Balfour Beatty (United Kingdom) Reviews

Pros

Great training initatives, good close knit team, support from staff on and off site is great.

During placement year I was really allowed to progress, by the end of the placement I was undertaking a number of big (for placement year) responsibilities. I was intergrated fully into the site team and welcomed from the very begining.

The HR & training teams allowed me to attend serveral training courses I thought would be left until becoming a full time employee, but from earliy on they were investing in my development.
- week long Site Surveying Course, 4 star hotel paid for, food & travel expenses
- during placement completed level 3 NVQ allowing progression to Gold CSCS
- CSCS test and card paid and organised by Balfour Beatty

All work travel expenses paid, which is a huge help when working in london, travel card £300+ a month!!

Good social scene and atmosphere between all areas of the company I came into contact with.

Most importantly I was able to learn a great, great deal during my placement year from the experienced people I was able to work with. Built hugely on the theoretical knowledge from university and lots of opportunities to put it into practice. Whilst working on the project I was considered a full member of the site team, not as 'the uni student' to be kept to simple tasks. I was given as much work as could handle and able to work using my own initative regularily (not constantly checked and monitored) which gave me a great feeling of trust.

Whilst there I had great feed back from the site team, project office team, and the project director on my progress.

It was a great working year and I have recently been offered a graduate position once completing my degree, which I accepted straight away. If you have the opportunity to carry out a placement with Balfour Beatty I would strongly accept it, not just on site though. Through the friends I met at the company also on placements based off site they feel the same way.

Cons

- Due to the nature of the job you may need to work additional hours without overtime, but the salary you recieve takes this into account and any person in a managment position on site needs to accept this.
- You may get moved about as projects are completed or to where you are needed most, but I like this aspect of the job.

Advice to Senior Management

System of training for placement students very good, but sometimes problems arose with double booking of courses due to communication break down. e.g. Project Director informed training dept. that staff on our site unable to go during busy project period, a month later training dept. book several of us on courses we cannot attend.

Pros

Knowledge and Sharing collaboration is second to none

Cons

Lack of appreciation of lower staff by management in Group IT

Advice to Senior Management

Need some organisation redesign of Group IT and management

Pros

Diversity of work good, Being mostly working from construction site means flexibility of hours.

Cons

Not recognised for efforts, Next to no employee development and appraisal system does nothing more than used up an hour of your time.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your employees as individuals not as numbers. Award individuals that do well and achieve or exceed goals.