Battelle Memorial Reviews

Pros

Great leaders, great colleagues, great work environment, great mission, great history, and opportunity to assist those who are on the front lines, opportunity to assist decision makers in all sectors of government and industry.

Cons

Large organizations have inertia in directions that seem to make it difficult to change course in a timely fashion or to be responsive to emergent needs on a broad front involving relevant product lines or global businesses.

Advice to Senior Management

Battelle has the talent and resources to take a couple of pages from Steve Jobs, analyze the past performance of the company in each epoch (three, four, five or ten year periods) then ask the question where should a large infusion of talent, time and vision go to make a big difference in our society. This effort should include IRR and BVentures and cross cut all PLs and GBs..

Pros

You can get better pay if you look elsewhere. They still have a pension plan, decent 401K, and "OK" medical/dental benefits.

Cons

Too much middle management, no warning for layoffs, no recognition/compensation for good work; to get promoted you have to know the right people as it is not based on your performance. Morale is always low in the workplace (salary freezes, layoffs, fear of losing job.)

Advice to Senior Management

Put the managers to work; ever heard of "working" managers, Do you really need to have so much management?

Pros

There are still many great people at Battelle and there is still some very interesting/challenging/unique work.

Cons

This review is really only for the last 12 months. Prior to that, the organization was good to me for a long time. But hubris of the executive committee is high and leading to some very bad decisions, which are rippling through the organization. As a result of their choices, some very strange people have been hired in high level positions.

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership needs to change dramatically before any advice might be considered.

Pros

Good science facilities and interesting projects. Battelle has a solid reputation doing government science and technology work. Battelle is very ethical and thorough in its research.

Cons

Battelle idolizes hierarchy. It claims to be in the business of innovation but is just the opposite. Everyone feels the need to have permission to do anything, and managers are risk averse.

There is no vision. There is no leadership. Just management.

Battelle is a throwback to the modernists of the enlightenment. Management believes that they are smarter than everyone else, and that the organization can be managed like operating a steam engine. They ignore productivity advancements, for example their use of IT is a joke. They can't even operate a library system or even write an efficient app for submitting electronic timecards. Their cost-cutting efforts have incurred higher costs, as mid-level managers do as their told, with no understanding as to why. So they apply the direction incorrectly. Advancements in organization are just as thoroughly ignored. Senior management seems to believe it's running one of Gordon Battelle's refineries.

Finally there is panic among senior leadership, as they effectively put their eggs in one basket under Kohrt: government contracting. As gov't work decreases, so will Battelle's revenue. They have no courage to pursue commercial R&D, and no insight how to do it effectively anyway. They won't hire true innovators and producers b/c those people don't follow management blindly.

Advice to Senior Management

Apply that code of ethics to yourselves.

Pros

Battelle does very interesting and unique work. As a scientist who does not want to do lab work I love my job.

Cons

Even in the few years I'll been at Battelle I've seen some pretty bad changes.
1. We used to have unlimited sick days which is great if you have health issues. Battelle now has a PTO system (we have a set number of days off which includes holidays, sick and vacation). When you do the math we now have the equivalent of sick two days, after that it eats into your vacation. This drastically dropped moral. Other contractors' PTO system is much more generous.
2. The recognition and compensation system is not set up for analysts, so even if you are brilliant at your job it will only increase your raise a few tenths of a percent. I could write a whole essay on this.
3. I don't have much contact with Battelle. I like that my managers don't micromanage but it sometimes feels like I have to play the role of assistant project manager in addition to my role as an analyst because my PM is MIA.
4. I could get paid more elsewhere.

Advice to Senior Management

Please, please, please change the review system! I want to be reviewed for the work I do. If I do excellent work that should be reflected in my compensation. Right now I have no incentive other than my own work ethic to perform well. You will loose a lot of good people this way and unfortunately most people will stop performing as well. Also, analysts are not business development mangers. If we bring in business we should be rewarded, not punished for not doing so. The best business strategy is making clients happy so there is repeat business, this should be valued and not overlooked.

Pros

Diversity of projects and ability to work on projects of national/international significance.

Cons

Project funding can be a nightmare.

Pros

-its a job (it is a tough market out there)
-pretty solid benefits (still have a pension in addition to 401k)

Cons

In a word: incompetent. Inability to contain costs results in staff being tasked to do the impossible with minimal resources and to get it done by yesterday... I should also mention that this company will not hesitate to throw you out with the trash the second they hit a slow period.

Pros

Battelle is the most ethical company that I've ever worked for, and I was always proud to call myself a Battelle employee.

Cons

Battelle does contract work for other companies, so your employment is dependent on Battelle's success in winning and keeping those contracts. I left Battelle when it lost the contract for the government project that I worked for. (Battelle would have found another Battelle job for me, but I couldn't move to another state at that time.)

Pros

- Fair salary.
- Competitive benefits.
- Pleasant work environment.
- Pride in the civic contributions made by Battelle.
- Solid reputation in Columbus.

Cons

- Job security is not what it once was.
- Inefficient management structure - micromanagement.
- Although salary and benefits have historically been good, these are being reduced.
- Equivalent "for-profit" companies have a more generous bonus/incentives and/or stock options/profit sharing.

Advice to Senior Management

- What works for a quasi-government operation, does not work for a commercial operation - management needs to decide AND communicate where Battelle is heading.
- Excessive management structure - save costs there.
-T he matrixed management structure is complicated and inefficient - we need to eliminate levels of management for quicker response to client needs, proposal requests, and development/innovation. Scientists/engineers to be more empowered and incentivized to increase productivity and drive new products/innovations.

Pros

money is nice
benefits are decent but they were being reduced as you read this

Cons

no deal breakers...they are very good with work/life balance issues

Advice to Senior Management

stay out of trouble Jeff!