"Inline with the Market" - Avis employé Software Engineer III Bendix

With a perceived cap place upon the advancement of experienced engineers, too many seek managerial roles (as opposed to principal level positions above "staff engineer 3"). The result is supervisors that are lost in the realm of mentoring and leadership. The problem is only heightened when these individuals get promoted further up the managerial ladder and promote others 'in their mold' to the vacated supervisor roles. It's a systemic problem that is snow-balling down the wrong path. HR periodically has direct reports complete anonymous surveys to provide these roles with feedback. A director recently received a mostly-negative review across the board. The same director was also instructed to take the same survey as a self-assessment, and of course assigned himself much higher marks. He explained the data discrepancies as "statistical outliers" and dismissed the lower marks and opinions and ultimately nothing came from this. One would think that HR would process this information and assess middle and upper management through these surveys, and have consequences for across the board negative marks. Human Resources has a vast amount of power, not seen at other corporations. Example: When interviewing a candidate for a senior level engineering position the interview panel consisted of three Engineer IIIs, an Engineering Manager, and a Human Resources Director. All engineering parties agreed that an offer should be extended, but the buck stopped at the HR representatives desk. Why? Reason cited was the assessment of 'technical abilities'. Compensation is far behind the times and the market. The company touts the line that everything (benefits, compensation, etc) is harmonized and "inline with the market". In particular, compensation. Oddly enough, no one in HR had seen the 2014 SAE salary survey which shows the contrary (10-30% lower than the Midwest averages). Due to the heavily mechanical product portfolio, it seems that the idea of highly technological roles are undervalued through not being understood or appreciated. Bendix has seen a consistent revolving door of the higher technical roles (specifically HIL simulation), leaving them with incompetent resources filling these positions. Additionally, promotions to new positions are all too often accompanied by "lateral raises" (i.e. more responsibilities without matching compensation). It's baffling to see engineers offered engineering supervisor roles, or designers completing their engineering bachelors degrees, without a pay increase. All of the negatives seem to grow worse year after year, as Bendix knows that the workforce accepts the above items and remain at the company. Given the geographical location, engineering talent that wishes to vote-by-leaving must relocate to do so, which leaves many disgruntled employees that refuse to leave/move.