Bell Helicopter Reviews

Pros

Rewarding and satisfying. Growth potential and the ability to make your own carreer.

Cons

Delivery times of sub contractors.

Advice to Senior Management

Promote more growth from within.

Pros

Good pay and benefits
Good top management
Quality development programs
Well developed long range plans
Opportunities for growth

Cons

Unwieldy systems that are being consolidated into a fewer number of independent business systems
Transitioning from old style military contractor environment to modern aviation provider

Advice to Senior Management

Keep the full scope of the workforce in mind while developing strategies.

Pros

Pay is comparable to anything else in the metroplex. Time off policies for engineering are flexible. Lot of tough technical problems that need solutions.

Cons

It seems that nobody ever gets fired from Bell. Those members of engineering that are technically weak or lack ambition are usually the first promoted to chief/manager/director positions. Promoting your poorest employees in an effort to get them out of your functional groups has caused the engineering managers to make some of the most fundamentally incorrect decisions related to quality and new product & manufacturing process development.

Advice to Senior Management

Bell Sr. management needs to learn that in modern business, it's acceptable and even healthy for you to fire under-performing mid-level managers. Politics are one thing, but when it's healthy and right for you to dismiss employees you should do it. Approximately 30% of your workforce couldn't find a managers job a McDonald's, but you continue to step over the issue.

Pros

Great vacation policy and good health coverage round out a competitive salary. The company and employees really care about the product. Advancement in the sense of titles is given on a good schedule to keep the employee engaged.

Cons

A growing MBA culture is beginning to build an impenetrable wall for the technical employee in the sense of real organizational movement.
External MBA or other advanced degree candidates are given preference over internal promotion, limiting the opportunities for growth within the organization.
Exceedingly political from top to bottom.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't consider the advanced degree more than you do the person's knowledge of the company and their experience in it. Internal employees often have great ideas of how they could improve things, but get snubbed in organizational advancement. This leads to widespread poor morale and stagnant process improvement.

Pros

Great advancement opportunities, surrounded by some of the most intelligent people in the world.

Cons

Trouble with communication between departments occasionally.

Pros

Strong products, excellent customer service

Cons

Union workforce including professionals in the office. Management believes in do it my way or leave.

Pros

Reliable products, #1 Customer Support, good supply chain,encourages self-improvement through company sponsored academic courses and provides tuition assistance for continued education. New ELT management hopefully will lead the company further into the 21st century.

Cons

Poor management decisions have left the company with a reduced portfolio of commercial products and an extremely diminished participation in the world market. Does not properly exploit or market our accomplishments.

Advice to Senior Management

Inject new life into the company via new products that can be brought to market in a reasonable time.

Pros

Flexible hours when needed, management will work with you on schedule issues, average health benefits, average starting salaries for area (no comparable companies here); average sick time and holidays

Cons

No chance for advancement; no bonuses; raises and pay below average for aerospace; noisy environment inappropriate for critical thinking; micromanagement (some managers); no training opportunities in technical or business areas; restrictive job boundaries; too many people overseeing the work and too few doing the work

Advice to Senior Management

Be less average.

Pros

Bell is a small company in the aerospace world and appears to have less of the entrenched bureaucracy of the larger aerospace companies.

Cons

Many of the facilities, methods, and procedures are showing their age. To Bell's credit, some changes and updates are currently under way.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to review and update engineering and manufacturing methods/procedures to ensure their applicability to modern material systems and manufacturing methods.

Pros

Most co-workers great to work with
Hours were flexible for a few people
My immediate HR manager was great to work with

Cons

Higher HR management does not have a clue of what is going on
While I was there, I have seen no less than 7 people walked out. People who has been working in HR for many years.
New management has decided to manage by fear.
Toxic environment in the HR department
High stress and long hours with Management that does not care about people

Advice to Senior Management

Start treating people like they are human. Give recruiters the tools to do their jobs. You cannot have an toxic environment and think that people will do their best for you.