Great company, limited vision and ambitions - Anonymous employee Rio Tinto Employee Review

3.0
8 May 2022
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great colleagues and work environment. Safety mindset is well embedded into the day to day. Great opportunity to learn from colleagues coming from different background for technical professionals. The scope of what can be learnt is practically limitless due to the size of the operations. Good for technical profressionnals willing to expiriment mining industry , or looking for projects in remote location/international mandates. Current programmes such as Everyday respect, to improve work culture, and RTSPS, to improve collaboration across all levels of the organisation, are great initiatives. There is change coming.

Cons

Upper management and middle management culture is toxic. There is a lack of accountability and limited vision of long term planning. There is no transparency around head count and how workload is being managed across different teams. Yearly objectives are vague and targets not adequately followed or explained. Functions and Operations do not have the same salary bands and pay scale for equivalent experience. This is not explained to ressources when they are hired. Most functions staff is outsourced to third partys with no clear management of KPIs relating to the service provided. Although this is common in large enterprise, the lack of accountability causes employees to feel exhausted and quit the organization. While the above does not directly impact the day to day, it disengages employees on the long term as they feel objectives and targets keeps changing year after year. There is also attrition due to retirement in some teams which is increasing the workload on other team members. There is no retirement planning, no knowledge transfer planned adequately, and no development plan properly being put in place and followed. People willing to work for RT should expect to focus on the day to day and use the experience gathered as a stepping stone for other opportunities with a better work culture and long term vision.

Explore other reviews about Rio Tinto

5.0
18 Feb 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Benefits are fantastic, employee share program, inexpensive insurance options with generous HSA contributions ($3000 per year), ample opportunities for career growth for those willing to relocate (internationally sometimes)

Cons

Mining is cyclic, layoffs are always a looming threat, depending on role 50-60 hr work week is common

3.0
11 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Local environment is very friendly and laid back. Everyone is helpful. The benefit package is nice as well. We do get the option to purchase company shares, 100% company match up to 6% for 401k plus additional deposits.

Cons

Our company was recently purchased by Rio Tinto and their IT groups are very secular and specialized which makes it hard to communicate and get things resolved. I’ve also compared my salary to others with the same job title within manufacturing companies in my state and found my salary is way below the benchmark.

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