- Compensation package well below industry standard.
- No work / life balance. Frequently worked 60-hour weeks and was told in advance by upper management that this is not only expected but will never be compensated, especially not on a 1:1 basis for the hours put in. In the UK you have to sign a waiver of the working time directive on employment.
- A permanent contract means nothing to this company. I was actively headhunted from a stable job and lied to in interview - I specifically asked if this job was project-based and was assured this was a permanent contract and I would be automatically moved to a new project. This did not happen. Instead was told by management to either find myself a new role internally or I will be made redundant. Not even a fixed-term contract has any meaning as it's quite likely they will get rid of you before your contract is up to avoid paying your salary for a few more months.
- Company culture of "never put anything in writing". After trying in vain to actively improve project documentation and highlight areas that would present legal liabilities for clients, was "informally" told that it's not IQVIA's business to protect their clients and if the pharma companies that work with them can't see these loopholes themselves it's their problem. Was also told to not give a straight answer to questions in grey areas if staff were to ask and above all, to never put an answer to such a question in writing.
- You have to be extremely lucky to make it here long-term. They massively over-hire for new projects only to make most hires redundant within a few months. Out of the hundreds of new staff that onboarded when I joined, less than 10% remain in the company only a few months later and they start every day in constant apprehension that they too will lose their job irrespective of how good they are.
- The company will actively seek to terminate you before you approach probation or will employ flimsy reasons to extend your probation so they don't commit to you as an employee. You will be offered the opportunity to be re-hired in a new role/new project and re-start your probation however the company will not commit to you long-term and prefer you to have as few rights as possible.
- I have not had a single conversation with management regarding my performance since I started. One director even admitted that no one kept track of manager's performance and that this did not matter.
- No onboarding or training program to speak of. You're given a list of SOPs and training documents to go through but ultimately these do nothing to prepare you for your day-to-day job. During the first couple of months, every other day I would find a new software or procedure no one considered telling me about.
- Completely unethical company both to its employees and clients. They doctor figures and erase requests from the system to double-cross clients and make them liable for higher costs.
- Incompetent upper management. I've had to preside over so many monumental cock-ups in just a few short months, any other company would have cleaned house by now. IQVIA however encourages this type of individual, the type of person that can steps on other people's heads to further themselves or cover their mistakes without a second thought.
- Ultimately it has been more damaging to me professionally to even be associated with this company. They do not provide a reference beyond confirming you've been employed here; no one will confirm redundancy is not performance-related as it's in their interest to prevent you from getting another job in the industry since they actively headhunted you from the competition to begin with.
