Everyone hits a ceiling at Third Bridge and I don’t just mean in terms of pay and title. I believe that even the SVPs at the company who began at entry level have hit a ceiling - mainly as a result of lack of top down trust. For example, some aren’t trusted with P&L / budget. Empower your leaders more - actions vs words!
If the people are the beating pulse of Third Bridge, the company itself and its leaders have absolutely zero read on this pulse. As a result they do a really poor job of succession planning / planning in general. Third Bridge is 100% a Reactive organization.
Pay isn't great. You don’t realize it until you leave but every single Team Leader in connections is vastly underpaid. With 10+ direct reports they might even command 1.5X elsewhere. Bonus and compensation is re-structured every 6 months – ensuring no continuity and no belief that a comp system introduced to employees will even last. KPIs used to measure bonus are sometimes very vague.
There is no accountability across both junior and senior management. Everyone likes to pass the blame. Many of the leaders in Third Bridge Connections who have been around for years are ultimately responsible for the great talent that has been lost over the past 5-10 years.
The CEO is not a very public figure within Third Bridge and hiring other senior leadership figures seems to have come at the cost of his own voice. There is a lack of presence here. (Purely my opinion)
There is also a lack of innovation - Third Bridge could have built a dedicated survey team 3-5 years ago. The competition is gaining a bigger foothold in general and it seems there is more specialized hiring at competitors. Third Bridge now has an innovation team (brand new)
Not very Employee-centric - In a client servicing industry that requires after-hours work, Third Bridge Connections seems to miss obvious opportunities to give back to their employees. For example, many clients do not work between Christmas and New Years and yet no break during this period is afforded. Also, it is a poor tactic to dangle half-days on the condition that targets are hit (and then not offer them if those targets are missed). It just annoys people and is ineffective regardless of outcome.
