Kaiser Associates reviews about "people"

The leadership team at Kaiser is so focused on profit (with practices operating nearly independently of each other and practically competing on their profit margins) that employee development is minimal. Leadership does not invest in tools for the work to be successful; at the lower consultant levels, lots of time is spent searching for people on LinkedIn and either using limited InMail messages or connecting with strangers to request that they participate in an research interview. This is repetitive and the kind of outbound work that SDRs at other companies have had automated for years. Consultants are seen as replaceable and not respected by the leadership team. Kaiser laid off a number of consultants earlier in the year and then realized they needed them back, but are still not valued. When consultants bring up things that could be improved at the company, their suggestions are not taken into account nor really even considered. Kaiser touts one employee's success at going from associate consultant to partner as proof of a path upward at the firm, but this has only happened once in the history of the company. The leadership team is out of touch, hands-off, and highly focused on getting the company back in the office, despite many of them living out of state and traveling to DC less than once a month. Pay is noticeably lower than market rate and consulting perks (transportation, meal reimbursement, etc.) are lower than at other firms. If Kaiser wants to compete with MBB firms then they need to pay people equivalent salaries. When you have folks a few years out of college managing projects, pay them as you would an engagement manager at a competitor firm. Kaiser is quite literally taking advantage of employees' willingness to work above their pay grade, and this tanks company culture and employees' interest in staying for more than a couple of years.

While not nessecarily unique to Kaiser, some challenges remain with work-life balance especially in a virtual environment. Hours can potentially drag on and some weeks can be especially long, especially on more involved or challenging projects. Mid and senior leadership do make efforts to control overwork and promote WLB, but it still remains a challenge. Some processes can also use improvements, such as the primary sourcing process which can be tedious at times based on the tools and methodologies available. Moreover, there can sometimes be a lack of individuals at the firm who are familiar with certain tools like survey software, which can create issues for junior staff learning new tools for the first time.

Slightly long hours, but that is to be expected in this industry!

Expect to be burnt out once you start to manage projects Work can get a bit repetitive and not too quantitative High churn rate for a reason Firm seems to have had issues in 2023 with layoffs

Limited to no brand recognition, small client base, lack of structure and governance or accountability. Revenue generation will be rewarded over character or leadership capability.

Revolving door of managers. Very limited focus on people development and growth; they expect everyone to churn rather than stay, which ends up being a self fulfilling prophecy.

- Inconsistent work/life balance (common to strategy consulting)

-London office is unfortunately a regional office and does not receive the weight it deserves (senior people presence, recruiting and hr efforts) -Hours can get quite long -brand recognition is limited in Europe (while decent in the US)

There is very little training and it's a learn by doing/trial by fire environment Partners are focused exclusively on revenue and margins. They care little for employees or their development (and don't let them fool you otherwise!) There is really no corporate culture to speak of other than making money. If you are a senior hire, realize that the last time a partner was promoted internally was nearly a decade ago and there is no clear path to partner nor a clear intent to promote new partners. 2 of the 3 partners who were with the firm for 30 years recently retired and despite talk for years not a single senior manager was identified for or groomed to become partner. Most of the middle management and all of the partners "grew up" at Kaiser from early in their careers. This creates a highly insular environment and perpetuates the leadership vacuum, particularly as there are no leadership models with one bright exception. A consequence is that external senior hires typically flame out very quickly and / or are very frustrated. Kaiser is in effect an umbrella organization that houses several individual industry practices that operate largely independently of each other. There is minimal collaboration across practices.