Korn Ferry reviews

3.3

55% would recommend to a friend

(3,875 total reviews)
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Gary D. Burnison

56% approve of CEO

48% positive business outlook

Korn Ferry has an employee rating of 3.3 out of 5 stars, based on 3,875 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Korn Ferry employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Administración y consultoría industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

4K reviews
1.0
Aug 14, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Korn Ferry is a horrible place to work, it markets itself as a leading corporate egalitarian place to work. In Reality, Its nothing like it at all. The only positives are some of the people themselves on the whole. They make the job fun, they are honest and caring and empathetic and share much of this warped environment and at least can rely on each other.

Cons

This detailed review is a combination of Several Ex/current employees experiences in the TDC (Talent Delivery Centre) in Manchester over 18 months. • The first negative many see on arrival, is the poor set up and poor training and onboarding. Many people reported of not having a laptop and/or a phone for several weeks. • We have seen recruiter's receive all sorts of abuse from colleagues in Manchester and London with no action done, rather it was kept quiet and away from the likes of the relevant managers and other London based Manager's. These include: - Casual racism, death threats, threats of violence, casual homophobia and misogyny • One of the longstanding internal recruiters has been known to have given some verbal abuse and bullied one other long-standing recruiter •The slow realisation that the money is what keeps the Recruiters there as there is no progression unless you are a love interest or a mate of one of the manager's.This has been known wide spread in Manchester and it’s become a running theme of conversation in London and Manchester • The other managers are known for their surly behaviour, false promises and a complete apathetic view towards escalating these issues to protect their backsides. • The Managers who manage the Recruiters on various accounts have been known to be so abusive that some recruiters have been that distressed they have had to be pulled off the account. The Internal Korn Ferry Managers managing the recruiters on their accounts are uninterested, treat you like a commodity and ask you to help them with their projects but they take all the credit. The communication is terrible between managers and recruiters. Sometime waiting several days before that happens. Progression plans are non-existent and many recruiters cannot see an end game. • Many false promises are made. Many competent Recruiters and Graduates have been promised new accounts and graduates have been in tears because the move never came into fruition. Recruiters have been promised by internal managers that they will be allocated to a new account and other senior recruiters have been begged to come onto a new account under a new manager, but those promises are never delivered due to the sign off not being with them and the manager having no real power or influence. • The Place has grown so much over the last year it has changed the whole ethos and dynamic/working relationship of the recruiters. Many who were friends now don’t see their colleagues and the environment has turned into a call centre where all the great work that is done in Manchester is not acknowledged and in effect the building has become a chicken factory. Many are unhappy that this has now become their work life of no progression and no appreciation. • There are Recruiters there that are on hugely inflated salaries and are either never in the office due to “sickness” or are scraping by on an account which doesn’t seem to care what the quality of work is. One recruiter was in a situation where he had his work load cut about 75% for no reason at all for 6 months and essentially had no work to do. Again managers didn’t react. Seened uninterested in resolving this which showed how they as usual don't care the funnelling away of their clients money for full time recruiters. • One Recruiter had to leave without notice even though he was verbally promised an extension on his contract and his weeks’ notice was not given. There was a lot of contract and minor illegality I'm sure. • Another competent recruiter was mysteriously asked to leave the business immediately after we were told he just wasn't needed. We found out the official "Manchester managers" story for his manager cronies was that the recruiter was“underperforming” . The recruiter was never made but made clear of what the reasons were nor was there any evidence of agreed development plans, KPIs or disciplinary procedures. if that was the case of dismissal, I'm sure contractually that should have been another minor illegality. It now appears that one of the managers who removed the recruiter, was not wanting their own manager to be told about the wrong doings and issues this recruiter had on the account and other false promises just to protect himself from any questions or actions. The discussion was not brought up with any other managers also and it seems it was done quietly. • The calibre and expectations of the clients are sometime so ridiculous and untenable that the recruiters can’t enjoy their work because of sometimes strict and ever-changing policies. • A leading figure visited us recently and when several of us asked questions about the future and maintaining the “vision” and they struggled and couldn’t answer basic questions or tip-toed round them like a politician. They were asked about Growth, Brexit, Hay Group/Futurestep. • Several recruiters and two managers also left a major account due to the problems and constant firefighting and changes that they had enforced on them from bizzare policies. The time spent on many of the accounts was short because of this reason.

1.0
Aug 22, 2014

Low Integrity

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Brand recognition Client access Potential There are like most professional services firms many remarkable and take Ted people who work there

Cons

The firm has branded itself as a talent management consultancy (see website) The firm is a search firm that has broadened its product portfolio with a series of acquisitions including PDI, Global Novations, Lominger and FutureStep among others. The vast majority of the Leadership and Talent Consulting practice revenue is driven by product related sales - mostly assessment (PDI) competency related (Lominger) and training (Global Novations) The professionals coming from these acquired companies are highly educated and talented. They are equally limited in their experience with broader talent consulting let alone organization development experience or qualifications. The marketing department is way out ahead of the groups actual capability touting the firm as the new kid in town The leaders in charge of building a broader capability come from these product based companies as well and have not built a practice of this scale so it's really a mess They are very good at recruiting you in emphasizing the opp to build the practice but you should ask about the following: Governance - the CFO controls the practice and demonstrates a lack of experience building a consultancy. Remember that's in addition to being a public company. Partnership - being a partner is a title only. The partners do not work together to build the practice, develop its people or define the practice's future. Access to opportunities - even if you bring relationships you cannot avoid working with the mostly narrowly experienced people from the acquired organizations they have assigned as industry or client leads. These people tend to sell what they are familiar with and be threatened by new people with broader capability. There are few exceptions to this and considering all the search relationships very little green field to build a book of business. The search partner thing is what you would expect - highly variable 're understanding talent and preparing for a meeting with their clients can be a time consuming nightmare. Sales target - Principles and Partners have a sales target of up to 2M/year which at first seems easy until you realize there is absolutely no leverage - few to no consultants to help unless you are selling products where you sell, others deliver and yet another group manages the project. They have lifted and installed the model from PDI. So you need to sell 2M per year, if so make a maybe 100k bonus on top of your 240k base and remember you deliver most of the work. If you are a product pusher and that turns your crank you are in much better shape. The system forces you to sell product - assessments, competency models, training rograms - you get the drill (2014 bonuses paid in June 2014 far below 100k target. I sold 1.8, delivered 90 percent of the work and got 30k and a promotion - huh?) Integrity is the most significant issue - the firm literally does not use its own tools. There is no formal onboarding, almost all training is overview of product and how to sell it, hierarchal performance management, no assessment of leaders ( hardest one to stomach as they are literally impacting the careers of 1000s of professionals as they report assessment results to executives, CEOs and Board. Really concerning) If you are considering this firm because of its potential that makes sense. If you think you can join as a new person and affect change against these practices brought by the acquired organizations and entrenched by the appointment of them at every point of market access and leadership - your mom is right, you really are amazing.

2.0
Oct 28, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Korn Ferry has good name recognition and a nice global footprint, but that is about it. I’m supposed to write at least 20 words in this section, but I honestly couldn’t think of any more pros.

Cons

They’re so concerned about billings that the service to clients and candidates is dependent on the overworked junior staff. Candidates are consistently “recycled” search after search and as a candidate, if you can’t do anything for KF, they won’t do anything for you. KF is notorious for never closing the loop with candidates and treating them like second class citizens. Internally, Korn Ferry does not invest in their own talent. Gone are the days of Korn Ferry being some amazing training ground. You have to go out and get offers at other firms to get them to think about giving you a raise.

Viewing 16 - 18 of 3,875 Reviews

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