Siemens Water Technologies Reviews

Pros

very smart leadership
the training was top notch
very friendly atmosphere
commitment to excellence
travel was handled well
honest management

Cons

in the future more team meetings would be helpful
better communication between sites that were geographically distant
training needs to be more often

Advice to Senior Management

allow your managers to manage more freely
incentivize productive individuals through quaterly bonuses
be open to new ideas in improving processes

Pros

I need a job in this economy.

Cons

Stockholders more important than employees in decision making.

Advice to Senior Management

Employees, non-management, bring in the revenue. Treat them with more respect.

Pros

* World-class portfolio
* Long-term vision at very senior levels
* Great benefits, competitive salary
* Ability to access many self-development programs

Cons

* Short-term vision at the divisional level
* Lost track of the Customer during internal cost cutting program
* 420,000 employees can be overwhelming

Advice to Senior Management

Remember the CUSTOMER!
Listen to the long-time employees.
Communicate in a positive format....condescending tone lowers morale
Utilize and cross-reference the Personnel files for self-development

Pros

There is an opportunity to make great commissions if you know what products and customers to target. Good Benefit package. Flexible Schedule.

Cons

No recognition for a job well done. Has changed pay structure 3 times in last 5 years....not in favor of the employee. It has become political, if you suck up to management you will be safe even if you are not hitting your numbers. You can be a top performer and get canned because you won't kiss butt.

Advice to Senior Management

The communication between management and employees is horrible. They tend to communicate AFTER they roll a program out and it is usually a cluster for a couple months with no-one being on the same page. Also, don't change focus every three months.

Pros

Siemens Water Technologies is still recognized in some circles as an industry leader (that reputation, however, is quickly becoming a thing of the past). At SIemens you are provided with decent healthcare insurance. Their paid time off program is fair and on par with other large corporations. There will always be a demand for water treatment solutions. In this position you will get the opportunity to become familiar with different treatment processes.

Cons

There is a serious problem with Siemens Water Technologies. Another reviewer described this company as "dysfunctional." I would have to say they are 100% on-point. Siemens does not devote the necessary resources to research & development of new products. New equipment will usually not live up to customer's expectations. It then became my responsibility to try and resolve any oustanding issues. The technical support provided by Siemens was horrible. They could not solve equipment issues in a reasonable amount of time. Many customers ended their relationship with Siemens as a result. The service department here kept little to no inventory. Many customers had to wait weeks to have equipment that was down repaired. This also was causing a lot of customers to leave the company. The lead time on getting a new installation together was sometimes months. The service manager at our branch did everything he could to keep as little on hand as possible. Many times he would have the technicians install equipment without following the scope outlined to the customer to use up old parts we had in our warehouse (which was a disorganized mess). You can only imagine how the customers reacted to this.

I felt like 60% of my job was cleaning up the mess left by our service managers & poor technical support. I could not devote the necessary time to building a new customer base and exploring new opportunities.

The service & branch manager at my location were concerned with one thing: making our budget goals look as attractive as possible at any costs necessary, even if it meant not living up to customer expectations. There was no investment made in technician training, tools, inventory, etc. I was shocked at the level of arrogance they had.

Outside of our branch, it seemed as if all the company's resources were used to implement all types of admin. infrastructure upgrades (paperless service requests, new software, etc.). None of these upgrades worked as planned. The individuals responsible for rolling out these new programs were incompetent & once again, the customers paid by not having their work performed on-time & as promised due to consistent computer glitches.

I recognized this company is quickly headed toward disaster. I saved myself and found a position with an employer who understands the number one focus of the company should be on the customer.

Advice to Senior Management

Everyone from the service mangers, branch mangers, sales managers, business unit managers & up needs to be fired, plain and simple. Start from scratch with true, college educated professionals & stop relying on these people who have been nestled comfortably with the company for 25 years and still act as if they are running the business back in 1985.

Pros

The medical, dental & vision benefits are good and affordable. Siemens has a lot of notable customers & as a Service Rep. you get to work in many interesting customer sites.

Cons

The service managers are not proactive. They lack the necessary skills to keep the customers happy. As a result you will hear a lot of complaints when at customer sites performing service. Siemens does not invest in employee training or the proper tools or equipment to complete jobs properly. More emphasis is placed on processing paperwork than doing a good job. There is a hypocritical attitude toward safety. They make safety training mandatory but then ask employees to perform unsafe acts.

Advice to Senior Management

You need to practice what you preach and have a real safety program where employees can freely speak about unsafe work conditions without fear of punishment. Employees should be given access to all training resources available. An investment should be made in having modern, working tools to ensure all jobs are completed properly. The focus of the company should be on providing excellent customer service and quality products, not on getting as many jobs completed as possible with no regard for workmanship or results.

Pros

Good medical benefits, fair amount of paid time off, attractive experience to include on a resume.

Cons

Compensation generally 20-30% less than comparable positions in other industries, gross lack of organization or direction company wide.

Advice to Senior Management

In the current direction the company is going talented indivduals will only use Siemens W.T. as a stepping stone.

Pros

The other service employees (the techs, reps a couple of the engineers) are decent, hardworking people who look out for each other. Once out of the shop and on the road you can manage your own day to some extent, although expect regular interference from the service managers. Some of the company fleet is relatively new.

Cons

The on-call responsibilities here are unreasonable. You are expected to be available for whatever, whenever, without regard for your own personal life. At this branch they keep a poor inventory of parts. You will always been scrambling, literally searching through boxes of garbage to try and find basic materials like hoses and pipe fittings. The warehouse area was filthy. Although some of the company fleet is new a lot of the trucks are old and in disrepair yet you are expected to use them regardless. During the interview process they claim they promote from within however once hired you quickly learn from the other service personnel that it is practically impossible to move up without agreeing to work on weekends and at odd hours without overtime pay. Even if you do get a promotion you will see only a small increase in pay with a huge increase in responsibility. The office environment in general is very unprofessional. The overall morale of the employees was terrible. There was a definite divide between service and admin. staff. This is a good company to get experience with but definitely not a place to stay long term.

Advice to Senior Management

If major changes are not made this branch will continue to struggle financially. Fresh, new management needs to be brough in. Siemens is a huge corporation. Use those resources to get this place in order. The path this place is on will only end in financial disaster and some good people getting laid off.

Pros

Great manager. Innovative. Ideas are taken into consideration

Cons

organization is somewhat confusing. Too much red tape to get things done

Advice to Senior Management

Cut the red tape and let employees do the right thing

Pros

Siemens has excellent supervisors. Fantastic benefits package. One of the best 401k programs I've ever seen. Multiple choices for health and dental insurance at reasonable cost to employees. Paid time off is very good.

Cons

The failings of upper management seem to fall on the supervisors and workers even harder. Planning for a project is left in the hands of the sales staff, often resulting in undeliverable promises.

Advice to Senior Management

Before entering into a contract, ensure that the necessary support to the that project will be given. Leaving a sales manager in charge of a project will most assuredly result in broken promises to the client. Explore all possibilities for failure in the project to ensure it's success.