Alliant Techsystems Reviews

Pros

Great boss. Great place to live.

Cons

ATK has lost contracts of late. We need more contracts.

Pros

Proud to help our military by manufacturing small arms ammo.

Cons

Very poorly managed.
Employees are allowed to switch from one job to another in less than 6 months, resulting in many people who barely learn a job, or carry responsibility before moving on.
HR sides with management...always. If employee reports to HR, they are retaliated against by the manager.
Horrible company culture at this location..
They play this game to 'Recognize Revenue' by briinging in raw materials, charging the Government back for it before product is built.
The best thing that could happen to Lake City is if another contractor took over operations.
Please get some decent managers in here.
Understaffed IT department resulting in company critical applications being written in Access and excel spreadsheets.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a good hard look at what is going on. Make some decisions, please.

Pros

9/80 work schedule is great

Cons

not enough room for movement within company

Advice to Senior Management

increase lateral movement within the company. Be sure to communicate information flow between departments and share the technologies and best practices learned.

Pros

Supports the safety of the United States of America

Cons

Limited management vision, too many gimmicks

Advice to Senior Management

Value your people more so they don't bail out on you

Pros

Pay, benefits if salaried, generous PTO for certain employees

Cons

Lack of real communication from corporation
Secretive upper management
Dishonesty regarding job security
Unethical behavior in certain individuals especially HR

Advice to Senior Management

Treat everyone the same regardless of division. Give people some warning prior to a layoff to help them make arrangements for their family. Be direct and honest regarding intentions. Stop acting as if money is the only thing that matters. Mean it when you say the company is in business for our military.

Pros

Exciting opportunities to be involved in aerospace projects.
Good pay and benefits.
Safe work environment.

Cons

Management of corporation treats employees very impersonnally.
The aerospace industry is facing difficult business climate with fewer opportunities.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the emphasis on quality, safety and focusing on the customer.
Remember to appreciate your employees. They are your most valuable asset.

Pros

Nice office space in the Mesa Arizona facility

Cons

There's a culture in the mesa, Az office that thrive in the desire to managment people by fear. If mistakes happen which in any orgazation they do, manager will reprimand or fire the person that made the mistake. Also the company is very volitial and have had several round of layoff since 2009.

Advice to Senior Management

Encourage employee to makes mistake and learn in the process.

Pros

There is no so much overhead like in other government contractors of similar size. System engineers and engineers have good communication. Requirements are flown down very efficiently and engineers' progress monitored with available help if needed. Good pay, Good benefits, great knowledgeable people to work with. I feel, I learn enough interesting subjects at my work.

Cons

There are no so many technologies being developed in Clearwater. Therefore, if their products get replaced by competitors', they will run out of big chunk of business.
Typical training ethics garbage, employees have to take like at any other government contractor.

Advice to Senior Management

Overall, good job. Try to diversify people skill wise so they can switch between different projects. Do not share projects between facilities that are thousands miles apart from each other while you can not move people from one project to anouther at same facility. Try to make employees' skills more diverse although I see attempts of it but it is not enough.

Pros

Very good benefits; respects personal life

Cons

Very impersonal at the corporate level

Pros

Diversified conglomerate offers hope with exciting technologies that sustained growth is in the future but the leadership is not likely to be successful. There are some real shining stars in the middle management ranks.

Cons

There is a glass ceiling at ATK. Retired Senior govt officials get senior jobs no matter of skill set. They dont promote from within. No team approach anwhere in the organization. Not enough space to elaborate on the amount of down side.

Advice to Senior Management

Open your eyes to talent and work to expand the contributions of each employee. Human capital drives most firms. Managerial hubris is at work here - try to not be so arrogant. ATK is good at winning business and horrible at implementing programs, achieving customer satisfaction and balancing the needs of all the organizations stakeholders of customers, shareholders, suppliers and employees. Senior leadership team does not work well together and it shows.