Vault’s Verdict

According to insiders, StoneTurn is fully delivering on its founders’  vision to create a company that could “provide a platform for professional growth, interesting and challenging opportunities and, at the same time, allow for a healthy work/life balance.”

While many firms profess to want the qualities laid out in that vision, actually achieving it starts with a culture that places employees at the center of the firm—something that certainly seems to be the case at StoneTurn. Insiders are effusive about the firm’s commitment to empowering individuals and creating growth opportunities wherever possible.

Of course, StoneTurn is still a consulting firm, which means that quality of life is never going to be perfect—particularly at a firm dealing in litigation support. But StoneTurn does have systems in place to mitigate the worst effects of these crunches, including a great deal of flexibility around remote working. While the firm is new to our survey this year, we look forward to seeing how it evolves and grows in the years ahead.

Firm Culture

“A company that delivers exceptional work product to its clients by supporting its employees and fostering genuine collaboration.”

“Extremely collaborative culture, empowering individuals and letting them grow while providing superior client service.”

“Our founders sought to build a firm that is ‘smart but fun’, and from what I can see, we have never strayed from that ethos.”

“The culture of StoneTurn sets the firm apart from the competition. I have never been in a group that is genuinely good people who wanted you to succeed because they truly believe that your success is a success for the firm.”

“Work-life balance and the emphasis they place on it. In consulting, it is very common to work extremely long hours and, consequently, for people to get burned out. I have had lengthy conversations with three partners at my firm; all of them have a desire not to outwork anyone, and all of them have made the (rather bold, I think?) claim that we all need vacations and that it is the company's desire not to intrude on, or in any way prevent employees from doing them.”

Quality of Life

“A negative part of consulting can be the challenging deadlines and working overtime. That being said, although it is a weakness the firm is great about balancing it out and allowing you flexibility to take time off whenever needed.”

“Best - focus on employee interests in assigning project work; opportunity for travel and leadership roles; ability to take unlimited vacation.

Worst - StoneTurn is quick to allow employees to take vacations, however, this can come at the expense of other employees, who often have to work longer hours making up the work. Like any consulting firm, client demands can drive work hours, often leading to long work hours when approaching a deadline.”

“I truly believe there is not a better firm out there from a quality of life aspect. That said, one has to understand how consulting works and realize there are times when you have to work very long hours and travel and there are times when your workload is very reasonable. The key is how leaders treat their staff and ensuring that their overall quality of life is good over the course of time. At StoneTurn, I am confident that our employees believe their quality of life is exceptional. We have unlimited PTO and folks are strongly encouraged to take time off. All that is asked is for timely communication in advance.”

“StoneTurn has an excellent flexible model that allows individuals to balance their personal and professional commitments. People support each other and work in a collaborative way to allow this to happen while meeting client commitments and deadlines. There is no PTO limitations. We travel as needed but it is not very frequent.”

“This firm emphasizes quality over quantity, period. Doing a good job and exceeding client's expectations is both expected and rewarded, and folks aren't pressured to be busy just for the sake of being busy or meeting some kind of profitability or utilization target, which is refreshing. I enjoy the fact that a smaller firm has less administrative work and red tape in general. It takes about a day to get an engagement letter, a client deliverable, or a piece of thought leadership out the door, whereas in Big 4 this could take days or weeks depending on the situation. Has been easy for me to take time off. I have worked a number of nights and weekends but the overwhelming majority of it has been by my own choice by making up time or trying to get ahead in anticipation of taking some liberties / flexibilities with my work week. Culturally this place is an A+ place to work.”

Compensation

“As a smaller company, the firm does not typically pay as competitively as our competitors. However, I believe that is made up in the work flexibility, collaboration, and quality of life.”

“Compensation is always a double-edged sword. We compensate fairly and have lower billable hour requirements for our people to build in more room for involvement with other firm management and business development activities at all levels. In turn, at some positions salaries are not as inflated as they may be at competitors, but it comes with a quality of life trade that is better overall. That can be misconstrued by some as salaries not being as competitive.”

“Our firm seems to pay slightly less than some of our competitors, but I believe we have better quality of life and work/life balance than our competitors as well. One issue is that we are currently very top-heavy with respect to high salaried employees and that seems like it may eat into the bonus pool at the end of the year.”

“The base pay limit and 401(k) contribution plans were not as good as other companies, but the option to be 100% remote was the finger on the scale for me.”

“Year-end bonuses are one of the best aspects of the firm's compensation package. While the firm is fairly transparent regarding compensation, it could be even better.”

Career Development

“An employee's adviser guides them through career development, semi-annual reviews, and promotion process. Therefore, a lot of development both personally and within the company comes down to one individual. If an employee has a great adviser (i.e., who cares, advocates on their behalf, has been with the company for a while and understands its internal processes, etc.), then it gives them a leg up on being in a great position within the company. Unfortunately, if an employee does not have an adviser with the previously described qualities, I've often seen these employees get left behind and overlooked.”

"Best - Provides support when undergoing career development initiatives. This includes time allocation and occasional financial support. Staff is expected to collaborate with other practice groups within the firm.

Worst - Firm does not seek opportunities for staff. Workers are on their own to seek opportunities that are applicable to their practice group or career goals. Staff is expected to collaborate with other practice groups because there are very few staff and senior staff when compared to upper management."

“Career development opportunities are extensive. The company offers the ability to partake in any development opportunities an individual is interested in outside of the firm, as well as a promoting a number of internal opportunities offered by the company. Outside opportunities are usually supported through work hours and compensated for by the company.”

“This is a small firm, so I do not expect the training and development opportunities to be what they were, at say, Deloitte. I am not familiar with the firm's promotion policies and I am not necessarily looking for a promotion, personally, in the short term. But I can say that people are getting promoted, and the people getting promoted around me deserve it.”

"While we do not have some of the formal training courses, we do provide numerous opportunities for our employees to attend outside trainings. We promote people based on merit, and when we think they are ready to be successful at the next level.”

Community Engagement

“D&I has been a very important priority for StoneTurn. As we are growing and hiring new talent, we are particularly focused on seeking out more diversity of our employee base. Within the firm we have committees focused on diversity and groups that promote such goals through a wide range of activities. All of our D&I efforts are genuine. Given our flat structure, D&I, as all other initiatives is driven by our own employees - as such it is driven with passion and persistence. I strongly feel, more than any of the other three companies where I have worked before, that StoneTurn indeed goes the extra mile to provide equal access to everyone. We recognize that diversity drives value and we strive to improve every step of the way.”

“Just started a few affinity groups after 2 years of pushing to get some kind of internal program. Hiring is still a factor - but everyone has the same access once in.”

“The firm expresses an extensive effort to make all races, ethnicities, and LGBTQ individuals welcome and part of the team. They also show great effort in equality training and awareness for all employees.”

“There are some efforts / surveys with stated goals to increase D&I - though it's unclear whether there are any notable results from those efforts. There seems to be good representation of women within the firm, as well as ethnicities. I am not aware of any LGBTQ+, veteran, or disabled colleagues within the firm - that doesn't mean that there aren't any - but the firm is small - only 175 people, so you can only expect so much diversity.”

“We are encouraged by leadership to seek a diverse workforce as hiring managers and have made a conscience effort to get our job advertisements posted in places where people of all stripes will see. The workforce that has come on board in the last 5 years is very inclusive, and diverse.”

Business Outlook

“Employee morale from my viewpoint seems to be worse. Forcing everyone back to the office, when other firms aren't and most of our teams are not co-located anyhow, seems to be driving this.”

“Given the diversity and nature of our services, we tend to ride out the economic cycle well. During time of prosperity, we are busy helping clients with expansion of their businesses. During an economic downturn, we are asked to help find out why costs are not managed well, investigative fraud, and help manage disruption risks. We are very well regarded by key enforcement agencies in the US and internationally. Employee morale is very high and is collaboration across the board. We are very well positioned to continue to thrive and grow organically and potentially through acquisitions as well. We are primarily employee owned, and we do not depend on external capital and any instability that might create.”

“I have a neutral to negative view of StoneTurn's outlook. The firm has been hyper focused on cost cutting and increasing utilization, so this does not create a sense that ‘all is well’. This could be the result of recent leadership changes as well. There has also been little to no communication/ transparency about the firm's outlook from its leaders, for example- What is our strategy? What is our five-year plan? I don't know.”

“Our new CEO is performing exceptionally in the role. Ensuring the company's culture is as good as it’s always been in a hybrid work environment is a challenge that most every company in the industry will face.”

“StoneTurn is small enough to be agile and has continued to expand into different geographies (e.g. Asia, Africa, Europe) as well as other service lines. As a smaller firm, we may not be as resilient to industry and economic fluctuations.”

Hiring Process

“Depending on the level being hired, the candidate will interview with an array of staff to ensure they are a proper culture fit with the team beyond their credentials and work experience. The recruiting team handles the callback process.”

"It is looking for someone with a personality that will mesh well with the upper-level members of the team; someone that brings something new to the table (i.e. data analysis expertise); someone that can think through a problem and speak clearly and concisely on it in front of people; someone, ultimately, that will stick around and grow with the firm. The interview process was great for me: it was clearly defined at the beginning and then we went through it quickly--all hiccups that prolonged the process were the fault of my own.”

“StoneTurn has a very well-structured and thoughtful recruitment process. Follow up is always prompt, the candidates consistently updated on the status. The key quality of each candidate we are evaluating is culture fit. From the entry level position to the lateral partner hires.”

“The firm seeks highly technically capable talent with significant drive, curiosity, and perseverance. A candidate with extensive experience in their specific field who can fill perceived gaps in the team expertise is ideal.”

“We have the best recruiters in the industry and I have come across many. They are thorough, transparent, and we treat candidates with respect. We look for people that are smart, but personable and looking for a place where they can feel rewarded both financially and personally.”

Interview Questions

“A great deal of the process is about how well the interviewee would fit within the team and also how capable they are to do the work. It is intentionally open-ended so the interviewee can articulate themselves why it is they think they are a good fit: if they have done work to prepare them for such a role, they will be able to give detailed, confident explanations. That is what we are looking for."

“Discussing background/experience, types of projects worked on, scenarios of conflict and how they were handled, professional certifications and credentials.”

“I ask individuals to describe a large data set that they've worked closely with. I then propose some scenarios related to the dataset that the candidate is familiar with and ask them how they would use common tools to get to certain answers about that data, with the focus on assessing attention to detail, technical aptitude, and distilling complex concepts into something digestible.”

“Our firm focuses our interviews largely on behavioral questions and questions regarding a candidate's interests, strengths, and development areas.”

“We use behavioral interviewing to assess the individual's past experience and how this experience can apply to current situations. We also look for individuals that promote our core values.”