Pros
The vast majority of the staff at FORTRUST are good, dedicated people. The business has extensive policies and procedures in place which support the 100% uptime of the facility.
Cons
Their idea of leadership is “do as your told, don’t ask questions.” New ideas are routinely shot down because they didn’t think of it first, or it will disappear in to a black hole with no response or feedback. The COO regularly hires people from his favorite bar or golf course with no related work or industry experience. The strategic plan, while heavily vocalized by the COO, was developed and subsequently annually updated by only the top tier of the company. No input, feedback or involvement is ever requested of the staff, no engagement is sought other than “here’s our plan, you will memorize and live by it.” Budget is tightly controlled by #2 and #3 in the company, no insight is provided to the department managers. Input is only sought once a year for new expenditures. No program exists for personal or professional development other than lip service. Their fear is “we’ll spend money to train and educate people and then they’ll leave us for better positions,” despite the well document benefits of improving employee morale, effectiveness, motivation and retention. Individual compensation is keep as low as possible, typically 15% - 25% below industry standards. Benefits are behind the times and no bonus pool exists. The NOC is restricted from doing anything beyond basic remote hands service, not allow to think or act outside of a procedure. Technical skills are intentionally restricted with very little opportunity for growth or advancement (see ‘training’ above). Marketing is constantly micromanaged, criticized and berated by the COO. However, if you’re in Sales, and a friend of the executive team, you are routinely given a pass on meeting targets and goals. The SVP of the department will regularly cherry pick the best deals for himself. Which is why the facility is less than 50% capacity after 14 years of operation.
