Pros
Well respected as a PEO, has a broad HR offering. Spends a lot "entertaining" the sales force with a lavish, annual sales convention; a "Fall Campaign" sales kick-off, great offices, laptops, autos for managers, loose expense account spending for managers. A "better than average" employee benefits offering starts on day-one, education reimbursement, 401(k) match. Middle managers who can make decisions are readily available. You can gain access to some senior executives if your sales team turns in the big numbers every year.
Cons
This is a stereotypical "good ole boy”, Texas company. Jews not fully accepted as players (none in management). If you work outside of Texas, which I did, you will never be accepted into the club, even if you top your sales goals 8 out of 9 years. (I missed my first year) They used to pay well, but the pay plans have been scaled back. Residual commissions have shrunk, managers cannot reassign accounts to salespeople when a rep leaves (at 1/2 commission). Senior executives do not meet with clients outside of Houston. Their travels are limited to stock analysts "road shows" and pleasure. The CEO owns a golf course in Scotland to which he flies one of the two company jets (yes, I said TWO!). The training is poorly crafted and delivered, especially since they do not hire people with experience. I real sink-or-swim place. The former VP Sales (fired in 2010) travelled a lot, but never met any clients in our markets (outside of Texas, remember), but he ran up a lot of expenses and it looked good to senior executives. Services are priced at double competitor's, which leads to some challenges now because of their changing business model. There is an increasing amount of services being changed to "phone only,' no on-site visits. More services are added as extra fees that were fee-inclusive. The company has acquired several related service companies, which the sales have not been trained to sell, nor allowed to sell. That may change this fall.
