GHD Reviews

Pros

- Privately held, so they are willing to spend money on making the company great, not just keeping the share price up.
 - Excellent work-life balance, supported from top management down. "You work to live, not live to work". Working long hours is not the norm. For those who highly value their spouse and kids, this is a great place to work.
 - Good opportunities for relocation or secondment all over the world. You can "move around" a lot without actually changing companies.
 - There are many senior technical experts who are great to learn from.
 - A good culture of knowledge sharing and helping out people from other groups.
 - A great variety of work.

Cons

- Pay seems on the lower side. The real way to earn money here seems to be as a shareholder.
 - Internal systems are inefficient and make your job harder (although this seems to be the case for all large companies)
 - Suggestions for improvement often don't go anywhere (probably another large company thing)
 - Large experience gap between graduates and senior experts (seems common in a consulting firm though)

Advice to Senior Management

Invest some money into streamlining systems and making people's work easier. Listen to your staff suggestions and have the courage to change.

Pros

Good salary, flexible working hours, good mix of professions working under one roof, great annual leave program, impressive office location

Cons

The management is too hierarchical making how the business is run versus the real-world product that is delivered totally disconnected. There are too many managers that don't really understand the disciplines that they are suppose to manage. Overheads and charge out rates are too high so it is difficult to do any thought provoking work on the tight budgets they need to win work. There is no encouragement for self development, especially if you are looking for creative solutions or innovative outcomes. None of the disciplines really collaborate with each other, so no discipline knows how to work in a multidisciplinary team, even though the company touts itself as multidisciplinary. It's just superficial with no collaboration and workshops afforded in any budget. The company as a whole only stands for development and money-making. There are no other apparent values with the company based on the clients they have or the projects they pursue; whatever makes them money.

Advice to Senior Management

The management structure needs to change, with less people in managerial roles. It seems there are too many managers that are suppose to do the marketing for their groups, but in the end it comes down on the designers and engineers to sell the product. (There are managers that manage managers.) And that is hard to do when each team member isn't encouraged to develop their own expertise or spend time on marketing themselves. Connect clients directly to the people DOING the work and you can create a more collaborative, trusting environment. I you keep managers upon managers being the 'face' of GHD, then the actual passion for the work is not conveyed to the client and it's all about getting the contract and making money. The idea of actually creating something in the real world has been lost in the business model. Put the people that are actually doing the designing out there to sell your product and get rid of all the manager titles. All the overheads are taken up by having numerous managers that are paid high salaries because they 'manage' and do marketing (talk with existing clients) instead that overhead could be reshuffled to engineers and designers to become shining stars that could also have management roles.

Pros

The people and business school.

Cons

Leadership and the employee share system

Pros

Benefits are as good if not better than any company in the US. Six weeks paid paternity leave. Not many companies give male employees paid time off for the birth of a child. Health benefits are fantastic. Strong leadership at the national level. Well respected in a few markets.

Cons

Disorganized and disjointed. Local offices operate largely in silos. Lack of sound leadership at the office level. Management struggles to think outside of the very small box they are in. A relative unknown to many prospective clients.

Pros

GHD's US Operations is still somewhat in its infancy stages. With that comes alot of growth opportunity for dynamic individuals willing to step up and take charge. GHD truly is a global company and communicating and working with staff in other countries is encouraged and occurs often. The opportunities for staff to work in other countries on interesting projects is highly encouraged and quite easy to obtain.

Cons

Communication from management needs improvement. Seems to be no formal plan for long term business success.

Advice to Senior Management

Its okay to say you don't have an answer, but at some point you will need to come up with a formal plan.

Pros

Good opportunities for the capable and willing

Cons

Too focused on local government and infrastructure work

Advice to Senior Management

support other areas of yor business

Pros

The vacation time is better than most Amercian companies.

Cons

Poor communication from the managers.

Advice to Senior Management

Recognize the people who complete the work.

Pros

Good people to work with. If you work there for long period you may get limited benefits.

relax environment for work life balance.

Cons

slow process for IT, requests and everything else.
no opportunity for mid level employees.
no appreciation of hard work, your length of service is the only important thing not its quality.

Advice to Senior Management

Think more competetive and value motivated people.

Pros

Some excellent technical staff and front line managers.

Cons

Completely incompetent admin management. Even mid level managers have almost no authority to approve any spending. If you want to travel to a conference you need to start the application process well in advance or it will never be approved in time. I was promised study assistance before I joined but then after completing the application process and waiting months it was rejected. Staff travelling on business often wait months for reimbursement of costs they have to wear on their personal credit card

Advice to Senior Management

They wouldn't listen anyway

Pros

Learn engineering consulting well, and obviously a good place to become a technical expert in your field. Good brand recognition in Australia.

Cons

Middle management skills can be a little limited.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to develop the GHD university