Koch Industries Reviews in Wichita, KS

Current Employee – been working at Koch Industries full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – The group I work with provides semi-annual performance reviews, an entrepreneurial environment, encourages thinking outside the box through a creative destruction mentality, and is genuinely concerned about having a good work/life balance.

Cons – The commute is not terrible but it is approximately a 30 minute drive from where I am located. I would prefer to be closer to home, especially with gas prices being what they are lately.

Advice to Senior Management – The Market Based Management framework is ideal and keep up the good work on the regular performance reviews, it is truly a morale booster and also lets employees know if they are doing what is expected of them in a timely manner. Allowing some flexible scheduling allows both parents to work and still have time for their family activities.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Koch Industries full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – All employees believe and are held to practicing the MBM guiding Principles. You are surrounded by individuals with similar work values. New ideas are encouraged and celebrated. You get real time feedback from peers/supervisors. Your compensation is based on the value you create for the company. I love that your hard work is recognized financially. You are not given the same salary as a sub-par performer. There are no egos. Leaders treat subordinates as their equal. There are no silos. departments communicate freely and help one other.

Cons – I really have not experienced any. Many reviews state that the work life balance is poor. I typically see most working 40-50 hours a week. We are adults. We work extra when we need to and leave on time when appropriate. When work life balance seems is off, I see them adding additional staff.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep it up! I'm proud to work at Koch!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Koch Industries full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Koch Industries is a very stable organization with a solid growth plan.

Cons – Headquarters are located in Wichita, Kansas

Advice to Senior Management – Open a branch in Colorado

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at Koch Industries full-time for more than a year

Pros – Most co-workers were very smart and respectful people.
Wages were very competitive.
Culture thought "outside the box", which was a great change from what I was used to.

Cons – Work/LIfe balance was very heavy on the work side. My group was expected to work 10-12 hour days on a regular basis. One of my co-workers was working over 18 hours straight one day. The long hours were due mainly to poor software. My department used in-house IT, which proved to be very unreliable. I recomended contacting in IT support to fix the issues quicker, but the idea was ignored. The long hours were not thought of as being a problem, which was the sign I needed to find something different. If I am going to work 12 hours a day, it will be to make myself rich, not someone else. Koch is a private company, so none of the employees have ownership.

Advice to Senior Management – Create more of a work/life balance for your employees. Most of the employees will not complain about the hours, but it shouldnt take a complaint to respect someone else. Show them that you care proactively and don't expect them to sacrifice time with their families to increase your bottom line. Also, do a full efficiency audit of your processes. During the short time that I was there, I saw multiple areas for improvement. When I brought up an issue, the answer I always got was "we do it this way because we've always done it this way". Koch has been very successful, but when working there, all I could think of is how much more successful they could be if they made things more efficient.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Koch Industries full-time for more than a year

Pros – Great environment, competitive and challenging in a good way, fair and competitive salaries

Cons – The CEO seeks to indoctrinate his employees and management in his set of conservative, market-centric ideals through required training sessions, classes and workshops. Your escalation into mid- to upper-level management will not come unless you prove that you believe in his ideals and business model. Also, BILLIONS of the income earned at Koch is funneled to Super PACs that support a very specific political agenda.

Advice to Senior Management – Great company, but Mr. Koch should do more to distance himself and his political agenda from his company.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Koch Industries

Pros – Challenging work, company culture, intelligent co-workers, results oriented, a true feeling of being able to create value for the company, company benefits

Cons – Koch is generally a lean running group that at times requires sacrifices of time away from your family, friends and activities.

Advice to Senior Management – Keep up the positive work environment and remember to make sure that your employees have not only a fulfilling life at work but at home as well.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Koch Industries

Pros – Career Advancement
Challenging Work
Dynamic work force
Fellow Employees have good values

Cons – Does not offer flex time/ job sharing- but trend is changing to meet needs of current workforce

Advice to Senior Management – Continue to focus on the culture- especially during periods of growth

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Koch Industries

Pros – Good training;
Cheap city (Wichita);
Fun projects;
Not a lot of travel;
Easy commute;
Great cafeteria;
interesting work philosophy.

Cons – Long hours;
Salary tends to lag behind market;
high turnover (2 year average);
run like a fraternity (if you don't get in the right crowd, you'll never get ahead)
very political;
Upper management is not very kind to subordinates

Advice to Senior Management – Pay market wages to your employees.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Koch Industries

Pros – Focus on market based management.
Friendly co-workers.
Highly intelligent staff.

Cons – Long hours due to under staffing.
Tendency to apply labels that can not be removed.
Performance reviews tend to focus on behavior in meetings (rolling eyes) vs over all performance at job.

Advice to Senior Management – Focus more on work staff accomplishes and less on personality quirks. Actually embrace the challenge process you preach vs labeling valid challenges as complaints. Charles has good direction and leadersship, but that can be lost in middle management.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Koch Industries

Pros – This is a large company that provides good compensation and benefits to employees

Cons – The company is a little cult-like in that you must adhere to all of their beliefs to be successful

Advice to Senior Management – Bring some more diversity into the workplace