GEI Consultants

5.0

17 Oct 2018

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

Although I've only been here full time for a few months, GEI has already become a very comfortable place to work every day. Overall, other employees are extremely kind and happy to help and collaborate in any way, which is particularly important considering that we often work with folks in several of our office locations to complete a project. On the whole, supervisors and other people in authority are very understanding and flexible, and the company culture itself emphasizes employee well-being. Office and field safety is also crucial to the company, which is reassuring. Note that even the "cons" for the company (see below) I feel can or will be able to be worked out eventually, because administration and supervisors really want their employees to be happy.

Cons

I don't know yet how fair the promotion/raise process is, but I do know that employees are only considered for promotions once a year, and even after finding out whether one is promoted, it takes months for the status to actually kick in. Also, so many people are involved in the decision of whether a person gets promoted, that it's hard to know if you're even on the right track - supervisor feedback alone doesn't help with that process as much as it should in that regard. Also, it makes sense for a company to be concerned with utilization (amount of time billed to projects, as opposed to training or other non-billable activities you're still paid for), but for some employees, the required utilization is too high to be realistic (up to 90%) as it gives no room for training or working on projects that don't have a contract yet. Employees below a certain grade get far fewer benefits, and can't hold shares in the company, even though it's "employee owned." Unless you come in at a fairly high level, it typically takes many years to get to that grade. I know a few people who have left the company because they felt they were not able to advance in their careers at a pace they felt was fair, however, it seems that they did not communicate these frustrations to their supervisor - the situation could have had a happier ending if they did.

GEI Consultants Response

Thank you for your detailed review of GEI. You’ve noted a number of key things about our culture, including our focus on safety. As a newer employee to GEI, its important to us that you experience our dedication to a safe work environment. In addition, we want you to work in an environment that you enjoy, are engaged in working on interesting projects and grow your consulting skills by having access to clients and increasingly complex and interesting work. We have an established annual process to review employee compensation. On an annual basis, we review employee, regional and company performance to determine merit increases, promotions, performance bonuses and, for eligible employees, ownership opportunities. We spend several weeks on this process because its very important to get right. Once compensation changes, bonuses and ownership opportunities are fully vetted and approved, we process and implement them by the next bi-weekly pay cycle. You mentioned our employee ownership, a program we’re very proud of at GEI. Compared to industry benchmarks, we offer ownership opportunities much earlier than many other firms. Our ownership opportunities start at mid-career, after performance and dedication to our clients and firm are clearly established. With that said, our youngest owner is 31 years old and we have 17 owners who are in the millennial generation, making up 6.8% of ownership. Overall, out of our 850 employees and 412 eligible employees, 250 are owners, making GEI nearly 30% employee owned. Thank you for choosing GEI to grow your career. We are thrilled you’re part of our team and look forward to a successful, long-term partnership with you in support of our clients.

An (Overall) Positive Place to Work - Staff Professional GEI Consultants Employee Review

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