Pros
The good: Much of the staff are great, supportive people who work incredibly hard. The perks are good, all-staff meetings are wonderful, and the company is modern and progressive (although, I will point out that the leaders of this majority female company are men). Flexible working arrangements are standard and time off is encouraged with adequate planning. Managers care about their direct reports and take a lot of time to meet with them regularly. The CEO is a very charismatic and engaging speaker.
Cons
The bad: The company has a noble and attractive mission: Increase workforce engagement and improve team and/or company performance. I witnessed the SHIFT teams consistently demonstrate a very high level of commitment and effort to their clients, but the very recommendations being emphatically given to clients were not extended internally to SHIFT staff members. If the phrases ‘evidence based’ or ‘results driven’ matter to you at all as a client or employee, I would hesitate to recommend SHIFT. In my experience, metrics were tracked inconsistently if at all, leaving recommendations given by SHIFT feeling hollow and lacking credibility from an 'evidence based' perspective. The ugly: SHIFT's heavy feedback culture is couched in a philosophy of continuous improvement, but on several occasions the feedback I received was needlessly personal, straight up hurtful, and not actionable. Consultants at SHIFT expect absolute perfection in client deliverables (this is not uncommon or unreasonable in the consulting business). However, the company COMPLETELY lacks the systems, structure, and resources with which perfection can be achieved. When I sought a guiding procedure or standard, it was either outdated, or I was simply told “do whatever works for you.”. Training was limited, confusing, and non-comprehensive and because of this, it takes a long time to feel a sense of competence or familiarity in role. Additionally, while SHIFT frequently espouses a dedication to worklife balance, there is pressure to be on for extended hours. Plainly put, there are unfortunately substantial operational and cultural issues at this company and their status of ‘best place to work’ is questionable given that their turnover rate is way above average (if you look at group photos year over year you can see for yourself). If you do decide to work here, you’ll grow a lot, you’ll learn to produce high quality work on short notice, and you will work very hard. In my opinion, the most successful associate candidate is a person who is type A, compliant, deferential, and can create and enforce order in chaos.