Belcan Corporation Reviews

Pros

Good starting place to put on your resume. Your tasks can be good to get an idea of the corporate environment.

Cons

You work wherever they place you but have to remain imployed by them regardless of where your position is at. They can change you any moment so you have to be very flexible. They are always on your back too to make sure "their client is happy". Could be good or bad depending on how independent you like to be.

Pros

The projects did have a level of complexity that challenged engineers intellectual capacities. P&G projects were the most interesting from a pure engineering standpoint.

Cons

Zero lack of accountability from upper management. Never accountability from the top down, where the decision making power rests, always from the bottom up.

Advice to Senior Management

Try putting people before profits and see how that impacts the bottom line. Once upon a time loyalty was initially owned by the corporation which , in turn, fostered longevity from employees.

Pros

- Life balance (7:30-4pm job)
- Flexible work week (you could work 4 10hr. shifts if approved by CAT/Belcan manager)
- OT available if approved
- Good opportunity to learn CAT systems and products
- Great place to start your engineering career
- Good benefits package
- 2 weeks of vacation from the first year
- Moving bonus

Cons

- Poor management/worker communication (Belcan management has no idea what you do)
- Performance reviews are done by Belcan management that once again does not know what you do on daily basis (kind of insulting)
- Underpaid when compared to other CAT engineers
- No bonuses or rewards for hard work
- Poor company culture (no dedication to workers)
- Common security clearance issues with CAT systems
- Only 3 sick days per year (better stay healthy)

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate to your engineers more frequently and oversee their projects instead of just counting heads and collecting money from CAT

Pros

-Great health benefits (medical+dental...no vision) and decent premiums. Low deductibles.
-Flex time. Meaning if you are there 10-2 you are good. Can work four 10s and gone on friday if you want.
-Most managers are ok with leaving work for family needs.
-No requirement for OT. Paid OT is allowed but recently taken away. Nice paycheck padder.
-Great people to work with. Really.
-Can pretty much get away with anything. Management is not very observant.
-Work can be interesting and then it sometimes can be mind numbing.
-If you are there for a while, job security is great.

Cons

-Pay is only good if you work a lot of OT. Other than that, its pretty dismal. Raises are on an exponential curve. They have a target for you and raises are big when you start and reduce to virtually nothing. Went 2.5 years without a raise. This is at the same time of major capital investments on the facilities.
-Work load comes and goes. Place is all about how billable you are. If work slows then OT goes and then people start disappearing. This is just due to the fact that work is dependent upon government contracts and work coming in from other companies.
-Management is not very observant.
-No bonuses and performance awards (while they exist) are few and far between.
-Facilities are cruddy. They are renovating now though...
-Employee turnover is pretty high. Your friends dont say at "the can" for very long.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen. You need to pay your employees more consistent with competitors otherwise (as you see) you are losing employees left and right. Pay attention to the bright employees and reward them. You can give the cruddy raises to the ones who don't pull their weight. New employees shouldn't be hired in at higher rates than your more experienced employees are already making. Diversify your work load so its not so up and down. I guess its not a matter of if I approve of the way (the late) Ralph Anderson is running the company but how Ralph feels about his kids running his company. All that being said, its a decent place to work. Work there for a few years and then go to GE.

Pros

It has big companies as clients

Cons

No professional growth, no fair pay, no reviews, the management does not listen to any of its employees grievances. They treat you like cattle.

Advice to Senior Management

Please listen to your employees about their problems, recognize their capabilities for performing better at their jobs. Penny pinching every employee does not benefit the company.

Pros

They pay an average salary but they are located in a very cheap area. They work as consultants so the employee will interact with big companies like CAT

Cons

They ask employees to show loyalty but they do not share the same value. The job description that they provide is not accurate. It is highly inflated.

Advice to Senior Management

leadership skills are missing. The employer-employee relation is missing. Employees will jump the ship at first chance so they have to work to stop this

Pros

only way to get foot into door of well established employers

Cons

temporary agency with low pay

Pros

- If you are not from US, they will take care of H1b and support the info for the Green card.
- That's it.

Cons

- You will have to pay for the expenses for the GC.
- Very low salary
- Bad benefit package
- Zero chance to grow and promote
- too many

Advice to Senior Management

As long as it's related to money and benefit, the manager will say NO. Anything else he will take to you all day long without letting you do the job.

Pros

The pay can be decent if negotiated properly. Many of the Engineers or Analysts utilizing Belcan for a contract position are excellent.

Cons

Belcan has below average benefits for paid holidays (6), vacation (Zero as a contractor, 1 week earned monthly as a "direct employee"), ability to gain a pay increase (none for the past 3 years), no healthcare benefit (you do have some as a "direct employee), no matching on the 401k as a contractor.

Poor access to forms and procedures except to log onto their employee site at a Belcan office (on your time, not paid) for simple forms for the 401k & the actual Belcan employee handbook.

You are not given access to the "Statement of Work" that you work under at a client company and thus do not know if you are fulfilling what the client really wants you to do and you are paid for. This makes your work be judged by the client on criteria you know very little about. This makes it hard to succeed and thus get a possibility of being hired directly by the client company.

Advice to Senior Management

It would be a huge improvement if communication and pay increases would be allowed again. It appears that the Belcan Regional office Managers and Recruiters pay is based on criteria that if not re-evaluated, will continue to creat ongoing inequities between the Managers/Supervisors and the people hired to do the jobs that create the revenue for ALL. This is for job satisfaction, development, and pay.

Pros

Belcan works greatly with your personal schedule. If something suddenly comes up and you need to take the rest of the day off, 99% of the time it won't be a problem. Because Belcan caters to entry-level persons and retirees, the experience for entry-level employees is great. Your manager/co-worker could have worked for 30+ years for your customer and has great insights for the entry-level employee to learn. It is a great company to get professional experience for those first couple of years fresh out of college, or if you recently retired and want some easy work to keep you busy, Belcan should be right for you.

Cons

Belcan works as a contractor by being awarded outsourced jobs from major corporations (GE and Pratt/Whitney are Belcan's biggest source of work). Outsourced work, in my opinion, is very dull, basic, and plain boring. It a nutshell, this work is commonly referred to as b**** work. But, Belcan makes money, and you will soon find out that that is all that matters. You will travel, if at all, once a year to your customer's location. For the rest of the year, you will be at your cubicle at least 8 hours a day. Because of the nature of outsourced work, the work and projects become very, very repetitive. Upper management typically only sees your performance through a survey completed by your customer. Other sources of grading performance are your co-workers and manager's feedback. If you want to move up within the company, it is highly recommended to work at the Headquarters in Cincinnati, Ohio. Yearly raises consist of small percentage increases. (If you have been working at Belcan for 2 years, it is almost guaranteed that a new hire will be making more than you).

Advice to Senior Management

Offer more travel opportunities for your Engineers every couple of months so they can experience life away from the dreaded cubicle. Include large salary increases for applicable employees.