Battelle Memorial Reviews

Pros

Battelle has been, and will always be about the people who work here. They dont sell products, they sell the experience of the people and the ability to solve tough problems. The corporate mission, while sometimes lost amid the drive for profit, is to make the world a better place. This is what keeps most people here.

Cons

Battelle has been insulated from the ups and downs of the market for years, but not any more. The reality of how the markets impact our business, even without shareholders, has hit very hard over the last 5 years and Battelle is just learning how to react. To remain relevant in the market, Battelle is challenged to find ways to reduce costs without just cutting the very assest we sell, our staff.

Advice to Senior Management

Open communication is critical to leadership. Emphasize the mission, not the money, and the staff will listen. We are driven by the mission and the ability to do great things, not %TW .

Pros

Amazing depth and breadth of technical expertise. THIS is what sets Battelle apart from the competition-- the ability to bring top-notch technical talent to bear on the most challenging government and commercial problems.

Cons

It is difficult to not mirror other reviews. Poor long term planning, colossal internal project over-spends, and chasing short-term financial carrots (including ridiculous VP-level incentive goals) result in a volatile, pins-and-needles work environment. Technical staff have been turned into hamsters on the time-worked wheel, with little time for development or growth outside of project work. New grandiose yet vacant buildings, nonsensical "synergies" between product lines, and poorly implemented enterprise management systems (read: VP / CxO "vision") have all been sinks to Battelle's bottom line, while core technical activities keep us afloat. But barely. And at the cost of long term staff satisfaction, technical growth, and Battelle's position as a preeminent technical powerhouse.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to business development and technical staff who have the pulse of the domains in which they work. Short term financial goals are important, but not at the cost of long-term sustainability. Work to relieve your staffs' continual fear of RIFs and time worked, not by saying "there's no need to be worried" (until the next monthly report), but by 1) identifying and 2) addressing the root causes.

Pros

Benefit package second to none
compensation very good

Cons

No assistance in helping employee's who lose coverage find a job
Not tapping into marketing area's for more opportunies and contracts

Advice to Senior Management

Pay attention to what's available to keep good employee's employed

Pros

Benefits are strong although they were recently cut

Cons

Do not take care of employees who take overseas assignments
No oversight
No vision
No communication
Extremely political
Wasteful with Government and Taxpayer money
Worst employee experience in my 20 years

Advice to Senior Management

Stop worrying about your paychecks and take care your employees

Pros

In general, interesting projects. Compensation and benefits seem to be ok. The move to PTO seems to have been industry-wide.

Cons

Too many good 'ol boy circles. No goodies for anyone outside those circles. Excessive layers of management at Battelle.

The re-worked benefits package was definitely discouraging. The PTO system really penalized everyone. If abuse was the issue, deal with the abuse, don't penalize everyone. That's management failure.

The organization doesn't seem to realize that people with their ideas and innovations are the engine that propels Battelle. Instead, people are viewed as resources. Instead of laying off scientists and engineers, reorganize, retrain, reassign those people. Eliminate the blotted layers of management and useless staffers instead.

Battelle seems to have forgotten how to innovate. I keep hearing about how Battelle invented the Xerox process. I think that was 50 years ago. What has Battelle done since? Battelle has been living off of federal government funding for so long, I don't know what will happen now with federal funding drying up. I don't think Battelle has the ability to compete in industrial R&D anymore. Research has become very rigid and inflexible, requiring multiple management sign-offs for even the most insignificant changes. Battelle's motto, "The Business of Innovation", doesn't seem to apply any more.

Advice to Senior Management

Managers need to stop talking to only managers. That will definitely not lead to innovation. Talk to the troops. Get their ideas. Treat them like they have a brain. Re-engineer research processes to incorporate more flexibility and researcher input.

Pros

Interesting work, smart people. Good reputation in the defense community.

Cons

Management is going to run this place into the ground in short order.

Pros

1. Solid Reputation
2. Many talented people
3. Interesting projects
4. Benefits and pension and 401k are more than fair in the current economy

Cons

1. Very condescending attitudes from some (certainly not all) supervisors
2. Management clearly plays favorites; less than stellar performers continually rewarded and praised; less than "popular" staff often ignored even when performing at high levels;
3. Management claims to want staff to become "engaged" - but when suggestions are made, they are ignored;
4. Main end of year concerns are how to take enough PTO to make sure you don't lose it; projects take a back seat;
5. Clannishness and cliques are alive and well;

Advice to Senior Management

Stop promoting people based purely on tenure;
Don't assume everyone can be a manager;
Allow staff to make anonymous suggestions, therefore with no fear of retribution;
Allow staff to do anonymous performance reviews on their managers;
Develop a better understanding of what is really going on in the trenches;

Pros

Good pay and a fair number of diverse opportunities.

Cons

Poor management that has failed to see the value in retaining existing employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Learn the value of retaining employees

Pros

On site daycare, decent time off

Cons

Way too much management.
Management wont listen to staff.
Lack of foresite, reactive not proactive
Will smother you in the bureaucracy and squash great ideas

Advice to Senior Management

Management is clueless. There are 6-7 layers of VP's that do nothing but push paper and policy. They refuse to listen to staff in the trenches who are more aware of the needs of the projects.

get rid of about half of the manangement. Start listening to the engineers who actually do the work. Promote based on skill and ability and not who is kissing your hind ends!
Do away with the IC system and how much bonus you can collect.
Follow the same polices as everyone else. The attitude that the policies and rules are for everyone else and not management only make staff that much more angry.

Pros

Good benefits. Good pay. Fairly stable job. Battelle also has a good reputation which looks good on a resume. Depending on the department you work in you could be working on some very interesting projects.

Cons

Like a lot of others stated, management, leadership and vision score a zero. Even though you might work on an interesting project it was my experience that Battelle management and process sucked every inch of life and creativity out of it. The only way I (and many others) survived was to think of it as a paycheck and nothing more. The company is very soul-less and doesn't respect their employees one bit. Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere. There are plenty of other companies that will provide the same salary / benefits but offer a ton more of the intangible fulfillment one needs to grow and be successful. I'm just so glad I made it out last year.

Advice to Senior Management

Step aside and let folks that have the passion and a clue get back to the heart of what Battelle meant. There are (at least were) plenty of top notch, talented folks there but are unable to help their hopeless situation.