Kaiser Aluminum Reviews

Pros

generally supportive of professional development and training of salaried employees. Fairly stable business. rational decision making, less office politics than many other places, not many unecessary meetings

Cons

old school management style, lack of any common culture, lack investment in modern IT tools (intranet), minimal community involvement / social responsibility, frequent layoffs / job eliminations, no initiatives to make work more fun / build teamwork, issues with work/life balance in certain departments

Advice to Senior Management

make some effort to improve the internal communications within the company. very little communication from senior management to the people in the field

Pros

Pay is pretty good for the job. However bad Kaiser is in terms of cost and productivity...the competition is even worse; so for the next 5-8 years the job security is just about 100%.

Cons

Very little challenge and most people have a poor opinion of the company. It is almost depressing showing up everyday.

Advice to Senior Management

I don't know if there is much the current management can actually do; the decisions made in the 1980s and 1990s are probably too much to overcome. The amount of capital needed, could never be raised...so things are probably just going to continue on a downward spiral until a World Class Heat Treated Plate / Aerospace Plate plant comes along.

Pros

Great benifits
Solid 401k choices
Stable hours
Great stores and work order systems that help ensure access to needed supplies and materials

Cons

No performance reviews
Very little communication regarding future plans
Little to no professional training
Discipline attitudes focus on catching people screwing up vs. preventing people from making mistakes

Advice to Senior Management

Reinstate slaried employee performance reviews

Focus less on adding administrative controls when problems are discovered and focus more on root causes

Provide opportunities to pursue professional education

Pros

Kaiser is very well-positioned in their space, and has an excellent reputation in the industry. Folks are generally pretty nice, and management does a fairly good job of allowing employees to balance work and life.

Cons

The management team, while loaded with several top notch individuals, also has some dead wood that needs to be cleaned out. One could infer that the company does not want to rock the boat, and that the board is clearly okay with that strategy.

Advice to Senior Management

Carefully evaluate the people that are at a mid-level manager position and above, as there are some clear opportunities to upgrade talent without taking on any undue risk.

Pros

Lean Sigma and KPS initiatives are great forums to implement change within the company.

Cons

It's not the United Nations, so the each plant is it's own country is getting old. But that's been changing too.

Advice to Senior Management

It's been a fun ride.