Severstal North America Reviews

Pros

Semi-flexible hours, Company has proven a solid investment plan and continues the invest in the operations that show profitability and it's better then being unemployed!!

Cons

Steel mill, hot, cold, dirty. Still have wark to do in streamlining the mid level managers, retirng the old timers that are holding the younger employees back.

Advice to Senior Management

Still need to retire a few more old timers to continue the progression of the company towards world class operations.

Pros

The company recently went through a billion dollar upgrade, and is in the process of building a new tandem mill so they are committed to the Dearborn facility. The job can be challenging at times, and when a problem is resolved it can be very rewarding. The position is salary plus overtime so you are compensated for additional hours worked.

Cons

The facility runs 24/7 365 and most salaried production people are always on call. Works are expected to answer their phones all hours of the day and night to help resolve issues. This can become very overwhelming and lead to burnout. The base salaries are on the low side, and if overtime is cut you are still expected to work the necessary hours to complete the job. A new incentive plan we recently introduced, but it is very convoluted and management likes to change the targets and actual numbers. The company always talks about safety and protecting the environment, but many times their actions are 180 degrees from what they say. Production and equipment and more important than the people.
The work environment is poisonous . It seems no one is happy working at Severstal, and in the eyes of the workers the future is not looking bright. Less people and more production. With less people maintenance has suffered and the use of contractors has skyrocketed. There is a statement in the locker room stating good employees are self motivated.....the job of the company is to not demotivate them. Severstal has done the latter. The company depends on 10% of the workforce to do 90% of the work.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your people. It seems there is a large disconnect between the workers and management. If you are going to have these town hall type meetings where you are there to answer questions and listen to peoples' concerns it would be nice if you did anything with the problems people bring up.

Pros

The incentive program at Severstal Columbus keeps everyone motivated and leads to great compensation if everyone does their part. The equipment at this mill is state of the art.

Cons

The only downside I can think of is the heat, but I really didn't mind it and the company does a good job supplying water, fruit to keep workers energized.

Advice to Senior Management

There seemed to always be miscommunication between different segments of the plant. If a defect came up in the cold mill, they would blame the hot mill and vice versa. Eliminating this divide between hot mill and cold mill may help solve problems in processing rather than create them.

Pros

Compared to other companies and even Gov't employees, this job provides a very good package of insurance benifits which is paid for entirely by the company for represented employees. The people on the shop floor are the greatest and nearly all of us would do anything for a co-worker. An integrated steel mill environment is very harsh and the little people make it worth while.

Cons

Management. Our first line supervisors are mostly clueless but are generally easy to get along with. Middle management is is totally in the dark and without any type of vision and are basically yes men serving their superiors. If upper management has a vision lets just say they are not sharing. Management from Mid level and up has done nothing but breed distrust and comtempt and has managed to completely cripple a once caring and dedicated workforce. Unfortunately, the Sparrows Point plant has been allowed to turn into a pile of useless scrap. Imagine buying a used car with 100000 miles and then driving it 200 miles a day and only putting in only fuel, cheap contaminated fuel, and performing no maintenance. That is now Sparrows Point.

Advice to Senior Management

Why bother, they will not listen to anything anyone has to say. Please just cut your losses and sell this plant. We all know you don't want to run it so please sell it to someone who does. Also, please do the new owners a favor, fire everyone in management that does not have at least 10 years experience in a mill other than Sparrows Point and take all of the navy gee whiz kids with you.

Pros

Medical benefits, Vacation package is good. Other than that there really isn't to much of anything to brag about. With the right management style and capital investment this could be a more pleasant place to work.

Cons

At the Sparrows Point Plant, The new management is running the place into the ground. They aren't fixing to much of anything. Not sinking any money into the plant. We have been working without a new contract for 2 years now (old contract). The Russians are doing what they want when they want to. Not honoring local agreements wether they are verbal or written.

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to mage the company in a positive way. They need to stop turning a blind eye to the negative things that are done here and make the people responsible for the negative things done here. Invest capitol in the company for repairs, think outside the box. We don't have any real visionaries in this place.....they need to get some good talent in here, not the same old people all the time.

Pros

None. Well maybe a few. Steel manufacturing is interesting, you get right into it. Benefits were ok.

Cons

Where do I begin. The culture is poisonous. Middle management is completely inept, secretive and not insightful. They completely rely on the grunts to do everything and attack you if their senior officer doesn't approve. The problem is there is zero direction provided. Very frustrating.

Executive management has drove the place into the ground. Russians have moved in and they can't make sense of it either. A couple of very corrosive executive have at least been fired and can't propogate the problem.

Advice to Senior Management

Start doing some work, listen to your subordinates; they have the answers.

Pros

Great health care benefits and 401K plan. Mid level management was good and respectful, too bad upper management was not.

Cons

Worst place that I have ever worked for in my life. Senior management is horrible and is only concerned with covering their own butt. I would rather be unemployed living in the streets then working one more day for this company, worst experience of my life.

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your employees with a little respect and smile. People do not like working there because leadership is too concerned with trying to look good and not respecting your employees.

Pros

The benefits are average for the industry. The work environment (for the most part) is full of good people trying to get by and they're generally good people to work with.

Cons

The company has no clue about how to recognize and evaluate their talent. The company has no direction. The managment team only listens to lip service and they really don't look at true employee output.

Advice to Senior Management

Get a clue! Look at actual abilities and an employees desire for cross training. You have lost so much talent by listeneing to the wrong people and not understanding your workforce!

Pros

Severstal North America is a very tecnologically advanced company. The Mill in Columbus is still in its infancy and there are a lot of possibilities contained within.

Cons

The management at Severstal seems disconnected. The head and the body do not communicate. They have not tried too hard to break down the barries between the people on the hill and the people in the mill.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to and respect your employees. If you have obligations to them you need to fulfill them. Micromanaging is also very blase.

Pros

Paycheck has not bounced! The shop people have given their heart and soul to the steel industry. Steel is needed in the US, steel plants will survive, Severstal NA may not.

Cons

Lack of direction. Lack of communication. No sense of responsibility. The Leadership Team has a vision that only they know.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't ask your employees to sacrifice with pay and benefit cuts, while you continue to lease expensive cars and spend money on useless trips. Also do not punish the masses for your poor decissions. Fix what is broke, the Mgt team in Dearborn has proven that they are not flexible enough to react to a down market. Perhaps it is time to replace them with a team that can. The Company needs to focus on the future and either find a buyer or change the way it Manages the plants.