Pros
* I had the opportunity to work for TEK for 3 years and would have to say the biggest (+) to the company is the people. Starting out as a Business Operations Associate, I was able to become good friends with the people around me. Fortunately I was placed on a solid team with good management and truly felt that they had my back. Once promoted to another role in the company, I continued to "build relationships" (TEK dogma) with great people in the company. * TEK is very friendly with time off, even at an entry level BOA position. Management strives to support the work/life balance at all times and as you move up the chain, time off policies become even more relaxed, unless you pursue back-office management. * Company events are typically well organized and catered to the demographic of the TEK workforce,(avg age of corporate employee 20s-30s) which translates to a fair amount of drinking. Company-wide events occur throughout the year ranging from Christmas parties in Powerplant to afternoon long tailgates in the back of the building parking lot. Also within each department, teams are given a quarterly budget to plan out of the office activities (mini golf, shooting range, O's games). * Opinions are heard and respected from the bottom up. If an entry level associate has an idea or feedback, they are encouraged to express it to all parties involved. This is a critical aspect of the TEK mantra, as there have been instances where senior management has been sacked due to overwhelming negative feedback from subordinates. * Training and experience from working at TEK is great for the resume. It is a nationally known company and currently #1 in IT staffing solutions. For going in as a corporate employee, being a BOA gives valuable experience to a recent grad about the business world, but in a sandbox environment. TEK provides outsourced training options for all employees who express interest, ranging from advanced excel to AMA leadership courses. * The company nature of relationships allows entry level employees to meet and comfortably pick the brains of TEK's upper level execs. I was fortunate enough to attend 2 private dinners over my tenure with the CFO, who truly is a great guy and very knowledgeable. As a progressed my career, I had the opportunity to work with several high level execs and directors that taught me alot about the business and never felt talked down to or inferior. TEK really does stand behind the open door policy.
Cons
* If you hop on any job posting site, you will see an exuberant number of internal corporate and field recruiting positions open at TEK. Company-wide, attrition is becoming more of an issue that is eroding away at their talent pool. The main catalyst to this is compensation, with TEK's being extremely unacceptable. TEK continues to use the same compensation model that was in place prior to the recession, which at the time worked, as people were grateful to have a steady paycheck. Now that the job market has improved, there are opportunities elsewhere to receive more pay, while performing half the workload expected at TEK. Both prospective employees and current are aware of this, which causes people to walk away from job offers and current employees to be poached by other companies. Working at TEK is certainly a full time job, but there are many people at corporate, even at management level, who carry a 2nd part time job just to make ends meet. TEK also implements a annual performance Merit pay increase. This is the only time outside of promotions you can increase your pay. Using a 4 tier system, they rank you to a predetermined % increase, ranging from 0% to 4%. I received the upper echelon of the performance merits every year, which translated out to about only a $1200 bump in pay per year, barely covering the cost of annual inflation. Corporate pay aside, even the recruiters in the field are feeling the wrath of TEK underpaying their workforce. As of this year, TEK introduced the sunsetting initiative that decreases the amount of commission a recruiter will receive per contractor at monthly milestones. Of course whenever you mess with someones weekly paycheck, it rattles cages and has caused a fair amount of turnover. * With the current understaffed workforce at TEK, it is impossible for the remaining employees to accomplish the workloads they have been tasked, which has caused an increased sense of micromanagement through all levels of the corporate hierarchy. With that being said, the back office is the group that has been effected the most. BOAs (business operation associate) are constantly monitored by management on their every move, whether its how long they were out to lunch, to why they can't seem to perform the job of 2 people. Perception from management also is a big factor that is constantly jammed down everyone's throat. If you are to make it in the company, it is expected of you to "buy in" to the TEK culture of having deep relationships with your coworkers (like them or not), express feelings and to "carefront" (yes this is an actual term used) each other when something doesn't sit right. The funny thing about this is that when the chips are down, TEK's coveted "culture" is the first thing thrown out the window. TEK endorses relationship building to produce "high performance teams". This is very difficult to do when associates are being scrutinized by management, causing walls to be erected that separate the BOA from the MOS (manager of operational support). In the end, this creates a bunch of surface level (or level 1 in TEK terms) relationships between management and employee that unravel with the slightest amount of stress. * TEK makes big promises on opportunity and being able to move about the company to better suit your career path. There are a handful of success stories they love to parade about, but there is a dark truth to TEK promotions. The road to moving around the company is coated with a thick layer of bureaucracy, with drivers needing to use their "development plan" as a roadmap. They make their candidates jump through hoops in regards to tweaking your personality to suit TEK core values just to be permitted to interview for the new role. The process takes about 6-12 months from the point where you display interest to getting the chance to interview. Since TEK is short staffed, majority of the people who go up for interviews are receiving their desired positions. This of course is then paraded around as another success story. The back story to all of this is that the promoted, especially from a BOA to any other position in the company, receive an unofficial pay cut. As a BOA, you are an hourly worker, with the ability to accrual 1 1/2 Overtime. If your doing the BOA role correctly, you should be receiving about 5-10 hours OT per week. This pay factor neutralizes the wage gap between a BOA and being promoted to an MOS, who are salary workers. Also, the majority of promotions out of the back office to another department are lateral, with many going to salary as well. The wage gap slightly improves once you get past the MOS level to SMOS and beyond, as you begin to receive company benefits, but over the last 3 years I worked at TEK, no more then 6 have received this promotion.