Hach Company Employee Review

I have been working at Hach Company

Pros – Hach company is a leader in the field of water quality instrumentation. It has highly-integrated manufacturing capabilities encompassing everything from injection molding to circuit boards. The people are friendly, and everyone tries to do a good job. If you want to see "lean" manufacturing and business practices happening in the real world, look here.

Cons – Management is almost exclusively by spreadsheet. Under the guise of "continuous improvement", yearly goals are set so that nobody can actually meet them. Almost everyone gets a "C" on their review, and raises rarely top 3%. Investment in new product development had risen in recent years, but R&D spending is still no more than 6% of sales. Hach's corporate owner, multinational Danaher, is using the business as a cash cow to fund other acquisitions.

Advice to Senior Management – Many employees are in danger of burn-out, especially among the engineering staff. This, coupled with Hach's below average salaries, poses a real danger if the economy recovers. Some technical positions have already gone unfilled for months, and development schedules are slipping as a result.