Jacobs reviews

4.0

81% would recommend to a friend

(7,757 total reviews)
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Bob Pragada

90% approve of CEO

69% positive business outlook

Jacobs has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 7,757 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Jacobs employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Servicios de construcción, reparación y mantenimiento industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

8K reviews
1.0
Mar 7, 2018

Dysfunctional work environment

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I'm a former CH2M employee, and I have great memories of my time there. When Jacobs acquired us, I did my best to wait and see what would happen and how I would feel about the company. The pro of the acquisition is that Jacobs paid long-time CH2M employees and retirees well for their stock.

Cons

--We went from having a woman CEO who cared about diversity to nearly all-male leadership. --There is/was no communication about what is happening. People are anxious, demoralized, and unhappy. --Some of the people put into very high-level positions are horrible leaders. Dysfunctional, dictatorial, and uncollaborative. They are not creating a positive, fun workplace at all. --In recent years, the things CH2M HILl cared about in the past--sustainability, diversity, positive morale, creating a fun and motivating workplace--were dumped because of poor management and lack of investment in these values. Jacobs supposedly acquired CH2M because they thought we were a culture fit, but I've seen no genuine investment in these attributes...in fact, they are being further eroded. --CH2M had a big emphasis on "selling the company store." Jacobs, being so big, is like 3-4 smaller companies. The silos are hard and impenetrable. It is not one company--instead it's 3 separate companies, and everyone does their own thing.

2.0
Jul 19, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I guess if I have to provide a pro it is that the Dallas office location is easily accessible.

Cons

As previous posts have mentioned, Jacobs is going through a massive reorganization. This has not missed HR. HR has been decentralized and now reports to the business. Look around the HR group and 90% of the people have been employed there less than 2 years. This, in and of itself is not the worst thing that could happen. Our prior SVP was incompetent to say the least and had no relationship building skills. However, this change has made the corporate HR team even more a mess. Take the comp and benefits for example. I don't know how Jacobs recruits people given the lousy benefits. Deductibles are through the roof and the premiums are just as bad. Dental, 401k and health incentives are all bad as well. There is no central pay structure, formal merit increases in compensation. Which means a free for all. Next is recruiting. There is no central recruiting. Very decentralized and one person has no idea what the other is doing. Then there is talent management. last year they brought in a "team" to build programs. The problem is the programs that once were global are now obsolete. I feel sorry for the two guys they brought on because they were talented and the best thing to happen to that group in a long time and now they are stuck in the mud with incompetent directors who had years to get these things done and failed. Speaking of directors...why they need 3 directors in a department of 8 is laughable. These directors are not respected in any group. Then there is compliance. There is no such thing. policies are inconsistent. Businesses are allowed to develop their own SOP's. When I left they were planning to change that but decentralizing the department prior to beginning this initiative does not make sense. The HR field staff is hit or miss. You have HR leaders in Europse who act as if they own the company and have a very narrow view of HR. I agree with the past comments of the talking heads of the company. They will post blogs and questions to the employees as if he is going to do something with the information. Here's an idea, why not work with HR to understand employees? Long story short, no career progression. No career development. No recognition. No strategy = me leaving.

1.0
Jul 14, 2016

Too much politics, bureaucracy and no respect to employees

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Big company's name in your CV

Cons

1. No equal development opportunity (depends on who your manager is) 2. Employees are expected to relocate to where ever is required and at your own expenses most of the times 3. You can expect to be put at risk of redundancy if you cannot keep your billability up and not willing to relocate 4. Risk averse company, not willing to explore new Clients and new opportunities 5. Senior management is clueless on the market development

Viewing 58 - 60 of 7,757 Reviews

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