Administrative Assistant | Miramar, FL | Oct 16, 2020
Fired all admin staff in a day and bring in temps. We had to sign to get a payout said we couldn't sue. No diversity in upper mgmt. I'll never go back
Work-life balance
Work-life balance at KONE is ok traditional 8 to 5 Monday through Friday
Pay & benefits
My pay and benefits at KONE are pay was low benefits ok
Job security and advancement
In terms of job security at KONE, I think none. There's no diversity in upper management above first tier local managers. They don't have room for advancement for women your admin and that's it. When we heard rumors weeks prior, the branch manager held a meeting stating there's nothing to worry about.Three weeks later thry fired admins all in the same day and brought in temps to save money. There's no job security here!
Management
In general, managers at KONE my direct manager wasn't good. He eventually got fired.
Culture
Collaboration with my colleagues at KONE is good. My fellow counterparts were great to work with.
Overall
My experience working at KONE we were treated like a number. Everyone in management and above were out for themselves.
Loved the industry, learning the technical side to the trade, coworkers and my employer. Believed I had found my home and last career. It is, however, a physically demanding job. At 55 years of age I unfortunately injured my lower back helping to move a four story hydraulic elevator piston out of an elevator shaft. Nothing permanent thankfully. After physical rehab, both I and employer believed it was in my best interests to pursue a different career. Nothing but good things to say about my time at Kone.
Most enjoyable for me was learning the technical electronics aspects and troubleshooting components of the trade, working with my head as well as my hands and being able to see a job well completed with a happy client resulting.
If any young person wishes to learn a good paying with benefits trade they should consider applying an the Elevator Construction Union, offices based in Pasadena, Ca. when they are hiring.
ProsGreat starting pay and benefits
ConsVery physically demanding at times, heavy objects and power tools.
Depending on what side of the business you get into, you can expect varying levels of micromanagement. Operations is very demanding, especially in the service side. Compensation is pretty good, starting off either in sales or operations may be an excellent career move for you depending on your age and prior experience. 75% of the time you need to know someone to get in. Industry in general is challenging but mostly because the labor force is overburdened. This makes it difficult for customers to receive service so you can expect them to be calling non-stop. If you're in sales, you may be able to get a few sales out of a customer before you're inevitably let down by your operations staff. It's not necessarily their fault and it differs by branch. Hard to keep repeat customers. Commissions are best in New Equipment sales if you have a good market. Service Sales is paid quarterly and you have to fight way too hard to get paid out on what you sold. 3/5.
- Accountable for the end-users and the site safety.
- Accountable for the safe working environment.
- Responsible to evaluate and assist the supervisor with the Installation Maintenance handover.
- Accountable to communicate new technical issues found on the equipments that could cause call outs or safety hazards
- Responsible for safe working practices and carrying out the operations according to maintenance instructions and safety instructions
- Responsible for managing his proximity stock
- Responsible for customer satisfaction through quality of service and through regular, proactive, and precise on-site communication
- Accountable for equipment safety and performance.
- Accountable for managing the site environment during service operations.
- Accountable for identifying site risk, and communicate them to his supervisor.
- Responsible for regular update of his supervisor on all relevant information.
Company is all about doing more with less. Employees wear too many hats, very stressful environment.There is too many managers, and not enough support. Managers don't want to listen and are not from the elevator trade. They come up with ideas that don't always make sense b/c of this. This makes for even harder environment for employees. Company is constantly a revolving door especially in DC. Once people see what it is about they want nothing to do with the place. People leave pretty much every 2 years if not sooner.Too many meetings not enough time to get anything done. Training consists of more meetings where you are left thinking "what did I just sit through"? You are left feeling like you learned nothing, and that they just want to say they trained you. Meanwhile while you sit in all these micro managed type meetings, you are still held to getting everything done.
I will follow up with my fellow workers daily on the basis of given schedule and meet them if they have any problems regarding in work as well as personal.
I learned lot in technical and employee-employee relationship. They treat each one in dignity. The skill assesment will be on every year and based on that they will give training.
My team is best i always say. I will have lunch with my team and they knew my frequency of work. Like when to push the work fast and when to concentrate. They will see that from my face. I think thats the best part i feel better.
Most of the times our company communication is very slow. Even sometimes its unavailable. I feel that we all work in field depending upon their support. From that i learned how to manage the communication clearly and at the right time.
4.0
Administrative Assistant | Davenport, IA | Jun 20, 2015
Great place to work, fun and relaxed environment
Administrative Sales Support
• Care for Life Specialist, duties including review survey data, data entry, report creation and timely distribution to sales staff for presentation to clients within the US and Canada
• Pseudo webmaster for eOptimum program including creating and maintaining employee and customer login id’s and passwords for the US
• Member of the international committee created to review/revise Care for Life Program including revision of the forms and processes for the program
• Acted as a liaison to the Care for Life team in India during program transition including assisting with initial and continued training as well data creation and distribution
ProsGreat management, great co-workers
ConsJob duties moved to another country
4.0
Senior Sales Representative | Tampa, FL | Nov 8, 2020
Good company, typical 3 years and out for service and repair sales people.
Unique in the elevator business, the smallest of the Big 4,some hold over culture from Montgomery. If you are in sales, you have one chance to make the numbers they set no matter what in the lines you are in. THe most difficult is service, repair. Very few if any sales people can remain in service and repair sales beyond 3 years. You are more likely to make it for a longer term in a new equipment sales role, maybe up to seven. Very few managers Branch, Regional are able to stay more that 3 years. They fire and constantly restaff the sales and management.
ProsThey used to provide training in Moline, ILfor 2 weeks or much longer if you came in through the college training program
Consunlikely to make it more that 2 or 3 years in sales, constant turnover
KONE has been a wonderful team to be a part of. While it's a large company, the leadership is great to work with - very accessible and generally open to ideas. If you are someone who is willing to take on new challenges, you are most certainly able to do so and have your ideas heard and see your impact to the business. It's a generally conservative organization and may be slow to change, but it makes changes for the right reasons and always keep people in mind. One of the downsides is that it runs very lean. That allows you the opportunity to get involved in many things, but can be challenging. If you are someone who wants title changes to move up the ladder, this is probably not a good fit, but in terms of opportunities, there are always opportunities to take on new responsibilities and learn.
Inflexible schedules that change weekly and with only a couple days notice, rare feedback on your performance, nothing is done in unison, terrible attendance policy and unfair, they kind of just make up the rules as it goes, high turnover, and ridiculous standards allowing 3 mistakes all year to be made. poor raises, they put you in multiple services and tasks thru the day with no warning. Upper management is un-involved with the agents. Overall for what they pay which is on the low end of call center work i would look else where. Not a team environment.
Prospotlucks and nice co-workers
Consa place that sets their agents up for failure, with very little in training after the initial training is done.. no life/work balance period.
Versatile Projects with the chance of growing within the company
The work place was exciting for most of the projects I worked on were in a pilot phase, where there was a need to think and act in a certain way. My job was to build new elevators, manage a team and communicate with the building site managers to co-use the working area as optimal as possible without hindering each other.
I learned a lot during my time with Kone, before I came to Kone I had a little experience at managing a project. Kone guided me through the phases of doing this and I think that this made me to a far better person for the work I did later. Also I learned a lot about electrics, I wasn't properly educated as an electrician but at some point and after the trainings I received I developed my electrical skills to a satisfactory level.
The management of Kone was friendly, of course there were targets to achieve but if those targets were made there was a relaxed atmosphere where there was room for ideas and support (both on a professional and personal level). Kone was strict in keeping its employers up to date for when it came to training therefor it was required to do several trainings, also they promoted extra training like fault finding and first aid.
During the time I worked there we had meetings for at least twice a year to discuss what we wanted from each other and to see if there was anything that could be done to make things easier.
My co-workers were sometimes people hired through agencies, here were people that didn't quite meet the needs for the
ProsTraining, High Standard of work, Friendly, Caring, Salary, Bonus, Car, Phone
Decent products and services but lousy management and morale
At KONE you can work in service, installation, sales or various degrees of supervisor. If you like to be a bit technical and enjoy dealing with customers, then elevators might be the place for you.
Unless you are really lucky, you will not get a great deal of technical training and will need to learn most of it through reading equipment documentation on site or asking your co-workers. Management steer training to less interesting things like how workers can make management reporting easier, reducing downtime and the usual obligatory WH&S talks.
Every department in this organisation remains in its own silo with a self-interested manager in charge, there is no such thing as the entire organisation working together. An ingrained culture or "that's not our problem" or "if they get the work, then that's less money for me and my area will look bad" thrives, so employees get punished if they choose to help a fellow employee from another area.
The actual workers are a pretty decent bunch of guys, although most of them are sick of complaining about the way the company has evolved and have pretty much given up, they just come to work to get paid and don't care if everything falls apart because at some point "they told you this was going to happen".
ProsDecent pay and benefits.
ConsNot much room for career progression and next to no recognition when work is done well, they like to focus on negative events.
To begin with i would like to mention that i was working on a part-time basis (3 days, approximately 20-25 hours per week), this gave me the flexibility to manage my studies.
The accounts department was of a medium size enabling me to adjust quickly. Due to the fact that the office was open plan, no one was behind closed doors this helped in communication with other staff members, making people more approachable when needing assistance.
Management was flexible, helpful and willing to listen if needed.
At first the collection of over due accounts was priority with customer liaising and communication either verbally or written, this gave me an insight into peoples thinking and how to always be polite but firm.
Posting invoices on the system and the reconciliation of vendor accounts was important, enabling me to understand the necessity of time management in an accounts office.
Analyzing financial data and making conclusions, interacting with my co workers and learning from their experience, taking advice and putting my opinion forward too.
With the collection of overdue accounts, the necessity to always stay calm and in control was important, some times frustrating when customers ignore your communication. On the other hand the successful collection of accounts was always rewarding.
My day would consist of opening work orders, processing expense reports to be approved by Branch Manager.
Daily entry of technician hours, ensuring all purchase orders, hours, expenses related to a job have been entered, thus allowing closure of job.
Maintaining the "contract base" for Burlington; this consisted of entries of contracts for service to customer's crane equipment, loading contract into system. The "base" was balanced daily/weekly and total information was required prior to the last "month end day" to have budget numbers/amounts entered for final service numbers.
It was interesting to see how cranes were produced/manufactured and learning about the various types of cranes, gantry's, jibs, etc.
A typical day wasn't always typical...you wanted to be sure there was balance between service work but making sure the customer needs were handled, especially when entering of the contracts, getting the information to customer in a timely manner, along with the booklet for their files.
I enjoy dealing with customers, whether it be by phone or in person, even though sometimes there were hiccups to deal with, truly enjoy that aspect of this particular job.
Prosdealing with the other administrators from across canada
Très bonne entreprise niveau culture, vie d'entreprise, CE. C'est aussi une entreprise où tu apprends énormément et c'est gratifiant pour la suite de ta vie professionnelle. Mais par contre il faut tomber sur le bon manager, sinon c'est invivable. Personnellement mon manager n'était pas du tout organisé, me donnait des tâches à faire datant de deux mois mais finalement c était très urgent, pression psychologique et moral, il n'assumait jamais ses tords et c'était toujours moi qui soit disant faisait n'importe quoi, ou mal organisé, on te traite d'incompétent et tu ressors de cette entreprise marqué par cette mentalité, il y aussi le fait ne pas vouloir faire d'heures supplémentaires non payées qui est mal vu, toujours rejeter la faute sur les autres et passer pour le meilleur c'est quotidien chez KONE pour monter en grade. Donc en soit le système d'entreprise est bien mais après être entouré de personnes aimant te pousser à la dépression, une horreur ! C'est bien de construire une culture d'entreprise mais après il faudrait que les managers embauchés aillent dans ce sens!
ProsVie d'entreprise
ConsMauvais managers, aucuns liens entre les collaborateurs
-40 hour weeks, 6am-2pm.
-To start off with a typical days work mainly involved heavy lifting and moving of old elevator parts and helping the lift technician with small jobs that would have been very time consuming and difficult if he had done them alone. After a few weeks, I was then given the responsibility of installing push buttons and position indicators on the outside of the elevator on every floor.
-I learned quite a bit about basic electrical circuitry
-Management was positive, giving me enough to time to get used to the job I was doing before giving me a tighter schedule to work with once I was I knew what I was doing.
-My co-workers were great people to be around, between us we could a conversation for hours. As well as this, we worked very effectively together making the job a lot easier for all of us.
-The hardest part of the job was the heavy lifting although, I thoroughly enjoyed it.
-The most enjoyable part was learning more about basic electrical circuits and the installation. I also thoroughly enjoyed the environment in which we worked.
Multi cultural company yet in UAE 90% are Indians, and career growth are just for those people that talk more work less. The division of work they provide for the field Technicians are far unrealistic like working alone, managing customer meeting and complains, troubleshooting, servicing, repairs, reporting and documentations. Management cut the cost for the field Technicians to do work. Salary is fair enough yet i have seen companies that far more income and benifits and less work load. Every month there will be a Technicians goes for resignation due to the management issues and management has no regards whats happening for those who resigned. They even control the employees pulse survey by telling the Technicians what to write. I have no complains among the higher management but for those supervisors, engineers and managers only who are keeping silent for the issues that the field Technicians are complaining. If someone complains they will sure keep an eye on them and make reasons and excuses.
ProsAccommodation
ConsWork load for the field Technician, with 90 more or less units per technician
As a company they talk a good job. The terms are good and you are trusted to run the area as you want. On the other hand, if you need support solving a problem (and there are many daily) you can forget it. As a business they are hugely disorganised and this is reflected in the incredibly poor customer feedback and ASM workload. As an ASM everything is routed through you, from chasing debt to creating part orders, organising 3rd party training for your team and invoicing work. This means you have no time at all to manage the actual work the customers get you in for. This creates more problems for you alone to deal with. Regional management apply lots of pressure to invoice work even if not complete to hit monthly sales targets, again annoying a fragile customer base for you to deal with.
Having said all this, lots of people have been in the business for years so the experience may depend on area you work in. Many people have left in the last few years for a reason though.
ProsAutonomy, remote working
ConsLack of support, high pressure to hit targets
Questions And Answers about KONE
What is the most stressful part about working at KONE?
Asked Apr 13, 2018
Not given any opportunity for advancement.
Answered Jan 27, 2021
Deadlines, schedules were tight and tempers got short
Answered Sep 19, 2019
How did you feel about telling people you worked at KONE?
Asked Mar 11, 2018
Awesome,... great company with great opportunities
Answered Apr 10, 2019
Proud, not embarrassed at all
Answered Feb 19, 2019
How did you get your first interview at KONE?
Asked Feb 7, 2018
Over the phone.
Answered Sep 25, 2019
Online and was recruited
Answered May 21, 2019
How do you feel about the future of KONE?
Asked Mar 2, 2017
KONE is great company. As long as there are elevators and a demand they will be in business.
Answered Mar 11, 2018
Leader in new technology, always has and will continue to pave the way for industry change. Focus on customers and retention has to remain a top priority.
Answered Jul 18, 2017
How long does it take to get hired from start to finish at KONE? What are the steps along the way?
Asked Jan 15, 2017
I recall having different stages during the application: you first meet HR, to ensure your motivations of joining KONE. Then you meet your manager and someone from the leadership team, they want to know if you have what it takes, but they also give you an insight into the business at KONE. And later on you meet with HR again, to further discuss the details. what I remember, is that KONE employees at the time said hello when I entered the building as an applicant. You immediately feel the company's culture when you walk in the building
