Onward Search reviews

4.0

73% would recommend to a friend

(130 total reviews)
avatar

Ken Clark

87% approve of CEO

69% positive business outlook

Onward Search has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 130 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Onward Search employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Human Resources & Staffing industry (3.8 stars).

Reviews by job title

130 reviews
2.0
Mar 18, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You get to wear jeans to work and actually leave your desk for lunch if you want to. Upper management will invest in you if they think you're worth their time. You can make a lot of money here if you're good at what you do. Good CRM/ATS.

Cons

Onward Search tries (a little too hard) to brand itself as having a "fun, cool, culture," - maybe it does in other offices, but not here. Sure, you get to wear hoodies and throw footballs at people's heads and blast grating music all day and be as unprofessional as you like in all manners of speaking regarding candidates, clients, and employees alike (not cool). Upper management is a mixed bag. Some, for instance, sit on the recruiting floor and actually recruit for their own positions, are truly passionate about the business, invest in you, and really are all around great recruiters. Only met the CEO once in person when he came to visit our office; he was very nice but was obsessively consumed by metrics. And others are highly unprofessional, talk trash about employees incessantly whenever they leave the room, bully and chastise them in front of the entire office and think that's okay, and say some of the most astoundingly unethical and unprofessional things I have ever heard in my life. They rate how attractive you are and debate about it amongst themselves after you leave your interview. Isn't that nice to know! Overall, all the company cares about are your metrics. And if you're not meeting your weekly metrics, off you go. As a caveat, this is sales, and that is how the industry works - especially when you're not good at it. But the way they HANDLE underperformance is embarrassingly unethical. Their hyper-focus on numbers means that you will receive little to no training and will be kept uninformed and confused as to every new process they implement, and then scrap. They simply have no long-term plan or strategy for how to actually retain, train, and motivate their employees, relying instead on the usual old hire-fire-hire method that every other staffing firm does. What else? Compensation is well-below market value and the benefits are terrible and expensive. Client/recruiter relationships were pretty terrible and most job orders weren't actually real. They don't disclose their commission plan until you sign the offer letter and start on your first day; it's simply called "competitive." Bring your own snacks/employee engagement skills with you to the job because you definitely won't find them here.

2.0
Jun 28, 2015

Unethical Leadership who back stab one another and play politics

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I wish I could list some pros. When you first start out there, you feel like there are many pros. You feel that you have leadership support, you feel like you are empowered to do the job you're hired to do, but once the honeymoon is over, it's all about the money and there is zero reward for your efforts. It's a smoke and mirror situation. They sell you on the pros to get you come work for them and then once they have acquired all of your professional contacts and generated consistent revenue from your efforts, they cast you aside and replace you with a Jr professional who picks up your accounts where you left off.

Cons

The leadership is highly unethical. There is zero regard for employees. Even the top producers are expendable, even more so than others because once you become a top producer, the company doesn't like having to pay them such high commissions. They either force their top producers out or fire them and with the NDA they make you sign, top producers are trapped in a lose-lose situation because they cannot go work for a competitor for 1 year and lose all rights to the contacts that they have added to the database during their tenure.

4.0
Jul 13, 2015

A Company that LIVES its Values! Refreshing, gratifying and inspirational.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Onward is an organization that thrives on the innovation, drive, and discipline of it's employees. Here, we do things the RIGHT WAY. We support each other. We provide amazing customer service, and we communicate with honesty and transparency. Everything we say, is said with respectful candor, and (should be) received with equanimity. Recently, Onward has doubled-down on it's commitment to supporting it's employees across the globe, by investing in training, career progression, and corporate resources. The mission of the training program is to equip our innovative, raw talent with the strategy and consistent execution that will take their skills to the next level. The leadership at Onward is visionary, passionate, forthright, and honest. This company practices what it preaches, and inspires excellence in all things, from the top down.

Cons

When we marry our innovation, with strong strategic implementation, we'll be unstoppable.

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Glassdoor has 160 Onward Search reviews submitted anonymously by Onward Search employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Onward Search is right for you.