CH2M HILL Reviews

Pros

Pay is good comapre to similar companies.

Cons

No respect to professional
No communication
No team work

Advice to Senior Management

look deeper to org chart.

Pros

As a 25+ year employee with CH2M HILL, it's interesting to read some of the complaints in these reviews. I recognize that some may believe my experience is mine alone, but I've seen enough over the decades here to know it's more than that. In short, this company is a very good employer. Pay and benefits are quite satisfactory. Freedom to do what I want within the company's structure is quite good -- including work-life balance. While it's true overheads have been cut over time, such is the way of most all businesses except those in industries with extraordinarily high margins. Lastly, I had to chuckle when I read comments disparaging the employee ownership program. The stock at CH2M HILL (available only to employees) has performed far better than its publicly-traded peers over the past decade and has increased in value nearly 1200% (from $4.31 to $55.71) over the past decade. You would have to look long and hard to find comparable performance. It has helped finance my children's college educations as well as funded (in part) my burgeoning 401K (supplemented by rather generous employer matches). I really can't see how one could complain.

Cons

The firm has grown substantially over the years and now numbers some 30,000 employees, a third of which are outside the U.S. The culture here has evolved as well, and is of course (given the size of the firm) less family-like than it was, say, in the early 1980s. My biggest complaints are three:

1. The firm has set up procedures and processes meant to be suitable for delivering projects as large in size as several billion USD. It then applies many of those processes and expectations to projects less than $100K USD in size. That creates headaches for project managers and increases bureaucracy. Making more processes scalable would yield big benefits in both speed and reducing PM frustration.

2. The firm rewards its entrepreneurial employees to a greater degree than "worker bees" who help deliver projects yet don't bring in work or build client relationships that generate their own opportunities. Consequently, staff who lack the aptitude or opportunity to grow client relationships may be treated less well, may see fewer opportunities, and may feel less "in charge" of their careers than those who don't. I suspect that situation is the root of many of the complaints I see on this site.

3. As the corporate office in metro Denver has grown, I sense that ideas that are brewed up in Denver and tested at that location are deployed without really understanding how they may (or may not) work well at other locations. In other words, groupthink at corporate is becoming more evident and irritating over time. Just because a policy or process makes someone's job at the corporate office easier, doesn't necessarily mean it's welcome, workable, or beneficial to the firm's far-flung project teams and their clients.

Advice to Senior Management

1. Work to avoid groupthink at corporate. Decision-makers should not all come from one location equipped with similar perspectives. Our firm and its markets and clients are too diverse for that to succeed.

2. Think about how to better manage career paths of staff who may be solid "worker bee" performers, yet aren't entrepreneurial enough to solidify their own career paths. This applies to design staff, engineers and scientists, as well as administrative support staff.

3. The firm has been very thrifty at accumulating cash reserves. This is a good thing because it helps our financial stability and makes us more nimble at capitalizing on opportunities (Halcrow being only the most recent example). However, as the economy improves and opportunities for our staff with other employers become more numerous and rewarding, you may want to consider some bonus distributions for key performers lest the firm suffer mighty and damaging attrition in a recovering economy; just when we'll need them the most.

Pros

Good work/life balance
Competitive pay
Pleasant laid back atmosphere

Cons

Lack of work to do in between projects.

Pros

Flexible place overall depending on who your boss is. Teleworking allowed depending on who your boss is. Can be an awesome place to work...depending on who your boss is.

Cons

Having an overpaid supervisor that doesn't know their job or yours even after 3 years of being employed with the company. Having a manager that allows the nonsense to go on for so long when the company has let so many qualified people go who were paid less money. It's frustrating when management doesn't listen to the staff when the staff are the ones doing the work and understand the job. Ralph Peterson cared about everyone; Lee Mc. is out for himself and allows the overpaying of people who really need to be demoted.

Advice to Senior Management

Get a grip on what's really important. From the top to the bottom of the pay scale, everyone should be treated with respect and receive recognition for things they do for the company. Take care of your employees and they will take care of you.

Pros

Some great people to work with and some dead wood to work around, all in all an interesting place to work.

Cons

Management always harps about how employee's are the most important resource the company has, yet pay is lower than most other companies in the same business.

Advice to Senior Management

Start paying people better and you might keep some of the more valuable employee's instead of loosing them to competitors.

Pros

Pay is high compared to other markets in the area. It is located very near to my home. Operating hours are excellent.

Cons

The company structure is very disorganized. Very few people stand up in a leadership role. No accountability. Government funding makes employment unreliable.

Advice to Senior Management

Instead of demanding people to change and conform to your goals, ask them what they feel is working and what is not. Incorporate their ideas with your own to sell the 'package' to the team.

Pros

Very good technical talent. Engineers are generally competent and produce quality work (with only few exceptions). Good flexibility in time off and when you can work.

Cons

Company is struggling to keep their former values as they grow. "Employee Owned" feels like a joke. Compensation of management is inflated by arbitrary stock pricing.

Top management is full of people outside the company that are well connected, which leads to disconnect between management and those doing the work.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't be afraid to hire within. Focus on core businesses and doing them well. Growth isn't always good just for growth's sake.

Pros

Due to my very logical and competent operations lead, work/life balance is good. He understands that family comes before work. FINALLY starting to realize that employees facing adverse impacts could be transferred elsewhere or work remotely, even though my ops lead has known this for years. Employees can get some pretty cool temporary assignments.

Cons

Corporate bs is very thick and seems to be getting thicker. Even though "employee-owned," our votes don't even count for board decisions; they're just taken into consideration. Come on, really? Also, for those of us who cannot, for some reason or another, take temporary assignments, support our efforts to work remotely.

Advice to Senior Management

Make our votes count! And let an engineer design the features on the VO. Also, beta-testing automated features in offices other than just Denver would be a good move. And another thing- benefits at "industry standard?" Do you remember that our industry is engineering? NO ONE I know in engineering or in ANY OTHER corporate setting has as worthless bennies as we do. Everyone in my office who has a spouse working at another firm uses their spouse's insurance. Over 15% of my supposed salary goes to medical. Stop making the board rich and spread the wealth around to everyone. After all, WE own the company. Cash bonuses for all would do a lot of good in keeping talent. Also, stop having us do mandatory training on our own time. A donut is not worth my time to attend mandatory company training. Provide a project number. It's worth it to keep us here.

Pros

Supportive, friendly, professional, ETHICAL culture
Good benefits
Great facility
Strong, ethical leadership
Clear, established processes/systems
Diversity - walks the talk

Cons

Can be somewhat bureaucratic at times
Recent efforts to reduce overhead may have cut too deeply into essential services

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the great work - including keeping employees up date on enterprise developments and activities.

Pros

Employee owned and good 401(k) match, but I'm sure they will be reducing the match soon.

Cons

Matrixed organization stifles communication. Upper management has no clue about what is going on in the trenches.

Advice to Senior Management

Reorganize regionally.