Allonhill Reviews

Pros

This is for the DTC office. Not a bad location.

Flex hours between 7 and 6 during the week days, but if there's a holiday or snow day make it up on the weekend so you get your 40 hours in.

Cons

Upper management for this location is illusive and demanding, in spite of 1-2 emails saying they are available to all employees (uhm, ignore the closed door to their office and the fact that their phone is always in conference mode).

2nd level management (DDMs, SMEs) are so busy that they are rude to the 175 or so analysts and senior analysts; don't know their employees or their names; and are driven my production and reports. They hide in a conference room 80% of the time (all 5 DDMs so far who tend to act like children in a pack); the conference room is like a command station. Yet, they still have their glass offices. Two of the DDMs walk around yelling much of the time, not condusive to the detailed work that all of the analysts are demanded of.

Software/IT changes are so frequent it is impossible for training and documentation to be proactive. Communication of software changes is minimal (say - oh yah, you have a software update in 10 minutes and everyone has to stop what they are doing and re-enter the 4 hours or more of work they just entered without knowing the changes to the system). Analysts rarely get feedback on their work...and if they do, it is conflicting because their senior analysts are not trained on what feedback is necessary.

The CEO does come in and provide updates - once a month or so - and few can understand nor hear her due to a small space. Much less can they believe her. Most employees are "co-employees" for the duration of the contract - and who knows, that could end in a few months.

Some people are now working in small conference rooms. A bull pen for many. Others sit in a call-center type environment (oh...did I say...having to listen to screaming DDMs?).

Training is getting better thanks to a few. And a few others are trying hard to make things work. But they are getting burned out due to lack of understanding, feedback and overwork.

Don't work there unless you can forget about work when you go home at night. And DO work there if you like a caste-like environment.

There is a high fear-based motivation of workers.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more involved in the day to day aspect of your employees. Don't just smile and joke during one meeting every other month to show that you are alive and human.

Try not to get spread so thin with other projects that this one is just one more to put on your list of accomplishments.

Pros

Very few nice employees,which you can almost find elsewhere

Cons

- Lack of leadership
- Very high turnover rates, that's why they keep hiring, simply because a lot of employees leave within the first 3months.
- The CEO and the president treat employees so badly.
-The sales & marketing team lie to customers 24h/7.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop mispromoting Allonhill as "thought leadership". You're making a big fuss for nothing. I work there and I know how bad Allonhill is, how corrupt Allonhill's loan reviews are.
Be nice and polite with your employees.

Pros

Honestly, the only reason someone would work at Allonhill would be to get a salary. Candidates with high potential can easily find better opportunities in the Denver Metro Area.

Cons

Very incompetent management
No business ethics
Very unstable work environment
Very low salaries
Extreme backstabbing
No rewards

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on retaining your employees and actively listening to them. The suggestion box is being filtered by the marketing team, including very valuable, honest comments.
Be more honest with customers if you want them to select you as a vendor !

Pros

Allonhill truly wants innovative ideas and people to work there. They reward people who work hard and play the game. Opportunities aren't just given to you- you have to pursue them. Some of the people you will work with are wonderful and fun individuals that have strong knowledge about the Mortgage Industry.

Cons

Staff is underpaid for the job compared to other local companies. Sometimes it seems like a 'good old boys' network where it's all about who you know. If you work hard and do a good job, you won't always be recognized. Hard work is expected, great work is recognized.

Advice to Senior Management

it would be nice to see some more grooming from within. Managers are hired from the outside and are often lacking in the internal 'know-how'. If you expect people to want to work for Allonhill, start paying them. The current salaries are below industry average.

Pros

Initially believed in the company's mission statement to bring back accredibility to the mortgage industry.
Recognition is given to "time with the company" and social activities are given to include all employees.
If you love data entry and routine, an analyst is for you.

Cons

This company contracts the majority of their employees to mimimize costs. New teams in the DTC location experience micro-managing by having to submit daily reports accounting for every minute of work time....no kidding. Benefits are expensive with huge deductibles. Managers cannot answer one question about the work an Analyst performs nor can offer any support. Clients are promised quality reviews but the training is inadequate and not ongoing.

Advice to Senior Management

Take responsibilty and learn what your team is doing instead of micro-managing for control. Earn the respect of your team. Denver offices do not operate this way and it is a pleasure to work in that enviornment. Management and trainers need to do their jobs instead of doing multiple charts or sending emails in lieu of training.

Pros

When I first became employed by Allonhill I was very impressed with how respectful management were to employees/contractor workers in the downtown office. The owners and upper management were transparent and open to there employees/contract worker alike. I said to myself what a breath of fresh air! At that time I certainly looked forward to a long future with this company.

Cons

Complex work and not enough training (it’s do it yourself). A high level of micro-management has become the norm on a daily basis creating un-comfortable/untrusting work environment.
There’s high volume of work and more added daily. Management has grand expectation from workforce. DDM Managers do not respect the employees/contractors seem to only care about getting a high number counts on there reports, what about accuracy.? How short sided. I can imagine a continual revolving door if they don’t change there management.

Advice to Senior Management

Remove the negative DDM management you have hired for DTC project. Promote management from within who have completed a number of files successfully, that can answer questions that your worker need answers too and that are trustworthy. Break up all the click's and favoritism between DDM, Seniors and employees. Work toward a fair and honest level playing field for all. If your employees aren’t happy then you will not be success. It 's as simple as that!

Pros

This company is growing quickly and in this economy that's a plus.

Cons

Little praise or recognition for the number of hours required of managers, but any missteps are quickly pointed out and overblown.

Advice to Senior Management

Learn to recognize the managers that are doing all the work, not just the employees below management level.

Pros

Many of the people at Allonhill have a great understanding of finances and mortgages so if that is an industry you want to grow in or get into it's a good place to learn.

Cons

Even though the company makes heavy use of their due diligence software and sells it to their clients the leadership has no understanding of software, software development or technology in general. The IT/Infrastructure leadership was completely ignorant of too many things to list here. They also expect all software developers to work a minimum of 50 hours week. The only other group of employees required to work that much are senior leadership (execs) who get twice as much vacation leave as we do (15 days of combined vacation/sick leave). They are so stingy with their PTO that if you have to leave 1 hour early to pick up a kid or something they charge that as taking 4 hours off as a policy. In addition to all of this they had us working weekends on a regular basis with no incentive. I will take this time to say that my direct manager was great and tried his best to make my life better but the leadership above him made that impossible.

Advice to Senior Management

You should take a good look at the companies in Colorado that are rated highest in employee and customer satisfaction and start trying what they do. More importantly you should actually care about your employees instead of just giving lip service. Lastly, if you are going to have viable software product you should get a CTO that actually know what they are doing and budget more to software development than 40 inch monitors for some of your management or the useless things you get for infrastructure.

Pros

I have never seen so many individuals "give it their all" so to speak, the majority of employees take so much pride in working for Allonhill and are truly some of the most ethical and hardest working people I have ever had the pleasure of working with.

Cons

AH has a vision, however, the lack of direction, lack of clear leadership, and the acceptable levels of complete chaos is exhausting and deflating. There are no boundaries regarding work/life balance, you are simply always working, and never compensated or rewarded...maybe a hot dog or a cup cake here or there. Many words have been written on how AH cares so much about their people, however it is simply not true, they churn and burn their employees, and treat them like widgets.

Advice to Senior Management

My advise to the CEO is to take an objective look at who is running your business, and the amount of turn over you have had in the past 2 years. Often times you need to remove the coach of a failing team, not the team members themselves.