employer cover photo
employer logo
employer logo

Granite Construction

Engaged Employer

Granite Construction reviews

4.0

79% would recommend to a friend

(490 total reviews)
avatar

Kyle T. Larkin

92% approve of CEO

85% positive business outlook

Granite Construction has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 490 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Granite 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

490 reviews
1.0
Oct 19, 2009

Does not walk the talk

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

When times were good, the company made some effort to provide development to employees. I felt at times they were making good on their claim that people matter and that they invest in their employees. They seem to follow their code of conduct with clients such as honesty, integrity, doing the right thing, and are known for this but not at all when it comes to their own employees. It's like the shoemaker who can't help his own kids. They are making some effort to get salaries up to market level, but this past year there were no raises. My health insurance plan was okay but most are paying WAY too much. I did meet some really nice people working there.

Cons

Granite used to believe that they were special in some way-that they were so respectful towards their employees. They somehow received the "Best Places to Work" award for five years in a row. The people making this happen must have been managers and above and salaried field people because these people are truly the only people the company invests in. If you are not in those favored groups, you don't get any leadership training or support to move ahead, and good luck navigating the politics otherwise. Those people must also be thinking otherwise since they stopped getting the award a few years ago and haven't since. They are just now trying to make job descriptions and get people up to a pay level where they belong. They are so behind technologically it's a joke. They still use paper and outdated computer systems for almost everything. There is also NO accountability. They literally do not do performance evaluations and there are completely incompetent people there who have been doing their job for 20 years. If you're a problem employee, you just get moved to another department. They recently laid off 150 people and used no decision making logic to do so. Guess what? Tons of talent walked out their door-not so many of the dead wood since their decisions had nothing to do with performance. So much for their constant talk about "honoring their people"-one of the corporate goals!!-you are now a number that got crossed out. Tough luck after years of loyalty and actual good performance.

2.0
Feb 12, 2012

Was a great place

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The pay is reasonable and is based upon industry surveys for similar jobs. You are paid within the range of others with your job title in the industry. Granite minimizes titles so you may have more responsibility than others with your same title.

Cons

Under Bill Dorey, there was a genuine concern for the well fare of the employees. Managers in general sought out the best ideas regarding a system or in times of change. Now, a few select managers decide what's best for the company and then they give you the pleasure of having them tell you how it is or how it's going to be. The senior managers ignore anything but those who tell them what they want to hear about where the company is headed. The company culture was built upon a decentralized structure managed by entrepreneurs. Now Granite is trying to migrate to a command and control style with many functions centralized at corporate. It has been the worst of both worlds, the overhead has become both less efficient and less responsive to customer needs. A number of people have to be involved in every simple task even though no one is trusted enough to just take care of the job (even with review). Senior managers ignore any attempt at constructive criticism. They either ignore you or they tell you you're wrong. There is no attempt to figure out a better mouse trap. You're expected to tell them how great everything is and how lucky we are to be here. These dinosaurs are very out of touch with what's going on in the field. This is a new phenomenon at Granite. One of Bill Dorey's strengths was to seek out the best way to do things and to determine what the needs of the employees were and then try to fulfill them. Now, we have executives getting a nice $160k raise while the rest of us are still waiting to have our 401(k) match back to a reasonable level. .

3.0
Aug 2, 2012

Hard work doesn't really pay off

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

A good work environment where almost everyone tries to help each other. You are given a lot of freedom to get your job done.

Cons

There is no work/life balance. 60+ hour weeks are not uncommon. Not enough people to handle the workloads assigned.

Viewing 466 - 468 of 490 Reviews

Glassdoor has 581 Granite Construction reviews submitted anonymously by Granite Construction employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Granite Construction is right for you.