Vantaggi
IT systems above average. When they acquired the consultancy I worked for, they eventually "harmonised" employment terms. In that regard I didn't come out of the arrangement too badly, other colleagues had packages reduced significantly.
Svantaggi
Business is structured with a few senior staff whose CV's are used to win work. The bulk of the work is then farmed out to lower grade technicians and graduates. It is in no way a value added business. Management structure is very heavy, with no real resulting impact on those below them. Business has no direction. The low rate, high turnover, low margin business model does not suit specialised markets. May work for government, water, highway sectors. However, the leadership is not dynamic enough to vary their offerings for other sectors. Management appear generally incompetent, failure results in a shuffle of the pack, rather than the changes required. Admin support to staff is poor. You are expected to do it all yourself. Customer feedback is poor, organisations I have worked with prior and post Jacobs have a low opinion of the quality and service delivered by the organisation. Same goes for former employees, yet to meet one who is positive about the place. The organisation appears to insist that clients accept their terms and conditions, which switches off smaller higher value revenue streams. The one size fits all mentality doesn't work. Management are incapable of seeing past it. Changes to employment terms are railroaded through and they clearly state that no changes will be made, as they announce a consultation period. The so called culture of caring is a sham. Beyond Zero is lauded as a selling point for a great safety culture. The reality is that inexperienced people lead a form filling, tick box exercise to satisfy Management targets. The whole thing stinks of the American approach to litigation, where the system is run to prove the employee is at fault and not the employer. Travel plans for every single business trip. Most of the staff have never worked in safety critical industry's, so the safety observations generated by them are mostly meaningless. It doesn't stop management heaping praise and communicating worthless observations. In 3 years never had a meaningful staff development session or any targets set. Training and development non existent.