Where to start. First let me clarify to those looking at working here, there are 4 main BUs (USIS, Int’l, WS, and GCS). I worked for Workforce Solutions (WS), f.k.a. TALX, and can only speak to this BU. The company’s MO is to shift leadership from one BU to the next every 5 years or so. To that end, if you’re looking at GCS, the President there is a wonderful person and while I can’t speak to much else, I can tell you the culture at GCS is undoubtably the best of the 4 due to his leadership, which is second to none. I am unfamiliar with USIS and Int’l and can’t speak to either.
As for WS, I’ve never worked anywhere with a worse culture, which is a shame because it wasn’t always bad and happened as a result of the new leadership team. TOXIC is the best way to describe it. This stems from poor leadership at the top; a sentiment shared by anyone you speak with at USIS as current leadership previously headed up the USIS BU. It’s hard to get fired here - meaning there is a lot of dead weight holding the company back. The senior leadership team has gone all-in on using a consulting firm to blindly make the majority of business decisions for them because they don’t understand the business. All this might be tolerable to the right person if the pay was competitive. Unfortunately, every position at the company is paid higher everywhere else. Talent/HR will tell you the company has a “red carpet in - red carpet out experience” and while I agree this is true, what they won’t tell you is that in between the red carpets is an experience equivalent to your employer holding a plastic bag over your head on a daily basis. Having left, I realize the grass is greener nearly everywhere else and it is certainly nice to be able to breath again.
The runway for WS is almost non-existent at this point and there is no investment being made in new products. The current leadership’s big idea for a new product already existed for the last 10+ years and after a year’s worth of development and having not consulted internal employees/SMEs for feedback, they’ve rolled out a product that already exists and no client wants to pay for - to which the SVP says to her sales team at this year’s annual kick off, “You better learn to sell vaporware.”
The future outlook doesn’t look much better either. Yes, they’ve brought in a new CEO but if you study the hire you’ll quickly realize that while he may be a fine person, this was clearly a play to calm Wall Street given his financial background. It’s a shame because the company had a real opportunity to transform the business to remain relevant and compete in the future. My guess is things will stay the same or get worse.
