To avoid at all costs - Anonymous employee Wavestone Employee Review

1.0
4 Feb 2019
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Free pizza and beers once a month if you can arrive on time.

Cons

Too many. They proudly say they compete with big consulting firms and have high level standards. To be honest Wavestone do not play in the same league and never will. As they do not have/win enough projects for their consultants in the UK (weird for an alleged competitor of MBB and Big 4), they send them to their Paris office. They present it as "a development opportunity" to learn from their main office...but don't be a fool. Regarding the management: I was first pleased as it seems they showed eagerness and enthusiasm. Soon, I was disillusioned. I realised that their 2021 strategic vision is nothing but smoke and mirrors. Many employees resigned since the acquisition and many others will follow this trend in the future. Also, the management and your career development manager won't give you the support you need and won't help you achieving your career goals. For staffing purposes, they will send you on any projects, anywhere, regardless your skills and aspirations. Are you Specialised in digital workspace? Let's send you on a cyber security project! Some people of the management are disrespectful and demeaning to the staff. Many of them lack of vision. They kept the worst from Solucom. Let's see at the anniversary of Xceed acquisition who is still part of the new wavestone.. It might be enlightening. Another surprising (and bad) thing is that they sell their consultants as experts but if you scratch the surface, you will quickly realise they aren't. Imagine sending on a client site a so-called IT architecture or cybersecurity consultant that actually knows nothing... the firm has a toxic environment swamped in politics. Any ambition or eagerness to change is nipped in the bud. Last point: there is a lack of transparency and equality regarding salaries, pay rises and promotions.. I am sure the acquisition only reinforces this disparity..

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Wavestone Response
7y
We would like to take this opportunity to respond to a number of the comments from your review: "They proudly say they compete with big consulting firms'" Within our focus areas we do compete with and win business with top tier clients against the full range of consulting firms from the big-4 to smaller niche firms. We do not aspire to replicate the breadth of the larger firms and pursue a number of strategic focus areas around the IT transformation agenda. "As they do not have/win enough projects for their consultants in the UK..they send them to their Paris office. They present it as "a development opportunity" to learn from their main office...but don't be a fool" At Wavestone, we are very proud to say that we are a part of an international organisation. Travelling is a core part of being a consultant and is a fantastic opportunity to learn and build an international network. We continue to expand the UK team and have consistently grown the UK business year on year. Exposing our consultants to the wider group capabilities and clients whilst building their international experience is a key factor in developing our team. As such we do expect team members to spend some time in Paris and elsewhere and we are up-front about this in our recruiting process. "Many employees resigned since the acquisition" Our staff-turnover rate is in line with the standard for the consulting industry and there has not been a significant increase since the acquisition. "The management and your career development manager won't give you the support you need and won't help you achieving your career goals" Everyone at Wavestone has their own personal development plan and works with their career development manager to shape and adapt this as they progress through the grades. There are a number of internal / external and online trainings available and we encourage employees to be proactive and make any training requests to their CDM. It is very uncommon that a training request is refused. It is also imperative that employees are having open and regular conversations with their CDMs to make them aware of their aspirations and goals. Objectives should then be set on the basis of this. "There is a lack of transparency and equality regarding salaries, pay rises and promotions.." All employees at Wavestone are treated and rewarded fairly. We have a very clear and consistent framework around pay and progression, which supports individual promotion at the appropriate time for them. This avoids consultants competing against each other for limited positions at the next grade, which is not the case at Wavestone. We aim to be transparent in all of our activities and as part of the recruitment process, should individuals receive an offer, they are more than welcome to meet informally any of our consultants (either newly started or long time employees) in order to gain a first hand insight into what its like working here.

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