HK Systems Reviews

Pros

Great benefits, pay, acknowledgements, listens to associates mostly

Cons

beware of good old boy system

Advice to Senior Management

promote those with the knowledge, experience and ability rather than the ones you like.

Pros

Exposure to numerous pieces of automation technology and how to integrate them into a functional system.
Smart engineers (some too smart for the type of work they're doing) who share information and mentor younger engineers with their projects.

Cons

20-30% travel is a lie. It's typically 40%+ for any given quarter, where 16+ hour days are the usual day after day for 5-10 days, 2 days off and repeat. Then there's the holidays you work on sites and in filthy conditions.
Engineers are not compensated accordingly with the amount of work they perform. Not financially, not with 1:1 time in/time off, no certificates of appreciation and not even lip service thanking you.
Management doesn't care IS the problem. HK Systems (now owned by Dematic) is NOT an engineering firm that integrates systems. Instead HK Systems is a sales company selling things where any and all engineering is an afterthought. "Sell it and then worry about making it" is the company motto. As long as the higher ups and sales people get theirs they just dump all the issues on engineering and don't compensate them for the trouble.

Advice to Senior Management

Press the reset button on the company structure and mentality. The company ought to be an engineering firm that develops material handling equipment and systems well from the smallest piece up. It ought not be a sales organization that is supported by what engineering does.

Pros

Well known in the material handling industry.
There are a lot of knowledgeable engineers in all locations.
There are not a lot of office politics to deal with.

Cons

Travel can be extensive - especially when project issues arise.
Not a lot of acknowledgment for a job well done - especially with all of the travel involved.

Advice to Senior Management

Consider getting back to utilizing project Techs, who used to spend 100% of their time on a job site and were able to ensure that all installation activities were on track before engineers are sent to a site that is not ready.

Pros

Management are respectful of your work life balance and attempted to help you growth by giving you more responsibilities over the years. The people are amazing to work with.

Cons

The market and the industry are limited in growth. Not sure there's a lot of potential for career progression.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to find new markets and create products for customers. Leverage the engineering talents.

Pros

Promote Healthy initiatives
Promote employee independence and team/ group projects

Cons

Double Standards
Management justifying their salary, in order to cut employee hours

Advice to Senior Management

Word of mouth is everything

Pros

You will work with some of the best engineers in the country. They work is very fulfilling. We worked with many emerging technologies.

The facilities that HK Systems has for development are very nice overall.

You will get to interact with many of the top companies in the US. Most of these companies are either fortune 100 companies.

The benefits are pretty good.

You get a lot of satisfaction when you take a project from greenfield to completion.

H K systems has locations across the country so you do have some opportunity to move around. If you are really lucky, you might even land a project out of the country.

Managements seems to "want" to take care of the employees overall.

Cons

Lot and lots of travel. The hours you have to put in can be overwhelming. I am concerned about the future of automation as many companies are leaving the area of automation and going back to more basic warehousing.

Advice to Senior Management

Try to make travel a little easier for employees. Possibly compensate for time on the road better. Pay better when employees are required to be on call.

Pros

The actual employees doing the day to day work. They are wonderful, hard working & dedicated people that make the workday a little more tolerable.

Cons

Working minimum 50 to 60 hours a week with travel. Very little appreciation for the time employees spend away from their families during the work week or the late nights / weekends working at home. Serious direction from senior and middle management is nearly non-existent. This company is totally reactionary to national business trends with very little vision or creativity of their own. No serious loyalty to older employees with a tendency to layoff employees at age 55.

Advice to Senior Management

Learn to appreciate the people who are winning and executing the work / making you money and put a little less stock in your management team.