Golder Associates Inc. Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Golder Associates Inc. full-time for less than a year

Pros – Variety of projects, safe community, and willingness to provide help to lower level staff. Good office manager

Cons – Stuffy office structure. Needs better lighting

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Golder Associates Inc. full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – very bright co workers, challenging projects, excellent opportunities for travel

Cons – health benefits are expensive, office locations are limited in the US, senior guidance can be limited

Advice to Senior Management – no thank you

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Golder Associates Inc. full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – At Golder we work with talented, dedicated people at all technical levels. Clients come to us with challenging projects that often require unique solutions. The flat structure gives the opportunity to work with and learn from senior staff - if you are willing to take the initiative. There is a lot of room to design your own career path and develop your own practice within the Golder umbrella.

Senior leaders are usually heavily involved in technical projects, unlike some companies where you get little involvement by the senior staff with real project work. Implementation of an industry-leading health and safety culture is gradually coming to be.

While we still have work to do, global collaboration on international projects does occur. Collaboration is mainly based on the personal connections between Principals, but there are great opportunities to contribute to projects around the world.

Cons – Management is struggling with how to implement a vision for continued growth and integration of operations across geographic boundaries. Messages to line staff are often mixed - we want to invest for growth, but can't have any excess capacity to respond to opportunities. Senior staff are expected to lead, mentor, and develop business - but on their own time while still carrying a full load of project work.

The Principal and Associate structure is perceived as a "club." Principals share relatively little leadership opportunity or decision-making with Associates and other senior practitioners. Leadership from Principals is often from behind closed doors.

Advice to Senior Management – Think through initiatives from beginning to end, then chart the course to get to the goal rather than just starting and "seeing how it goes." Communicate the path clearly to all levels in the organization, not just the vision.

Gain buy-in from senior Principals in advance. The somewhat sad fact is that management cannot make moves without consent from a relatively small group of vocal, senior Principals. This weakens management's ability to modernize structure and achieve the stated vision.

Sell the benefits of change - why we should make the effort in terms of business outcomes, career development etc. Don't just talk about change as an end in itself.

Cut down the number of initiatives carried on in parallel. Strive for quality of outcome and quick implementation in series.

Be consistent in communications and expectations.

Set realistic goals and give employees at all levels the tools and opportunities to achieve those goals.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Golder Associates Inc.

Pros – Good benefits package for healthcare, etc.

Cons – Management seems to care little about staff not a Principal or Associate Level.
Salaries are low.
Difficult to advance professionally and little professional mentoring.
Some offices are less women friendly than others.

Advice to Senior Management – Pay less attention to your Ps and As and more attention to the regular staff.
Pay more attention to management of the individual offices and what goes on there.
Develop a real mentoring program.
Develop a program to promote women to senior technical and management positions in all offices.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Golder Associates Inc.

Pros – A vast array of opportunity for field work in exotic locations all over the world and exposure to a variety of interesting projects if you stay with the company. Great people (many of them). Some amazingly talented and competent people mixed in with the average ones you find at any company. It is rare but not impossible to find incompetent or poor performers here - a definite plus. Most of the offices allow for an ok but not great work-life balance. In most of the offices the management style is flat and there is open door policy at all levels.

Cons – Very loose management and professional culture. A lot of flag waving and social activity goes on and many buy in to it, but much of the upper management (Associates, Principals) have no real teeth or direction. The senior managers are all experienced project engineers, and many of them are great salespersons, but they are not necessarily experienced corporate managers or business people - and it shows. Important corporate initiatives like safety related ones can take months and months to come to fruition.

A lot of fragmented group mentalities amongst the business units - and not enough unified thinking and operating as a company - which wastes so many opportunities and is not efficient. Some groups are extremely well run and others are run rather poorly by inexperienced or inattentive leaders. Some of the senior / tenured people have free reign to do as they please and tend to hoard the most rewarding and fun work, while others advance their subordinates just as fast as they can.

Compensation and benefits are generally low against industry averages, and the stock buy in and employee ownership so strongly advertised by the senior people (who all typically own many shares) is not a realistic or affordable for junior staff at typical compensation.

Advice to Senior Management – A true understanding of a healthy corporate culture must be gained, and that healthy culture must then be pursued at all costs. Bring all of the individual groups and offices together to one common direction on important issues. Some individuals may not like the changes, but this type of evolution will take Golder to the next level and keep them competitive. You can bet that other successful companies are not sitting around resting on tradition and fragmented management, and Golder needs to keep up - or even better lead the pack.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Golder Associates Inc.

Pros – Employee ownership is often a blessing in this economy. Good balance of work and life and good benefits, although no maternity leave unless it is required by the state.

Cons – What was it that I read elsewhere? The annual review process is a cowardly mechanism for unhappy backstabbers? Similar at Golder. No one has ever come to me and told me that they had a problem with my work. But, once it's review time, all that comes out, and more that you never even thought of. Also, since there is flat management, what one person directs you to do can be immediately overridden by the whims of another of the same level (principals, associates). This can make getting your job done extremely difficult.

Advice to Senior Management – Please pass down your knowledge and leadership. So many in the very top levels are wonderful examples and great motivators to work with. So many others are the antithesis of leaders and motivators.

Current Employee – been working at Golder Associates Inc.

Pros – Employee owned, respected, quality work over quantity, flexible work place, opportunties, mentoring, cross-specialty work, travel, international support system, great pay and good benefits.

Cons – Too much information sometimes, young leadership that requires managing.

Advice to Senior Management – Give the expansion offices the support (internal and external) they need to grow and become self sufficent.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Golder Associates Inc. full-time for more than a year

Pros – Autonomy given to perform - up to you to perform or not, if you do than you get more challenging and fun work. Fun with lots of events. Culture is great - lots of fun to work there because the people are engaged in what they do and enjoy their work. Excellent work/life balance. Office Manager is a good leader who is operationally focused and as such, makes good decisions.

Cons – The pay is terrible and the current bonus system is lacking. Bonus (called OPA awards) are based on profit but employees see very little of it. As a manager, my bonus was insultingly low. P&A model eliminates movement to senior roles, so low career ceiling.

Advice to Senior Management – Allow senior roles to exist without having to be a principal or an associate. Pay more competitive salaries or offer a bonus that isnt offensive.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Golder Associates Inc. full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Good corporate culture with a lot of opportunity for advancement. Get to experience many projects and learn as you go. Pay tends to be on a higher side of the scale.

Cons – Consulting is a tough business that does not allow Golder to grant certain benefits other industries can, such as a large number of flex days and double digits percentage bonuses.

Advice to Senior Management – Be more selective on who gets invited to be principals and associates. Break down the culture of privilege that exists within the principal and associate group.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Golder Associates Inc. full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – As an owner of the company, you will benefit from what you put into the company. The employee ownership culture is really one of Golder's strengths - not just for Golder but also for its clients. We work for ourselves and get to help some truly excellent clients. It feels like I am a part owner (which I am).
The people who work here are probably what keeps me here. It is a caring company (again, I believe that has much to do with owning our own firm) that understands that without the great people here, we would only be worth the tables and chairs and soon to be obsolete computers. Golder gets this and it invests in its people a lot.
Project opportunities are great. Golder has a training operation called Golder U. A great idea. There is also a mentoring program and senior staff who want to get ahead are expected to be good and active mentors for our junior/intermediate staff.

Cons – Golder is a successful company. It delivers what clients need and does it very, very well. However, as a result of its success it has grown to 9000 people worldwide. Golder is playing catch up with business systems and keeping the flat organizational structure throughout its growth. It has made some very sincere efforts in this regard and these look poised to succeed.
Some of the business systems could be more streamlined and they often seem disconnected. Communication on the shop floor is quite good but communication from management needs rethinking.

Advice to Senior Management – Golder is dealing with growth but some of the efforts are not well integrated. Perhaps that is because it is relatively new. They could be brought together so that we don't have to endure multiple disjointed initiatives. The millenials often don't understand the corporate gobblydegook that management seems enamoured with. Use plain english and talk like normal people do. You will be better understood.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company