Pros
Despite my overall negative rating I don't want readers of this review to think that I am a disgruntled employee, so let me first say that I have been able to achieve a lot in my time at the firm. I've received multiple promotions and pay raises and on that front I have no complaints. If you are proactive about your own development I think there are good opportunities at Korn Ferry to broaden your skill set and get exposed to challenging assignments/roles. However I will be leaving the firm soon due to my many frustrations with how the firm is run and how the broader employee population is treated.
Cons
Hard to trust management - lack of transparency. Pay is not in line with market, even though Pay & Rewards is one of the firm's main competencies. Managers are not provided with any real training on how to be effective, despite Leadership Development being one of our supposed competencies. I have been in a management/leadership role for 3.5 years and have not received a single hour of mgmt. training. The firm is extremely numbers driven and is still run with an old-school Search mentality. If you are coming from another search firm it will probably feel similar. However if you are on the Advisory/Products side of the organization you may not like the button-up, stiff culture that continues to permeate the organization. Merit increases are discretionary, 401k matches (very small) are discretionary, annual bonuses are discretionary. Basically everything is discretionary. The firm will not make commitments to employees regarding some of these pieces. Morale is low in many parts of the business, turnover is high and the firm doesn't seem to really care. Finance runs this firm. For a People/Talent advisory firm, the internal Talent/HR team has absolutely zero power. That has presented serious issues on multiple fronts.