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Holder Construction

Engaged Employer

Holder Construction reviews

3.9

84% would recommend to a friend

(328 total reviews)

Beth Lowry

97% approve of CEO

78% positive business outlook

Holder Construction has an employee rating of 3.9 out of 5 stars, based on 328 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Holder Construction employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Construction, Repair & Maintenance Services industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

328 reviews
2.0
Feb 2, 2018

Project Engineer/Preconstruction Engineer

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Good place to learn the ins and outs straight out of college. - Opportunities to travel all over, with moving services provided to you - On the leading edge of technology advances in construction - PTO days - Promote from within. Very rarely do they hire outside people to fill leadership positions, preventing the "I got passed over for an outsider" issue some companies see. - Internship program is top notch. They give interns actually responsibilities instead of making "coffee runs"

Cons

- Where you start at is typically where you stay. If you are a project engineer, that is the path you will stay on through Senior Engineer Project Manager, Senior PM, etc. Usually they stick PE's without projects in Preconstruction for a few months, but you rarely see anyone jump from one path to another. This makes for a division and lack of understanding of what everyone does. (Example: An estimator once asked a project engineer what a pay application was and why we had to do them every month.) - If you have more than 2 years experience in the industry and are not looking for a field position (i.e. Carpenter, foreman, etc.), the chances you will get on are low. The preference is for recent graduates and those with little experience. - Hours are long across the board. Doesn't matter your role, expect 12 hour days to be normal. Weekends as well. - While you get PTO, taking it is another thing. Roll-over is limited to 5 days a year that MUST be taken before March 31st. While it is yours to take, others tend to frown on when you use it outside of holiday periods like Christmas - Performance reviews are non-existent. Around 2014, they did away with formal reviews in favor of "Open Door Policy". It is expected that you and your manager set aside time to talk about your development. Easier said then done with how heavy everyone's workload tends to be. - Family and Health are not high priorities. The last few years saw bigger pushes for employees to focus on health but it tends to fall to the wayside after March. Starting or having a family is very difficult, especially for operations staff (office engineers, project managers, superintendents, etc.) as they are required to move from project to project. - Moving, like mentioned before, is a requirement. Data centers (their bread and butter) are usually located in sparsely populated areas with few follow on projects. This means a move is required if you want to stay on. Also, you'll get 1-2 weeks at best to get ready to move - Company Core Values are there, but not pushed or really talked about. Each year's core theme tends to focus on client related items and not the core values. My colleagues at other companies could recite theirs yet I don't think most employees, myself included, could name more than 3.

2.0
May 3, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Holder does an excellent job in giving people opportunity if you go after it. No one is going to hand you your next assignment or task, rather you will need to go out of your way to pave your own path. This is great if you are a self-starter and a go-getter. Your career is limitless if you fit that mold. - The tight knit teams that are created on project sites is a great way to meet new people and immerse yourself with others over a common goal. Most all teams work well together and achieve some amazing results on projects. - Holder affords you the ability to work on very high-profile and high-technology based jobs across the country. If you love to work on really cool and complex projects, this is the place for you! - There are many innitatives being built at Holder and everyone is welcome to engage and participate. You are afforded the ability to help mold some of those initiatives.

Cons

- The cost for health benefits is extremely high compared to others in the market. - Leaders are very out of touch with how employees actually feel on issues surrounding work-life balance, integrity and internal office politics. - There is always a sense of competition among peers to out perform one another for the next rasie or promotion. This can be good or bad depending on your personality, but overall it seems this causes riffs in some teams. - When getting re-located from one project to another, moving is a hassle and you get very little time, if any, to prepare your personal life for the transition to the next project. (Albeit, Holder does have a great partner to physically pack your things and move them - but sometimes you are given only 1 week to pick up your life and move.) - There is very little transparency with people under the Manager level, the big things such as profit and projections are shared, but a lot of times some of the more meaningful information is lost in the riff of day to day and employees find out about new policies only when they are expected to implement it. - Associate feedback is very inconsistent and many times not given all together (all depends on your Manager, it is not standardized - this works well for some and not for others.) - If you do not fit the mold of the Holder ideal person, you will struggle to fit into the company culture. This in effect trains those who do not fit that mold to quit rather than persevere and develop further. (The comapny has made an effort to address this and it is implemented by some departments and ignored by others - no consitency.) - As you move from project to project, your Manager and Director will be different and there will be many challanges to adjusting to their style. They do not cater to you, it will be the employees responsibility to read into what they want to deliver based on these different expectations. This becomes a major issue when you are working 10-12 hour days and unable to meet the already high standard. - The projects are staffed way too lean. This is addressed over and over again as employees work to the bone to achieve sometimes unrealistic goals set by the company leadership in order to win projects. - Growth in the company is directly tied to the Director and Managers you work under. Growth conversations are not based on accomplishments or metrics. Promotions are based on how well you are liked on your project. This causes major career set-backs for those that have differing work styles than those that manage them.

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Holder Construction Response
3y
Many things you described are areas we will always focus our attention to enhance the associate experience, because our people are our most valuable asset – the associate experience is what keeps many associates at Holder their entire career. We appreciate you leaving a review and sharing the experience you had at Holder.
2.0
Nov 16, 2015

Review

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Honestly there are not very many that I can think of. This was not a good place to work.

Cons

They consistently overworked their employees without any compensation or thanks. They suffered from very poor management from both the field and office side. There was always a lack of communication and direction from superiors.

Viewing 13 - 15 of 328 Reviews

Glassdoor has 402 Holder Construction reviews submitted anonymously by Holder Construction employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Holder Construction is right for you.