Alcoa Reviews

Pros

Alcoa offered me a ridiculous amount of money out of college to work at their Corporate Headquarters which was a beautiful location, very clean with lots of training opportunities.

Cons

Many of the managers are promoted and/or hired in with no competency whatsoever. Men rule the roost while women back-stab each other for the scraps. I saw many talented people get disheartened and leave while many incompetent managers have stayed and prospered. There is no system in place to get rid of the "dummies".

Advice to Senior Management

Go back to what made you great - valuing your people. This was once a great company but you have lost your way and lost a great deal of talented & dedicated people. Act now.

Pros

Great people to work with, a lot of the areas are old North plant was built in 1942 South plant was built in 1909, over the years the plant has upgraded a lot of the facilities.

Cons

The union allows a lot of people with no skills getting jobs are not qualified for, also the union make special deals with other people and ruins the quality of life at the plant. The company allow unqualified people to get certain jobs when their education and skill level is not where it should be. A lot of these people do not have but high school educations and because of seniority they slow the company down to get qualified people.

Advice to Senior Management

Do not allow people who are not qualified to stay in their jobs, more accountability to the workforce, the apprenticeship programs should not allow people who come in to keep their seniority they should come in on day one seniority. This will eliminate a lot of people just coming in the jobs to hold them and hold others back.

Pros

The safety of the employees is the number one priority. They communicate work schedules very well. They have a very good benefit package.They respect the work we do overall.

Cons

They recently took our company over (Traco) and they are making salaries for new (temp) employees more than the salaries for the experienced employees that run the products. We work hard building windows and we can't hold alcoa responsible for our previous employers mistakes with the salaries but they are creating a poor work environment by increasing wages to unexperienced employees while not increasing the current employees wages.

Advice to Senior Management

We as employees try hard to make our shipments but the current moral over the wages has become a real problem. Employees on the floor with years of experience need to be compensated fairly and recognized for their achievements and knowledge

Pros

3 or 4 percent more pay than national average. Decent benefits. Room for promotion "IF" you want to go into a production management job.

Cons

Limited technical job growth. Only way to get decent promotions is to go production. Too much politics. Plants in are (four of them) all pay 15%+ more on salary with comparable benefits so we attract mediocre employees at best which makes it difficult for the good employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop micromanaging so much and treat people like people. Production shouldn't be more important than having a personal life. Develop talent not seniority.

Pros

Upper Management theoreticallly likes to change things.

Cons

Whatever is preached by upper level management goes through hi-tech lynching by the power holders.

Advice to Senior Management

Get out the in-breeding for an effective change

Pros

People are friendly
Many global experiences available

Cons

Corporate offices are in Pittsburgh only
Plant locations in many smaller towns

Pros

Important corporation but in a tough market.

Cons

Very bureaucratic and as a result very slow decision making.

Advice to Senior Management

Lay-offs have taken away know-how

Pros

It offered fairly decent benefits and the workers were very good. Steady paycheck with a lot of overtime was provided.

Cons

Mandatory overtime and the pay was not very good considering how hard you had to work. I don't mind working hard but at least pay more. Middle managers were not consistant.

Advice to Senior Management

Ensure rules are standard and fair to everyone. Make middle management accountable for how they treat poeple in order to be sure they are fair and just.

Pros

Huge company, name recognition, great benefits

Cons

poor departmental management, no cohesion between manufacturing and administrative departments

Advice to Senior Management

Be respectful to your subordinates. Appreciate good employees.

Pros

Appreciated for what you bring to the table, given plenty of opportunities to present to leaders, easy access to leaders at all levels.

Cons

You need to be prepared to work very hard with fewer and fewer resources, most employees take their laptops home and work nights/weekends to try to keep afloat. Continuous lay offs leave remaining staff with low morale.

Advice to Senior Management

There is still a good name with Alcoa on your resume, but how about stepping back and looking at the company as a whole and seeing how staffing decisions have longer term effects?