Global consultancy with some interesting projects but toxic culture and inconsistent direction
Pros
- Global consultancy with a deep talent bench and interesting projects - "One GHD" approach is not just lip service, it's integrated into day to day work including Profit and Loss and shared work. - Employee-owned so long-term employees are often significant shareholders in a profitable business - Some of the benefits offered in Canada are excellent (reproductive health care), some are non-existent or not up to industry standard (eligibility for banked time, short-term disability) - They have global technical conferences that all employees can apply to attend. These are in-person events held at different offices around the world.
Cons
- GHD and CRA merged in 2014, but still operate like two completely different companies - different corporate culture, accounting systems, employee benefits, and markets served. They keep trying to fix business performance issues in Western Canada by bringing Australian leadership to Vancouver, with mixed success - partly due to wildly different corporate cultures between APAC and the Americas. The Vancouver office seems like ground zero for a battle of "who's in charge". - Toxic positivity in communication from the Enterprise level leads to avoiding acknowledging real, systemic issues in the corporate culture. You feel like you are constantly being gaslit - e.g., Enterprise is messaging to staff how wonderful GHD is while you are trying to figure out why 1/2 your team now reports to someone else and no one told you. - Volatile work environment. There is limited job security - very high voluntary and involuntary turnover. - Lack of coherent and consistent business and growth strategy from the Enterprise. Two major restructurings within the Americas within 1 1/2 years, one of which was not rolled out properly leading to significant confusion from the people who were affected by it - in Canada, there is a band of senior professional employees who are not eligible for overtime. In other consultancies, similar employees are often eligible for a bonus to acknowledge contribution to the business. At GHD these employees, for some reason, are not. - Very much a top down culture.
