CH2M Reviews
58% would recommend to a friend
(1188 total reviews)
Jacqueline Hinman
56% approve of CEO
Top Review Highlights by Sentiment
Excerpts from user reviews, not authored by Glassdoor
- "The people were great to work with and helped you grow and realize your potential based on where you wanted to go." (in 125 reviews)
- "CH2M upper management cares more about getting new business, then trying to fix a broken system." (in 28 reviews)
- "Unfortunately bad managers can ruin the good policies and act of their own accord." (in 28 reviews)
Ratings by Demographics
This rating reflects the overall rating of CH2M and is not affected by filters.
Found 1,188 of over 1K reviews
Updated Apr 15, 2023
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- 5.0May 2, 2022Anonymous EmployeeCurrent Employee
Pros
Stupendously super duper great wonderful
Cons
None I can think of
- 2.0Sept 21, 2015Biologist (TERA Legacy)Former Employee, more than 5 yearsCalgary, AB
Pros
Could be a good career launching board. IF you can hack not getting paid for your work and are ok with lying about your skill set so that you can get paid. This is a company that relies on nepotism. You need to know somebody to get work (you only get paid for project work btw. (So yeah that amazing database you want to build for the company to make a task 10x more efficient...that'll be on your own time). And in order to get your foot in the door you need to lie about what you are qualified to do. Yes that's right, there are knobs who know nothing wandering out in the bush with electrofishing backpacks and botanical keys calling themselves aquatics technician and botanists when they don't even know a rainbow from a brook trout or a willow from a herb.
Cons
Does not pay employees for the majority of their work. Low emphasis on good quality work. If an employee wants to produce something higher quality and that takes more time, well they won't get paid for that. Also be prepared for bare bones everything. Pencils? Oh, you supply those yourself. Printing? now you have to log into the printer and wait 10 min for a single page of paper. Is that billable? nope, that'll be on your own time. The gist of this is 1. RUN! 2. Don't even think about sending in a resume, worst mistake you'll ever make. 3. Sometimes I think even a place as bad a ghostpine might be better than CH2M.
10
CH2M Response9yHello, thanks for taking the time to share your experience in Calgary. The fair treatment and compensation of our employees is especially important to us. We read each and every review and we’d like you to know that your feedback on billable time will be shared with the management team.
- 4.0May 13, 2017Anonymous EmployeeCurrent Employee, more than 3 yearsToronto, ON
Pros
- No limit to the technical expertise you can gain. - Very, very interesting and diverse projects. - Good work/life balance. The office is a ghost-town as soon as the clock turns to 5pm. - Some of the coworkers are actually nice people to talk to. - As part of the project team you learn the nitty gritty of all aspects of a project from all the different disciplines (electrical, structural, civil, architectural etc etc). This develops your own technical competency.
Cons
- Compensation is not the best. You can keep slaving away and earning an "excellent" rating year after year (the best in your team) and still get only a 2.5% increase in salary. They also make it seem like they are doing you a huge favour by giving this raise. - No concept of bonuses or profit sharing for junior/intermediate level staff. The actual folks doing the work (designing, producing drawings, specifications) do not get bonuses but the upper management whose job is administrative at best earn bonuses from all successful projects. VERY UNFAIR. - Projects are very top heavy. More budgets were allocated for Project Managers and Design Managers rather than the engineers of each discipline to complete their work. Besides why do you need so many managers on even the most basic of projects? All they do is waste budget. - Job security isn't the best, but if you are good at what you do you will generally avoid getting laid off.
7 - 1.0Dec 28, 2016Senior EngineerFormer Employee, more than 3 yearsCalgary, AB
Pros
Telecommuting, flexibility in working locations, some great people.
Cons
If you don't have top coverage, your time on board is limited; top heavy senior management earning huge salaries and not contributing to the bottom line efficiently. Us technical people doing the work with not support. Client centricity model isn't working; having no overall admin number to charge to if you're not considered a BD person is crazy; using vacation time so as not to incur overhead costs is a widespread practice that no one open admits to but everyone does it. Not a way to manage an organization. Truly care about your people so they don't feel like they are a number on a spreadsheet and only as good as their previous project. There is no loyalty.
22 - 4.0Jul 31, 2014Anonymous EmployeeCurrent Employee, more than 5 years
Pros
Good people make the work place somewhere you want to go every day. Some large and exciting projects. A written and referred to book of ethics.
Cons
The larger projects are usually staffed with a lot of US people leaving some capable Canadian staff looking for work. Drastic measures with non billable time make the atmosphere tense. This creates a lot of frustration because of the lack of support and effort in the business development. Unfortunately sometimes the lines in the written ethics book get blurred.
4 - 2.0Jun 28, 2014Project ManagerFormer Employee, more than 5 yearsCalgary, AB
Pros
Poor considering the size of the organisation.
Cons
Unethical and lack respect for employees. CH2MHILL bought Tera and demonstrate unethical practices when it comes to staff retention. Tera's Director of HR and VP of communication terminated the employment of many hard working people. Senior management have no clue about the work people do beneath them. Stay away from this company. CH2MHILL has been doing poorly financially which is why they bought into the environmental market. They do not understand the business.
8 - 1.0Sept 13, 2015Anonymous EmployeeCurrent Employee, more than 3 yearsCalgary, AB
Pros
with the economy tanking right now, I'm happy I at least have a job.
Cons
it's like running your own business inside a much larger business that takes 3/4 of your paycheck and offers nothing in return. You are on your own, you have to find your own work, and if your numbers start to slip, you're done. If this company had better compensation, this might not be so bad, but as is, you might as well start your own business. You will still be doing all the work yourself, but you'll get to keep all the money you're billing out at. Oh, and there will probably be less corruption.
12 - 2.0Aug 8, 2018TechnicianFormer Employee, more than 3 yearsCalgary, AB
Pros
Corporate environment, entrepreneurial setting In-house, self-directed, uncompensated educational program available
Cons
Full billable hours are not guaranteed Higher level of discourse and unhealthy competition between employees competing for billable hours Only paid for billable hours Efficiency methods reduce work to being redundant, repetitive and boring. Little innovation or problem solving. Status quo rules. Butt kissing and backstabbing is the best way for career advancement
6 - 3.0Jul 11, 2017Safety SpecialistFormer Employee, more than 3 years
Pros
The company have very good benefit package, from health and wellness, education funding, to RRSP good matching rate. In comparing to other companies, the benefits here are really good.
Cons
Chasing billing codes for most of your day to find where you can bill your time at work, that can get you frustrated sometimes when you feel that you was working hard on many things throughout the day, but you can't find a code to bill your time to.., which is one of the cons for most consulting firms I believe.
1 - 1.0May 26, 2016Anonymous EmployeeFormer Employee, more than 3 yearsCalgary, AB
Pros
Some of the coworkers were fun to work with.
Cons
Horrid communication. Terrible management that are unable and unwilling to reduce billing rates to attract new business. Senior level employees typically do not answer your emails if they do not have the time for you. Work is handed to members of cliques. The CEO is clueless and directionless. I predict ch2m operations in Canada will be bankrupt in less than a year. Do not apply to work for this 3rd rate company.
23CH2M Response8yThank you for the feedback. We'll make sure this is shared with the Canada management team. Thanks, Matt
CH2M Reviews FAQs
CH2M has an overall rating of 3.3 out of 5, based on over 1,293 reviews left anonymously by employees. 58% of employees would recommend working at CH2M to a friend and 34% have a positive outlook for the business. This rating has decreased by -7% over the last 12 months.
58% of CH2M employees would recommend working there to a friend based on Glassdoor reviews. Employees also rated CH2M 3.5 out of 5 for work life balance, 3.4 for culture and values and 3.1 for career opportunities.
