Alion Reviews

Pros

-Very collegial and flexible hours
-Competitive pay
I worked with a great team of people led by competent mid-level and senior managers. Most people were very smart and enthusiastic.

Cons

-Few advancement opportunities
-A tendency to get stuck working on the same project/group of projects for a prolonged period -- not enough flexibility to move around and work with different people and different problems

Advice to Senior Management

Provide more opportunities for advancement and lateral movement to allow employees a break in routine. Otherwise, everything else is great.

Pros

Pay can be great. Worker level employees are great, and first line management is pretty good; however, above the Division level the positive aspects deteriorate significantly.

Cons

Work-Life balance is not valued. Living in the past where telecommuting is concerned. Due to financial issues, they are laying off employees that are needed, forcing everyone else to do even more work. They should find more efficient ways to cut costs.

Advice to Senior Management

Value and respect your employees more, they work hard, but are underappreciated. Start by hiring people who are actually qualified and capable of performing their job and then treat them with the respect they deserve.

Pros

Good pay
Good work / life balance
Interesting work
Alion has some of the best technical people in the industry
Good benefits and support for education - industry conferences depending on office/location.
HR is respectable.

Cons

The character of a kingdom emanates from the character of the king. Upper management knows how to kill a good thing. This company made its bread and butter going after congressional earmarks. Now that those are a no-no, Alion is struggling to transition to a value added organization. Company has been described as "Carpet Baggers". They typically don't invest in bricks and mortar offices because they are only around as long as the earmark contract lasts. Will only keep employees if they have another contract where they can be used.

Upper management is either stupid or evil from the top down. "Employee owned" but I think that is concentrated in the hands of a few upper managers. No path for advancement into anything. Corporate offices (contracts, AP, purchasing) seem incompetent because of lack of management understanding of fundamental needs and vision for moving forward.

Company seems entrenched in the good-ol-boy network in government and military to the detriment of the taxpayer. Smaller more agile companies could provide much better service with the same people and resources.

Advice to Senior Management

I sincerely don't think advice will help. I think there have been conscious choices made at the top or there are character issues with several top managers that have resulted in a disconnect between management and reality. Company is way to top heavy for its own good. Program offices end up in turf battles because upper management doesn't have a good vision or plan.

Pros

Flexible time off. Management is hands-off.

Cons

As contractors, half of our pay is taken by the company. No good benefits. I'm actually a sub-contractor with a temp agency, and there is no move to bring anybody on full-time. We're disposable. Main manager more concerned with book keeping than employees. He makes me do menial tasks, even though I am a chemist, because somebody with a higher pay-grade occasionally performs those tasks.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat people with respect, bring us on as full employees and either give us decent benefits or stop taking so much from what the EPA pays you.

Pros

Great environment
Wonderful co-workers
Outstanding ability to work with next-gen technology

Cons

Bad investments made my top-level management

Pros

Extremely flexible work schedule,

remote work that is actually effective and painless no real difficulties involved by being a remote employee

Interesting projects

Cons

Lacking in benefits for half time workers

As this is a government contracting agency can be difficult to secure funding

Advice to Senior Management

The orientation for remote workers kind of throws you to the wolves, as HR assumes you are going to be tied into a local group, it's not horrific but it takes some getting used to

Pros

I worked for Alion for 7 years and I was truly nurtured from entry level into a senior level analyst.
-Great opportunities, when paired with the right manager
-Great pay and benefits

Cons

When working on client sites, employees are not a priority.
Clients needs seem to prevail, and your voice is limited.

Pros

Some of the best reasons to work at Alion include a great culture of teamwork, focus on data-based practices, and value of solid research capabilities.

Cons

In my own experience with Alion, most of the communication was done virtually, which can be both a benefit and a challenge at times.

Pros

-brilliant people within the organization that inspire you to learn more and continuously improve
-employees, for the most part, are responsive and supportive, working hard together in order to keep things moving
-operational growth presented some meaningful and challenging work with good visibility and potential for upward mobility
-online classes and training

Cons

-quality of life suffers when you're always playing catchinig up
-managment is out of touch, under pressure or simply doesn't have the mechanisms (budget) to properly deal with work overflow. instead they reserve to being pushy and rude to get results.
-administrative procedures are often outdated or not communicated adding to overall confusion
-outdated use of technology

Advice to Senior Management

-hire entry level staff to handle overflow or busy work, interns can be a good fit for some support/research or admin roles
-have an internal assessment (anonymus surveys on the intranet?) to identify productivity hurdles and leverage skills and capacity
-provide staff with access to better technology. 2010 MS Office Suite is standard for today's workplace and has a lot of advanced tools- using 2007 email is counterproductive.
-boost morale with team activities, involvment from senior managment is important
-there's a lot of promise and interesting work- but the company will continue to struggle with structural strength if employees' loyalty and satisfaction are overlooked

Pros

- Great workplace camaraderie
- Emphasis on workplace and contractual ethics
- Support and recognition from supervisors

Cons

- No clearly defined path to advancement
- Senior leadership may be too aggressive in acquisition and growth instead of focusing on reputation and performance as an engineering and R&D source.

Advice to Senior Management

- More transparency in plans for path forward
- Cut back on perks and expenses for senior corporate positions