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Our Leaders
at all Levels

We make professional development a priority for our

3,600 STAFF

worldwide.

BACKGROUND

OUR
PEOPLE

OUR
DISCIPLINES

WHERE WE
WORK

OUR
VALUES

Voices of our Staff

 
 
 
 
Kavita Desai, Business Development Manager
 
 

EXPERIENCE ABT

Development opportunities at Abt engage staff at all levels, in all disciplines, across all our offices.

LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT

DIVERSITY

INCLUSION AND ACCESS

Abt's learning strategy ensures our employees benefit from:

  • on the job learning through stretch-assignments and diverse opportunities
  • network learning through peer-to-peer interaction and mentoring
  • formal training

We continually adapt our programs to meet the changing learning needs of our staff.

Our Peer-2-Peer Knowledge Sharing Network was inspired, designed and implemented by entry-level staff to share project-relevant knowledge and technical expertise across the company.

Active Learning

More than 7,000 e-Learning courses... technical workshops.., tuition assistance for employees pursuing a degree ... internal mobility opportunities

Internal Mobility

New ideas, different perspectives, aha moments. The opportunity to learn more about our extensive portfolio, get exposure to new clients and colleagues and use skills in new ways is at the heart of our internal mobility program. Our Mobility Marketplace enables employees seeking new assignments outside their divisions and departments to find opportunities across the firm. With two thirds of the assignments posted being client-facing work, and an almost equal distribution across entry-, mid- and senior-level employees, the Marketplace supports our goal of fostering leaders at all levels.

Staff from 30 countries participate in professional development opportunities offered by our Learning & Development team.

 

The Mobility Marketplace enabled me to strengthen key skills I don't use very often in my daily work within the Health and Environment division. I've taken multiple assignments within the Social and Economic Policy division where I honed my qualitative analysis abilities and learned about a completely new subject.


-Vanessa Ehrenpreis, Research Assistant, Division of Health & Environment, Durham, NC

The knowledge I gained on Lynda.com helped me improve my daily work of collecting, analyzing, and reporting data using different tools including Excel, MS SQL server, fulcrum and mobile data collection. I'm now able to connect Excel to databases, create complex graphs, pivot tables and macros to facilitate and automate reports.


-Juste Rwangalinde, Project Assistant, Rwanda Vector Control

The monthly talks on career development are a great resource for staff such as myself who are thinking of personal or professional growth. I'd totally recommend that everyone find some time in their busy schedules to attend at least one monthly presentation from the learning team.


-David Tim Njoroge, Finance & Administration Manager, AIRS Kenya

Learning Accounts

All full-time entry- and mid-level staff who work on projects are eligible to participate in a new professional development program we are piloting. Staff will have 40 hours in a Learning Account to pursue interests outside their project. We'll use the results of the pilot to inform and adapt our development programs.

Career Planning

Kathleen Flanagan, our president and CEO, has spent her entire career here, and she's one of many. People stay because they have the support and guidance they need to continue to grow. We use performance reviews and goal setting as a key career planning tool. One-hundred percent of eligible employees received performance reviews, a target we have achieved since 2015.

In addition, robust Career Profiles enable our employees to share career interests and aspirations, mobility desires, knowledge, skills and experiences beyond their resume. This dynamic tool helps connect staff to opportunities across the company.

 

Diverse teams deliver better solutions for our clients, and Abt celebrates different perspectives, cultures, expertise and points of view.

We make it a priority to fill senior roles with local talent, and we encourage our staff to help bring on talent that furthers our mission.

In the U.S., our senior-level leadership positions have consistently been held by a higher percentage of females than males in recent years. Women run our offices in the U.K and Australia. Twenty-three of 50 officers, 47 of the 90 highest ranking employees, and 64 percent of U.S. employees are female. Fifty percent of the Abt Australia executive team are women, exceeding industry norms.

In the 2018 Global Health 50/50 Report by the University College London Centre for Gender and Global Health, Abt came out tops for gender responsiveness of the 50 most influential global private-sector and consulting health organizations. The ranking was based on nine categories, including commitment to gender equality and programmatic gender strategy.

100% Talent: The Boston Women's Compact Abt is a Signatory of the 100% Talent: The Boston Women's Compact, an initiative to make Greater Boston the first area in the United States to eliminate the gender-based wage gap. As a Compact signer, Abt demonstrates our commitment to pay equity by reporting employee demographic and salary data. We also actively participate in sharing strategies and practices among the signatories to promote inclusion and eliminate inequities.

Abt was ranked 11th among the Top 100 Women-Led Businesses in Massachusetts by The Boston Globe Magazine and The Commonwealth Institute in 2017.

Military & Veterans

We actively recruit veterans, service members, transitioning military and their families to join our team. The number of veterans on our staff grew by 43 percent from July 2015 to April 2018.

We're a proud partner in the Army's highly competitive Training with Industry program, which places Army officers and senior enlisted soldiers in the private sector for up to one year. The soldiers develop corporate managerial skills that can benefit the Army when soldiers return to uniformed service.

Over the last five years, the number of applicants for positions at Abt increased by 500 percent.

Attracting and Retaining Talent
Our commitment to providing clients with quality research and program implementation begins with a workforce that meaningfully represents the diverse and culturally rich communities we serve.

Rehires: 13% of current employees are rehires

Retention: 84%

Everyone's voice is valued.

Employee Advisory Council

For nearly two decades, our Employee Advisory Council (EAC) has served as the voice of staff—connecting, representing and supporting employees.

The EAC is a vital communication link between staff and senior management, offering the employee perspectives on key issues.

Access to Senior Leaders

Staff have direct access to senior leaders through venues such as our monthly CEO Chats, quarterly roundtables and a general open-door policy. As part of our ongoing efforts to empower leaders at all levels, employees are encouraged to raise questions and offer ideas—fostering a culture of innovation.

Annual Employee Survey

We are data-driven, and our annual Employee Survey provides insight into how employees experience our organizational culture and alignment with our strategy. We use that data to effectively infuse our vision, strategy and goals into day-to-day work.

Annual Employee Survey
Source: Denison Consulting Circumplex

Participatory Engagement

Clark Abt, our founder, was an early advocate of participatory engagement. Employees are included in decision-making for major initiatives ranging from our five-year strategic planning process to enhancements to our annual performance reviews.

Staff were engaged substantively and early in the relocation and redesign of our two largest U.S. offices.
More than 400 employees participated; results shaped the design and workplace elements of new offices.