Rio Tinto Alcan Reviews

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.

Pros

Salary and benefits are great

Cons

Lack of training for certain processes

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.

Pros

Global business which provides major insights in sector developments.
Diverse business environment with good exposure to challenging topics.
Fair compensation packages and training opportunities.

Cons

Company has been through several mergers & acquisitions with more to come in the future.
Can be fairly bureaucratic.
Company is managed as silos - little co-operation between business units.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't lose the entrepreneurial spirit.

Pros

The salary is good. The pension plan is good. Working downtown is great. But overall, it was much better when it was Alcan rather Rio Tinto.

Cons

The transition period after the takeover has been poorly managed. Senior manager mere more focused on themselves rather than on the Company.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire newbies. They will bring a new energy to the Company.

Pros

The company has a great reputation in Montreal and Quebec generally (eg as a supporter of Bixi bikes, the Jazz Festival etc). It has a worldwide presence so employees have the chance to travel and work abroad. Salaries are good though this may change with the new ownership.

Cons

The company is no longer independent since being taken over by Rio Tinto in 2007. Some senior positions no longer exist and an employee wanting to make it to the top will have to leave Canada at some point in their career.

Advice to Senior Management

The loss of independence following the 2007 takeover will make it harder to hire and retain world class talent in the future.

Pros

Alcan has good opportunities, good work life balance, and very good benefits and compensation. Also has gym and free french classes.

Cons

A lot of politics and hallway chat

Advice to Senior Management

More transparent promotion criteria and less based on politics

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

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

Pros

Alcan was a great place to work before it was taken over by Rio Tinto. People there were very friendly and helpful and there are a lot of team work. Sometimes, there are some office politics, but I don't believe it is worst than any other places that I worked previously. It is a very multi-cultural place to be and they are very high on family and life-work balance.

Cons

Because of the take-over and the economic crisis, there has been a lot of uncertainty in the Alcan group. A lot of people have left the company or is planning to leave. Sometimes, the pace is a bit slow. There are a lot of employees who have been with the company for a long time.

Advice to Senior Management

n/a