Arkema US Reviews

Pros

Great benefit package. Communication is good overall.

Cons

Promotion opportunities can be limited

Pros

Community, respect for others, high professional standards, very good location, variety of research areas for chemcial industry, focus on green tech, recently updated IT to Windows 7 and improved access to internet

Cons

Organization suffers from "silo" mentality so info is not readily shared between groups. Sometimes too much focus on "going to the right school", Lotus Notes is painful to use and example of decisions made in France dictating US

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work in respecting employees, improve oportunitues for proferssional growth, but don't be cheap by not sharing profits with employees (no bonuses for most)

Pros

There is a tremendous amount of freedom to explore and develop ideas. The company is very conservative when it comes to CAPEX for asset development, but it is not impossible to move a project forward - all it takes is passion and commitment to a good idea.

Cons

The organization is largely matrix managed. Movement for such an organization tends to be slower than smaller, more nimble, entrepaneurial organizations. The cautious management style minimizes expensive mistakes, but also results in an inability to take advantage of a rapidly evolving market.

Pros

Few, if any positive reasons for someone to work for Arkema.
Overall employee benefits are good.
Arkema has an excellent Intranet for following all the various benefit programs

Cons

Arkema U.S is an under-staffed and an overworked organization. Every move or decision is micro-managed and/or over analyzed by France.
The decision to move to King of Prussia was not a thoroughy anaylzed decision.
Having two completely different benefit structures (U.S and French) is not a morale builder for employees. The employess are treated completely different then French expats in the U.S or employees working in France.
Poor technology. Arkema is still using Windows 2000
The French employees fly First Class/Business on international trips and the American employees are required to fly coach.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees in the U.S.
Properly staff the various departments.
Improve the quality of life for employees (60 to 70 hour work weeks are completely unacceptable) in the U.S
Allow employees to bank vacation or be paid for unused vacation vs. forcing them to lose unused vacation.
Impower your employees to be able to make the right decisions without having to deal with France all the time
Treat your U.S employees on the same level of those in France

Pros

Decent compensation.
Good co-workers
Comraderie at lower levels.
4% match on 401K
Overall competive benefits package.
Good geographic locations to fit different preferences.

Cons

No committment to invest in current business.
Lack of understanding of real problems by upper management and even site management.
Too much emphasis on immediate term at the expense of ling term viability.
Company has established a pattern of shedding higher paid senior employees in favor of lower salaried, less experienced persons.

Advice to Senior Management

Encourage site managers to get out of their office and see what is really happening. Don't keep them so embroiled in filing reports that they don't have time to attend to what is really important.

If you aren't committed to a business, sell it tom someone who is rather than running it into the ground.

Pros

KOP facility is located in a relatively nice location at least in comparison to other chemical companies. Reasonable ability to balance work life and family life.

Cons

1. A few entrenched managers are rewarded with bonuses while the worker bees receive mediocre compensation.

2. Few advancement opportunities; these are won by brown-nosing French cronies, corporate nepotism, or affirmative action.

3. Bright engineers report to incompetent managers who constantly second guess their efforts.

4. Performance reviews are comical--almost Dilbertesque.

5. A very cliquish culture with surprisingly left-of-center employees—at least for a chemical company (French influence?)

6. Recent company survey rated management and company morale as very poor.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop behaving like a backwater organization. Clean house of poor managers. Bring in outside consultants to review worker resumes and identifiy top talent based upon objective criteria. Assess managers based upon ability to actually manage. Develop people!

Pros

Global Travel and some great products

Cons

Very Franco-centric - not open to US managers advancing.

Advice to Senior Management

Get out of your office and walk around - listen to emplyees.
Consider the number of reductions in workforce versus the results - is there a negative corrolation?

Pros

Having the ability to work a flex schedule is a definite plus. Traffic is extremely congested getting to the site and being able to come to work early and avoid sitting in traffic is a definite plus.

Cons

Morale is at a definite all-time low at both the King of Prussia site and headquarters in Philadelphia. Key employees are leaving the company.

Advice to Senior Management

When employees express their concerns about low morale and the effect of key employees leaving it would be better to validate those concerns even if you feel a problem does not exist. Being told that there is nothing you can do to stop employees from leaving, that our turnover rate is in line with our peer companies, that "the grass is not always greener", etc. does nothing to address the problem.

Pros

Regular 40 hour week.
Nice colleagues.
Low pressure environment.
Flexible work and projects.

Cons

Missing directions.
Everything is a grassroot effort.
No clear career path.
Job security has diminished.
Cost savings only way of increasing profits.
No general bonus system.

Advice to Senior Management

What do you want to do? New products, restructuring, sell the company, merger?

Pros

- Good people across the organization.
- Flexible with time off to attend to personal needs.
- Technically competent core personnel

Cons

- Lots of riders, not many pulling or pushing the cart,
- Weak & leaderless 1st line and 2nd line managers.
- Technically incompetent middle managers.
- No appreciation for flexibility, consistent results and Team players.
- Headcount reductions are by numbers at without looking at functions.
- Covertly targets ageing workers for elimination with overwhelming workload.

Advice to Senior Management

Please take the time to have team training for all your sites. Recognize that not all employees are wired to climb the corporate ladder. While good teams require leaders, Great teams need to have everybody pulling the cart.