Austal Reviews

Pros

Austal offers good benefits and good salary.

State of the art shipyard with a great future. There are lots of opportunities to learn a lot about different ship systems.

Cons

The company should offer more training opportunities to its employees.

Austal needs to organize its procedures and processes so that information can flow easier through the company.

Pros

There are many chances for you to move around the company if you felt like taking on a new challenge

Cons

It is a company that has quite a niche in the market, however the market does fall significantly, jobs can be quite volitile.

Advice to Senior Management

I believe that the management in Austal do a sterling job considering the challenges that the face in the global market

Pros

Decent pay, much name recognition around Mobile. Great location in downtown Mobile. With LCS contract, there is a steady stream of work available.

Cons

Horrendous micromanagement in engineering leadership. No room for growth, no career path planned for employees, absolutely no training, and you are crucified when you make a mistake. Trial by fire mentality. Have worked every Saturday for weeks. A feeling of no matter how hard you try, you still are not good enough.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your people with respect. Open channels of communication. Think of creating a positive working environment for your employees, and you will see more results. Don't mandate working everyday for an entire month (we are talking salary employees with no overtime), and give no credit to your people afterwards. Don't check people's timesheets like they are 5 year olds. Set realistic goals so people don't always feel like situations are hopeless. Instill a precedent that it is not okay for adults to yell at one another on a daily basis. Be actual leaders, don't manage by cracking the whip.

Pros

Benefits are good (not great), current growth presents opportunities for advancement, production facility is clean for a shipyard

Cons

Poor teamwork among departments and trades, recognition is almost nonexistent while training & development for non-production employees is nonexistent, offsite computer classes and Franklin Covey classes were offered for a while until the loss of a contract hit the budget hard and training was "temporarily" put on hold though reinstatement of them doesn't appear to be on the radar.

Advice to Senior Management

Revisit and encourage training of office personnel, not only computer training but professional development specific to each department and do more to encourage recognition, especially spontaneous recognition.

Pros

I really cant think of anything thats really great . The benefits arent really anything terrific. You accrue 1 week of vacation the first year, 2 weeks the second year, and 3 weeks the 4th year.

Cons

The pay is not comparable to the long hours and stress. You would think because this is an Australian company they would offer the same benefits as they offer their Australian counter part company in Perth, Austal Ships. Australians get from the day of hire 30 days paid vacation in addition to 2 weeks off at christmas Terrible management. I would not recommend this employer to anyone. They have earned a terrible reputation in the South East.

Advice to Senior Management

Employees should be treated with respect and dignity even if they are not in a management role. Human resources should have employees review management once a year.

Pros

company expansion presenting new opportunities

Cons

lack of teamwork among departments

Advice to Senior Management

encourage teamwork among departments