assigned to. You are working to make someone very rich. Very much a clique based culture. Sometimes I wonder who is steering the ship. I just don't believe that Ron would sanction some of the things that I have observed. Very limited client base. Strange emphasis on "doing work for Daugherty" and working off hours with little benefit to show for that at annual assessment. Why go to classes and lunch and learns and come up with sales opportunities when I will get the exact same increase as my peers who never attend?

Advice to Management

I believe that highlighting and responding to the favorable reviews says a lot about this organization and its culture.