Rio Tinto Alcan Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Rio Tinto Alcan full-time for more than a year

Pros – * No micro-management.
* Excellent benefits and compensation.
* Upward mobility.
* Meaningful work

Cons – * Can be bureaucratic at times with policies.
* Corporate is too far removed from regional locations sometimes for good support.

Advice to Senior Management – Listen to your people. innovate, innovate, innovate

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

Former Employee – worked at Rio Tinto Alcan full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Very professional atmosphere. Team spirit of cooperation. Excellent upper management. Multicultural. Opportunity for growth and advancement. Rewarding work. Excellent salary and benefits

Cons – Middle level management tends to turn over too often creating periods of indecision which can add stress to the team's productivity.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Rio Tinto Alcan full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Excellent salary and great benefits
Great group of people to work with - most have been with the company for years.
Doing a great job of keeping up employee morale and taking care of employees during difficult transition.

Cons – The Chicago office is closing by year end.

Advice to Senior Management – Always take care of your employees - they are the ones who make your company what it is.

Former Employee – worked at Rio Tinto Alcan

Pros – Strong Support in project work
Everyone seems to leave at 3pm on Fridays
Pay is excellent and Insurance Benefits are fantastic
Management is trying to change culture but progress is slow
Co-workers are very friendly

Cons – Union is in control of the plant not management
Up for sale and sold 4 times in 10 years makes for a lack of continunity
No communication on strategy or plans to finally make money
Everyone is edgy about whether they will have a job in a year. Seems lots are looking and leaving
In very rural West Virginia, hard to recruit top talent to this outpost.
Divisional HQ in Paris tries to run the place 5000 miles away and very ineffectively

Advice to Senior Management – Reduce the Bureaucracies and flatten the management structure. Stop trying to direct activities from 5000 miles away. Increase communication significantly on all aspects. Address lack of employment stabilty.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Rio Tinto Alcan

Pros – The only reason to work at this plant is if you HAVE to live in the area and don't want a commute of more than 20 minutes.

Cons – No support at all from management at the department level. This plant is an environmental nightmare. You would think that a multibillion dollar company would have more environmental safeguards in place.

Advice to Senior Management – Treat your employees like people and build some trust in your management

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Rio Tinto Alcan

Pros – Offers flexibilty in balancing the work and the personal. Great learning opportunity to learn about all aspects of the cosmetic industry from sales to product development to production. New York office is centrally located in the heart of midtown.

Cons – Inefficiency permeates every department. Lack of internal communication. Resistance to positive change. Old infrastructure; accounting still uses AS 400. Reluctance to invest in time and money saving systems. They cut costs in counterproductive ways.

Advice to Senior Management – - Solicit feedback from those other than management before implementing radical changes.
- Be open minded.
- Emulate what works for other companies in the industry.
- Be transparent and formerly communicate via office wide emails or memos and major changes.
- Standardize procedures.
- Conduct formal orientation and training for new hires.
- Streamline procedures to reduce excessive paperwork.
- Look in to the SAP system.
- Hire full time IT employee instead of outsourcing

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Rio Tinto Alcan

Pros – Flexible work schedule; good company earnings lead to great bonus

Cons – global compensation plan too rigid; no career growth for IT; too many macro buracracies at the global level that are not effective at the local level;

Advice to Senior Management – don't treat full-time employees like consultants; don't appreciate the "do your job, here is your check; see you next week" mentality

Current Employee – been working at Rio Tinto Alcan full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Good salary and benefits, good work life balance, location of the headoffice is perfect ( downtown Montreal)

Cons – Disorganized, Company has no strategy. Very difficult to progress in you carer as there is no development plan. Promotions as bases in who knows who

Advice to Senior Management – Get a clear strategy and stop promoting by favoritisme instead of performance

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Rio Tinto Alcan full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Very comprehensive Apprenticeship as well as work based learning within a company of such a range of machinery and equipment

Cons – pro/con, completed my apprenticeship however plant closing was bad timing as i was in my first year of mechanical maintenance (qualified)

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

Current Employee – been working at Rio Tinto Alcan

Pros – Salary is great, safety culture is important, openess to new ideas, strong knowledge of their field. Also a great cafeteria!

Cons – Safety sometimes is taken over the top and approvals can be a bit tedious, but overall, it's a great place to work!

Advice to Senior Management – Reduce approvals to the bare minimum necessary and accept that some people are not as safety conscious as others in an office environment.