Ball Corporation Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Ball Corporation

Pros – - Compensation
- Benefits (once you become eligible for pension)

Cons – - Not open to change or new ideas. Management acknowledges this and does nothing
- Promotions are questionable, movement up because they like you or you have been with the company for a long time, instead of skills and experience
- People who have been with the company for a long time and wants things how it was long ago
- Silos, no team work with other departments, so bad communication, lots of work to fix something simple, wasted time and effort, complaints of being busy
- HR manager for packaging, needs to improve her people skills since she is suppose to work with people
- Management don't follow their own policies and make exceptions
- They say work life balance but really there is none

Advice to Senior Management – - Move on, the company is no longer a small family company
- Micro managers, trust the people working for you and that they bring new ideas, don't try to make someone exactly like you
- Really reassess the people in management roles because some of them really should not be doing what they were promoted to

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Ball Corporation

Pros – The Company truely cares about the employees. Ball Corporations is also the leader in the Packaging and Containers industry and is poised for growth in the future.

Cons – Poor systems that cannot support the size of the business. Executive leadership that is stuck in the past and still thinks they can run a global corporation using the same old methods that they have used for 135 years. They are not progressive or systematic in their thought process.

Advice to Senior Management – It is time to turn the executive leadership team over to some more progressive leaders that can lead this company into the future. Westerlund specifically is holding back the Administration and HR groups.

Current Employee – been working at Ball Corporation

Pros – Many people are long-term (career) employees. They know the company, they are committed to doing a good job, and they work hard. They care about the company and its successes. This is one of the few remaining places where many people work their entire careers.
Ball provides very good benefits for their employees. It emphasizes health and savings for the future. Health care options are reasonable and broad enough to accommodate different needs. Ball pays a significant part of the costs.
Ball still provides a pension plan in addition to 401(k), including match. There is no fixed number of sick days, and my experience is that people do not abuse this. After 5 consecutive days, short-term disability kicks in.

Cons – Long-term employment can engender the "we've always done it this way" mentality. Change is difficult.
Management deficiencies are not addressed in a timely manner. Departments founder while senior management looks the other way.
Growth by acquisition with no defined process for integration has made Ball a corporation of individual entities. There are no common processes, which causes inefficiencies and engenders errors. Each manufacturing plant works differently. None wants to change. There is no standardization, which means there is no common ground and no basis for comparison. Power plays abound.
Old school reigns. Technology is resisted. Attracting and retaining younger, motivated employees is a problem

Advice to Senior Management – Review HR exit interviews -scuttlebutt is they are stuck in a folder and never looked at. Ask HR about the feedback they're getting - and tell them you want the truth. Ask for information from line employees. Review departmental managements' claims. Dig into the details. Look at department trends - turnover, promotions, organization (regular reorganizing, levels of management, direct report numbers). Don't believe the spin.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend