The Kleinfelder Group Reviews

Pros

The opportunities are endless if you work hard and if you have an advocate.

Cons

The evolving structure clouds things a bit.

Advice to Senior Management

communicate

Pros

- Midsize firm with access to large projects
- Integration of multiple services (environmental, geotech and materials)
- Annual technical seminar promotes information sharing and employee development
- Nationwide resources available for projects
- Multiple federal contracting vehicles
- Good use of on-line performance review resources
- On-line career development resources
- Good benefits for size of company

Cons

- Poor employee morale due to multiple layoffs over the past 5 years
- Complete overhaul of organization every 2-3 years
- Upper management is primarily "good old boy" network
- Struggling to transition from offices everywhere to regional centers
- Senior management lack of connection to staff except for financial metrics
- Lack of senior-level commitment to safety (all talk, no action)
- Poor overall safety record results in missed business opportunities
- Utilization requirement is high but lack of viable plan for additional business opportunities creates high tension among employees.
- Firm is showing lack of operations management skills with panic-based layoffs and lack of realistic planning during low point of economy.
- Construction Testing Services suffering due to incompatibility with union (PLA) wage agreements
( time to sell off this unit)
- Antiquated time/accounting system
- 2015 Plan requires acquisition of other firms, which necessitates internal layoffs due to debt loading.
- Separation of delivery versus marketing sounds good but only when backlog can support the isolation of the two groups.

Advice to Senior Management

Plan for growth during lull in economy and be open to hiring external leadership with authority to change the internal systems. Majority of current senior management has limited experience outside of Kleinfelder and is managing by financial metrics only. Invest in business development personnel and reinforce investment of time to develop business relationships for all senior personnel.

Pros

Good projects and clients (mostly due to the previous momentum). Still has best geotechnical nationwide capability.

Cons

A 25,000+ person bureaucracy in a 1500+ person firm. High ego senior management.

Advice to Senior Management

Advice to outside board members. Do something.

Pros

The work place is laid back.

Cons

Upper management dont relay info in a timely manner.

Pros

I'm really having a hard time coming up with best reasons to work at The Kleinfelder Group. I would say that the benefits are decent - at least on par with companies of similar size.

Cons

Basically, this place is a good ole boys club where people get promoted based on who their friends are and not on their capabilities or ability. There were some people who were considered "senior management" who should never even been hired.

Advice to Senior Management

I've heard there have been major layoffs at Kleinfelder - and yet some of the most incapable employees are still there! Get with the program - the ship is going to sink if you don't promote the people who are actually doing the work and get rid of the excess baggage.

Pros

Great opportunity to work on a variety of projects in different areas of the country.

Great bench strength in some areas of expertise; if you need an expert on a certain subject, they have one somewhere.

Great benefits package compared to some other places I have worked.

Cons

Much corporate "heavy handedness" - edicts are handed down without much forethought.

Not a nimble organization - cannot respond quickly. You will need permission to do most anything, and probably from at least 3 different people. Even the adminstrative assistants can stop engineering work!

Very poor leadership at the division level. We only see or hear from them when they've decided to lay off staff. They have never actuallly showed up to contribute anything useful that I can see.

Rather disorganized. Good luck in getting any direction from upper management. You're pretty much "on your own" until someone decides they didn't like what you did.

Advice to Senior Management

Think about the "nuts and bolts" of executing a plan before jumping in with our eyes closed. Listen to the middle managers first - they are the ones most responsible for doing the "good work".

Pros

If you're mobile, you can work anywhere; even from home! Competitive and comprehensive benefits package.

Cons

Company sacrifices talent for the bottom line. Poor management in key positions. It's more of respect for the position than for the person in some instances.

Advice to Senior Management

Know who your leaders are and make sure they are making good decisions for the long term sustainability of the company not just for short term perceived results.

Pros

The network of experts within the company to utilize on a project level is great!

Cons

Being a nationwide (close to intenational) company, the small offices are forgotten about a bit. Very corporate.

Pros

For technical staff there are multiple disciplines and market sectors to work under. If you are exploring your career options then this is place to be - you can gain valuable experience on a variety of types of projects.

Cons

This is also an 'old boys' network and politics and favoritism is how you move up in the firm, not necessarily your good work. Firms focus is on technical staff development and opportunites. If you are non-technical then your options are slim for you are 'overhead' and much easier to be replaced.

Pros

Great technical staff across the firm.

Cons

Too corporate.
Too many red-tape programs.
Too much focus on utilization as THE key metric.
Poor pay for mid-level professionals.
Senior Leadership has lost their grasp on reality and devalued the employees.
Middle managers have been dis-empowered.

Advice to Senior Management

Rework your 2015 strategic direction and place a higher value on the voice of successful middle management- because they RUN your firm.