There's Better Companies Out There - Electrical Engineer II Black & Veatch Employee Review

One of the best aspects of working at Black & Veatch is the people. The culture is collaborative, supportive, and built around strong professional relationships. I have had the opportunity to work alongside some of the best and brightest individuals in the industry, which has been both inspiring and rewarding. The company genuinely invests in its employees through excellent mentoring, coaching, and career development opportunities. Leaders are approachable and committed to helping team members grow professionally, whether through formal programs, on-the-job learning, or exposure to meaningful and challenging work.

Communication around internal programs and initiatives could be improved. Increasing visibility and awareness of available resources, development opportunities, and company initiatives would help employees better engage with and benefit from them.

Fair starting compensation, the team I lead is very dedicated, the onboarding process is very smooth, there are opportunities to mentor and be mentored.

The current performance management process is deeply flawed. Leaders collect ratings from managers and supervisors, then gather in a room with peers to “calibrate.” During this meeting, a predetermined percentage of employees must receive low ratings. At one point, someone referred to this as “forced ratings,” and the IT leader became visibly upset, insisting that it was not. However, I was present for the discussion: we lowered ratings, checked the spreadsheet, lowered more ratings, checked the spreadsheet again, and repeated this cycle until we hit the percentage the IT leader said had to be met. From conversations with peers outside of IT, this appears to be a common practice across the organization. Unfortunately, the approach often results in employees receiving ratings that do not accurately reflect their actual performance. These artificially lowered ratings directly affect merit increases and bonuses—even if the bonuses are relatively small—creating consequences that feel at best unfair. Regardless of what label is used, the experience felt undeniably forced.