Pros

Laid back work atmosphere most times. Quiet place to work. If you want a simple job where money, promotions etc. does not matter then it is great! They will hire just about anybody. If you are unemployed and you just have to have a job then they will give you one. I mean I like Benchmark and the people. I just would not want to work there for a long time. Great job for high scholl or college kids.

Cons

Low pay. Little to no raises. No bonuses. Little help from upper management for promotions or help with problems on the line. Virtually impossible the get a promotion. Employee morale is low. Managers do not communicate well. They expect you do live at the plant. The plant never closes even in the worst of natural disasters, except some Holidays, and they still expect you to come to work! Not coming in could also count negatively against you and may be grounds for getting laid-off. Taking time off period could be an issue and grounds to be the first one laid-off. Expect not to get paid, but they will expect you to work 3 or more jobs simultaneously and like it without complaint. Expect to work weekends, expect not to get able notice of overtime, cannot plan ahead cause they expect you to come to work, if you do not it will count against you. Again, that also may be grounds to get laid off. Terriblely high employee turnover rate. If you have read my previous comments you see why.

Advice to Senior Management

Cut your salaries and give more salaries to the people. Hire more high quality people from within the plant that actually know how to do the job. Actually post all of the jobs that are available not just the ones you want to post. Listen to the plant workers more. I have seen plant employees that know more about the product that upper management and engineers because employees not only build every component and test them, but they are cross-trained on almost the whole entire process. Most employees know how to do multiple jobs on multiple lines. They ought to be promoted at some point. Assembler I employees should not be Assembler I employees for 5 years and only get a 30 cent raise in 5 years. When exceptional employees put their hard earned time in they deserve to be rewarded.

The best employees are quitting and getting jobs where they are rewarded for their hard work with more than just a pat on the back. Benchmark could be a billion dollar company if it would give people what they deserve. There a few people in upper management that know what they are doing and most of the engineers you never see. No one is really familiar with the product except for the technicians and assemblers, but that does not help Benchmark any because they won't promote any of them. If Benchmark is going to succeed they have to have better business practices. I have seen Product Engineers and the like come to my plant telling me all the wrong stuff all the time and them get mad when I do not agree with them.

Toyota is successful (despite declining car sales due to the current economic status of the U.S.) because they hire the best, they expect their employees to work hard, they promote their employees and their business model is exceptional. I thought that Benchmark would be a place to move up, but it is not. They just want you to stay where you are so they do not have to pay you any more money. I know a lot of people who chose to be unemployed rather than put up with Benchmark any longer.

I am not exaggerating. I did not leave Benchmark on a bad note. This is coming from one of the most dedicated, well liked employees Benchmark had. In closing my advice to Benchmark is " be loyal to your employees and they will be loyal to you. If you treat them like just another number, all your great employees will leave and all you will be left with is numbers, poor quality, incompetent people, huge overhead, scrap that is too high and terrible inventory turnover." Want to change? Build people and those people will build your company, tear them down and they'll do the same!