employer cover photo
employer logo
employer logo

Element Materials Technology

Is this your company?

Element Materials Technology reviews

3.1

42% would recommend to a friend

(951 total reviews)
avatar

Jo Wetz

51% approve of CEO

38% positive business outlook

Element Materials Technology has an employee rating of 3.1 out of 5 stars, based on 951 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Element Materials Technology employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Aerospace & Defense industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

951 reviews
2.0
May 14, 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Decent health, dental, and life insurances and 401k plan for entry-level work in the testing industry. Strive to provide a safe work environment and culture.

Cons

-was not utilized for my background knowledge and degree (felt like I was doing more busy work, cleaning, and tedious tasks that did not drive my interest or challenge me) -middle management not leading by example: without naming names the one person managing the floor for the BPE department was notorious for scrutinizing and "cracking the whip" on BPE employees to follow the strict rules of clock in/clock out/10 min breaks/ and lunch times, but did not follow them himself and would at times take between an hour to two hours for lunches while the rest of the department was fulfilling their duties. -generally engineers were doubling as managers which caused for poor cohesion of communication between engineers/project managers and technicians -High turnover rate -Company has chose to seemingly keep buying out competitive testing facilities for large sums of money, and blatantly tell employees that their bonus programs will no longer be valid, and raises are out of the question; leaving employees feeling like they are getting the short end of the stick. -no true mentorship or career path planning -alarming amount of employees had a poor grasp of ASTM's and also cut corners in procedures and sometimes falsifying data due mostly to time constraints put on them by management and a poor observation/competency testing system among its employees to ensure quality and technicians knowledge of ASTM standards. -those who I have talked to since leaving make considerably more with their same experience at similar testing facilities. -individual employees are held to different standards

1.0
Nov 29, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

You get to do a lot of "off the wall" testing for large companies. It's a great learning opportunity. You get to see what everyone does wrong and what everyone does right. You are better prepared for troubleshooting as an engineer after working here. You will have a great chance to "get in" with a company that you want to work with after meeting their engineering managers.

Cons

Company is on a trend of trying to grow while cutting costs. Our company was purchased by Element and middle managers were not changed. This resulted in a larger disconnect of what happens here vs what upper managers see. We still have a tiny company spending mindset while trying to be a larger company that does more work and more technical work. Some equipment is over 20 years old and should have been replaced 10 years ago. With the current rules of capital budgeting and purchase of new equipment, our location is destined to lose capabilities until it is unprofitable. Due to equipment failures this year , we are not able to meet revenue goals and missed out on all but the first quarter bonus. We also lost our most experienced and valuable expert employees due to disputes with middle managers about overwork and underpayment. It is common for some salaried employees to be forced to work 50-60 hours every week and to come in on holidays. Healthcare costs have doubled over the last two years due to reduced company contribution. Pay raises are constrained between 1% and 3% per year and depend on greatly exceeding expectations. I don't think it is possible to exceed expectations as everyone complains that you can never work hard enough to achieve this. Our location has no Christmas party other than a "Dirty Santa" in the lunch room and a mere $200 Christmas bonus for every employee regardless of position. Typically a Christmas bonus with other companies is equivalent to 80 hours of base pay with extra for excessive profit. I'm embarrassed to give tours of our lab due to the disrepair and antiquity of our lab and equipment. I'm extremely tired of the "buy the cheapest option" mentality.

2.0
Nov 8, 2023

This used to be a nice place to work before being acquired by Element

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Potential room for growth if you work hard. Freedom to express your ideas and innovate solutions to issues. Some great supportive coworkers.

Cons

Element higher ups don't understand how the labs operate on a day to day basis so the decisions made are not in sync with necessary operations. Numerous layoffs that are not well communicated with the team and do not have staff replacements before it gets to busy periods. This means there is constantly too much demand and pressure put on a few key people to do the job of 2-3 people that were laid off.

Viewing 10 - 12 of 951 Reviews

Glassdoor has 1,034 Element Materials Technology reviews submitted anonymously by Element Materials Technology employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Element Materials Technology is right for you.