Potential to be a great firm, but some things need to change.
Pros
The MyRyan system is great. The focus is more on getting the job done instead of putting in the time, which allows us to provide better client service. The work is good, with opportunities to provide real value to clients. If you're lucky enough to have the right manager, there are many ways to have a fulfilling career. Benefits other than MyRyan are average for the industry. In the past year, leadership has made some much-needed changes in the administration of the company, and made some investments in infrastructure. They say they realize more needs to be done, but there's some evidence they are still trying to do it on the cheap, so it's difficult to tell if the changes will be effective. I work with great people, and we make an effort to stay connected even though we are in different offices.
Cons
The firm grew up as a Sales and Use Tax recovery firm with a large presence in Dallas. Despite the fact that most of the employees now work in offices other than Dallas, and there are many practices other than Sales and Use Tax recovery, most of the leadership make decisions and guide the firm from the perspective of a Dallas-based company that does Sales and Use Tax recovery. The US leadership has never worked anywhere else, and it shows. The predatory culture makes it difficult for other practices to gain traction. Most of the firm's relationships are with middle managers in Sales and Use Tax and there is little evidence that the principals are capable of holding a conversation with client leadership about anything else. There are disincentives for the principals to develop other work and possibly reduce their revenue stream. Practice leaders do not get much support to run a practice and are expected to maintain a full revenue base. As a result, there is little time spent to build the practice and on the people who actually do the work - the principals are too focused on making their numbers. Processes are undefined, and while there is a QA team to build best practice protocols, they only know the Sales and Use Tax recovery practice and struggle to understand the other practices. There's an underlying assumption that what works for Sales and Use Tax recovery will work for everyone since the revenue from that practice is strong, so the other practices encounter skepticism and are put on the defensive to explain why it's necessary to work in a different way and meet their clients' needs. Many of the policies are developed as if the employees can't be trusted, and there are substantial checks and balances that prevent us working effectively. For example, there is a limit on the cost of hotels while traveling, so if traveling to a large city, we have to stay several miles away from the client site and rent a car, just to stay within the hotel cost limits. We end up spending more on travel costs overall and more time traveling between the client and the hotel to comply with a nonsensical guideline. What's even more ridiculous is that many practices other than Sales and Use Tax recovery will bill their clients for travel costs, so Ryan is not paying those expenses, but once again a policy is developed that serves one practice to the detriment of other practices.
