Feb 27, 2020
Fast Enterprises Response
6yWe’re glad that you feel well rewarded for your work through our pay and benefits programs. We’d like to take some time to address your cons.
On transferable skills: For folks who only value technical skills like learning the latest coding language, FAST may not be the best fit. Our software is designed with a single goal: to provide functionally rich, on time and on budget implementations for our clients. We are not in business to be a steppingstone to other companies. We want to retain our staff and do everything we can to make FAST a place where people want to stay.
That said, we believe FAST is fertile ground for learning skills that are useful in any career. Many of our clients comment on the “all-around” strength of FAST employees, in terms of both technical and business expertise. Problem-solving, critical thinking, client and relationship management, business and technology consulting, project management, system architecting and technical design, coding. All of these are “transferable skills”. On top of these skills, we are continuing to develop new technical and professional training opportunities for employees to include workshops, conferences, more documentation and knowledge share sessions.
If there is additional training or certification that interests you and you think will benefit your work at FAST, we encourage you to speak to your Project Manager, HR or a Partner.
On Career Opportunities: It is true that most FAST consultants hold the title of “Implementation Consultant” or “IC”. This is by design. Not all ICs are paid the same nor do they have the same responsibilities. People who find fulfillment by accumulating titles, counting the rungs and people below them, are not a good fit for FAST.
We believe one key to our success is the way teamwork is woven into our culture. One way we do this is to minimize the number of titles. While everyone has different strengths, skills and interests, no tasks should be “below anyone’s paygrade”. Everyone must be willing to do whatever it takes for the team to succeed. What’s really important is that we provide FASTies an environment wherein they gain knowledge, acquire new skills and learn to take on greater responsibilities. To us, this is the essence of real “growth”. When FASTies grow in this way, increasing their contribution to the Team’s success, we recognize and reward their accomplishments. We do so via compensation and new opportunities, among others. If employees do not see the growth, they feel they deserve, then it is important for the employee to communicate that with their manager, PM, and/or HR and develop a strategy for achieving their goals.
On relocation: Regarding your comment on location, you are correct, employees do not have complete control over their work location. No more control than any consulting company does in selecting its clients. Our business is modernizing government agencies. The projects are massive undertakings that generally go through a competitive bidding process. We don’t control what agencies “go shopping” for a new system at any given time, and no “win” is ever guaranteed. It is important that candidates understand this when considering a position with FAST (or any consulting company) and we make every effort to explain this in our recruiting process.
One of the benefits of our success in the industry has been the growth in our client base, and thus the number of locations we do work. This gives us more opportunities to match our Implementation Consultants to locations that appeal to them. Internally, we have implemented tools to give employees a means to communicate their preferences to our staffing coordinators, and a greater say in where their next adventure will be. It’s important for FASTies to understand that a location’s attractiveness is in the eye of the beholder at a given point in time. There are people who love California, New York City, West Virginia, North Dakota, Mississippi, Finland, Malaysia and there are people who don’t. Generally, who we look for are people who set aside preconceptions and approach new people and places with an open mind and sense of adventure.
Because of the nature of our work we are typically located in capital cities which are generally larger cities with more career opportunities. We do understand that employees and their families have different needs, so we do our best to work with each individual employee on their situation. To help with this, we’ve developed mechanisms to allow people to suspend their work travel and stay at particular locations. FAST certainly takes employee preferences into consideration so we encourage you to talk to your PM and HR about your specific situation. We do our best to work with our employees to find mutually beneficial solutions, but the first step is to communicate.
On Overtime: As you pointed out, FAST pays employees for the extra hours. Pay is not the end all be all and it is important to FAST that employees have time to do what they love outside of work. To help balance this, we communicate project schedules, so employees can plan their R and R around peak times. Project Managers work with the team to help manage the workload and offer staffing support from other sites during rollout as needed. During these times Project Managers and team Leads encourage team members to continue to do things that they love and that give them a chance to get their mind away from work. For example, an employee has the freedom to choose participating in a sports league on a Tuesday night and working on Saturday instead to meet their deadline. As always, we encourage FASTies to bring us their creative ideas for how to deliver the best value to our clients and give our employees the best possible experience.
In closing, no one is forcing you to stay at FAST. Be honest about what has kept you here, as it is a reflection of your priorities and your value to the job market. If you are interested in respectful and constructive discussion that can lead to improvements in the company, we’re all ears. HR, FAST management and FAST Partners are very willing to share thoughts with employees who wonder why things are the way they are and what’s in store for the future. Otherwise, we encourage you to take responsibility for your own career and find a position where you feel fulfilled.