Alcoa Reviews

Pros

Benefits, Pay, Vacation, Employee relations

Cons

Limited Promotions,Pay performance, Recognition, Raises,

Advice to Senior Management

Pay Performance structured within attainable limits.

Pros

Willing to invest in technology

Cons

Lacks knowledge manufacturing knowledge at mid management level
Inexperience leadership at senior management level
Poor business ethics
Leadership quick to eliminate american jobs
Very low morale thoughout the organization
No work life balance
Leadership has formed an adversarial relationship with the workforce

Advice to Senior Management

Realize that the AFS senior leadership is a failed experiment and start all over before you lose more talent.

Pros

Great team with some great talent

Cons

Lack of opportunities outside the US - very little scope for career progression, outside of "dead mans shoes" a little frustrating at times.

Advice to Senior Management

Standardise employee benefits globally. I felt sometimes I worked for a different company, when speaking with my colleagues in the US

Pros

Safety first, enviromentallly aware, respect for employees, ability to growth within the company, innovative, dynamic and sound foundation for growth.

Cons

work life balance, systems in place may be overwhelming to employess

Advice to Senior Management

keep up the good work, however sometime top down decisons usually cost the company more

Pros

Stable During turmoil
Plant environment good for people enhancement
Good award and recognition plans applied
Safety first is a common practice

Cons

Contingency plans lack of information should be eliminated for better performance at critical times , should improve to balance pressure on workers

Pros

safety is their number one and only concern. They communicate their profits/losses.co workers are the best. vacations sick days fmla.

Cons

Alcoa is running our company (TRACO ) to the ground. They approve defective windows to go to the customer then they complain about the amount of field work.They make us work OT and then we wait for metal. They change our shifts like a person changes socks. The pay is horrible, the benefits are alot worse than what we had with a family owned business. They give us unattainable goals to meet.

Advice to Senior Management

LISTEN TO THE EMPLOYEES.TtHEY HAVE BEEN THERE ALOT LONGER THAN YOU!!

Pros

If you want to work at a place where employees are genuinely cared for and looked after then I would strongly recommend Alcoa. There is a strong visibility of senior management. I was able to meet the plant manager for the site I worked at although I was only an intern. Furthermore, I was able to meet other managers from other sites in other countries.

Cons

Personally, I did not have as much knowledge of the area I was working in before I joined the company. I would have appreciated a little more theoretical training even if only for a few days.

Advice to Senior Management

I would recommend that the leadership of Alcoa keep doing all the good things they are doing and especially to maintain their commitment to environmental responsibility.

Pros

Good salary, decent benefits, the product is excellent and safety is important. You must negotiate for a good salary because the raises are small but the performance bonus can be very good.

Cons

Alcoa is a company that has businesses everywhere so you would think that it would be easy to find another job in another location but the HR department is so poorly structured that to move from one location to another is difficult. HR is only concerns with dealing with grievances and complaints.

At our location there are many from the hourly that have to work twelve hour shifts with mandatory overtime. The salaries are expected to work overtime without compensation. Once you had up those hours your salary does not look so high. It is a good deal for Alcoa who does not need to pay taxes on that free labor.

Our business was reorganized and our sales management team was completely ousted, people who truly understood our business (aerospace forgings) were replaced by people who came in like carpetbaggers from extrusion. There was no transition just high jacking of key positions with fancy announcements.

The headcount is reduced to the lowest possible level for the non-managerial group so it means that issues are slow to be resolved, employees are afraid to lose their jobs and don’t cooperate. It is a culture that breeds back stabbing and knowledge is not share. I would never recommend to people who like a healthy work environment to apply at Alcoa until they make major changes right at the top.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop parading interns and quickly promoting them above your older more knowledgeable employee. Instead bring people in to learn the work alongside employees that can mentor them without fear of being replaced as happened in our office in two months. Ease people into retirement so that their knowledge is kept in house and they can train their replacement properly. Also take a look at equal pay for equal work, you are in violation. Your HR department is not doing its job.

Pros

Alcoa is a global large company that can offer potential for learning, growth and career advancement. Great place to go to learn and get experience. If you like the ability to travel and work at different locations and get exposure to cross functional training, than this is a place for you.

Cons

Like working for many other larger organizations, it is tougher to see what your role is in the bigger picture and to feel valued as an employee. At times you feel like a "number". Obviously, organizations are driven by results > generating revenue/ profit, however at times it seems to be only about the numbers and not about the people who actually do the work. They are trying to make sure to reward and recognize their people, but it is not easy when working in an environment where numbers are more important. You can work 24/7 without feeling like you made a difference.

Advice to Senior Management

Try to maintain a balance between driving profit and showing appreciation for employees. Celebrate the small things as well. Especially with the new generations coming to the work place, there will need to be more balance between work and life.

Pros

Huge company with lots of locations and business units, excellent name recognition, opportunities to learn if you want to take it upon yourself to do so.

Cons

Extremely political and if you are not one of the group or if someone in the group is threatened by you, your skills and abilities or education level, then look out. You will not have the opportunities to advance as you should.

Advice to Senior Management

You go to great lengths to recruit very talented and educated women and then you devalue them and their contributions to the organization...as evidenced by the large numbers of senior level women leaving the company.