Black & Veatch Reviews in Kansas City, MO Area

Pros

There are many opportunities for career advancement at Black & Veatch.

Cons

Black & Veatch is working to create greater synchronicity between its various business divisions.

Pros

International presence and opportunities to work at international locations.

Cons

Professionals are often labelled and those perceptions are hard to change.

Pros

Good opportunities for advancement
Great pay
Competitive benefits package
Good company name recognition (could be beneficial if you choose to pursue a position with another company)

Cons

Management frequently out of touch with true level of effort required to complete projects.
Work/life balance "preached" but not "practiced" by a significant number of employees resulting ultimately in young emloyees burning themselves out and seeking lower-stress opportunities elsewhere.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to focus on employee training as we go through a period of rapid growth. Develop a program (training or an "advertising campaign") to help employees strike a better work/life balance.

Pros

Flexibility in setting working hours

Cons

Mgmt for team I was on didn't know how to encourage people so they would do a good job - everyone trying to get hired and culture was fear of being let go
Very behind the times in sharing information
Minimal training and job aids

Advice to Senior Management

Put some focus on sharing information using SharePoint - this will help with the turnover coming up to speed quicker

Pros

Great work place and people

Cons

large company, not
 always busy

Pros

They will hire you right out of school. A good place to get 3 years of experience and then move on. That is the only positive I can think of at this time.

Cons

Where do I begin?

B&V is without a doubt the most incompently run company in America. Senior (Mis-)Management has no clue how to run a business. If I could have given Morale a negative number, I would have done so. They are very good at locking a person down at a certain level and marooning them there.

I tried on several occasions to bring up suggestions that I thought could help and I was listed as a trouble maker. Once you are "on the list", you can forget about any promotions. I wish I had know about that before I tried to talk to "leadership".

As a designer you like to work with software that is generally available. However, B&V has a home-grown program that is very difficult to use. Everyone knows about it and it is a big joke around town.

I can sum up B&V in one quote from a former co-worker of mine:

Nothing is impossible to the person that doesn't know how it done. This is the person that makes the schedule.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees! They can help you if you would just listen.

Pros

Good work/life balance, Good Benefits, Friendly, Knowledgeable, Open door policy, Stable, Well-known, Global, Good place to learn.

Cons

Old and unattractive work environment, Behind in technology, Very little employee recognition, Low morale, No company perks, Very little team building, Big generational gaps.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop talking about what you’re going to do and do it. Recognize your employees. Start making the upgrades. Trust your employees. Weed out middle management. Really become innovative. Appeal to the new generation of workers. Give credit where credit is due. Throw in more jeans days-believe it or not, that will go a long way. Loosen up.

Pros

Global company with sterling reputation and mission many are proud to be associated with.

Cons

Generational gap often creates an us vs. them mentality between older and younger workers.
Slow to change.
Management trust is an issue
Force-fit performance rating and review process that says only so many people can have a high rating and bonus, rather than giving high ratings to all who are truly deserving.

Advice to Senior Management

Loosen up! If you trust your employees, chances are we will trust you and be loyal to you. Get rid of the ridiculous performance matrix system. If 10 people preform well, you shouldn't have to choose which 2 get the high rating and the other 8 get the "just did their job" rating.

Pros

Good company for the beginners. Lots of resources and tools for initial learning.

Cons

Some of the supervisors are simply disgusting and old fashioned. Make things complicated.

Advice to Senior Management

It is time to share the profit with all employees. Actions speak louder than words. You are greedy and do not care for the young employees. You need to review your own performance.

Pros

Good pay, better than what I made at a previous job
Good benefits
Plenty of parking
On-site cafeteria had good food

Cons

There was no mentoring program
Deadlines on projects were extended to midnight, you were expected to stay and work until it got completed
Constant, unrelenting pressure to stay billable and not charge to overhead. It didn't matter how many hours you worked in a day, you could only bill 8.
Typical large company, decisions made at the top were never really explained to the workers at the bottom.

Advice to Senior Management

Make people accurately track their hours. My boss worked a 14 hour day but only billed 8. Too often, I was given 4 hours to do a project that would take 20, and 10 hours to do a project that would take 1.