Anyone considering applying for a role with Element should seriously consider the many negative reviews here. Element has serious culture issues and leadership (from senior executive to middle management) who have no clue or interest in how to make changes/improvements.
I disagree, however, with the many reviews that lay all of Element’s issues at the feet of the current CEO. Element’s crap culture is the product of decades, not months, of poor leadership.
Is the current CEO part of the problem? She sure is. Keep in mind, though, that she was chosen for the role by some mediocre combo platter of board members, executives, HR and the CEO that retired.
I would not recommend Element to any L&D professional – or any other professional for that matter.
L&D specifically is poor on its best day at Element. This is especially true of Operations and Enterprise. I think it would be hard for the areas doing better (Commercial, perhaps) to do that much better though because there’s no budget and most people end up in training based on fleet subject matter expertise (rather L&D expertise).
At Element employees do not rate or review the annual performance of the people they report to. As a result, there are too many people in middle management who embody the Peter Principle – they have risen to the level of their incompetence. (There was one particularly good manager in Operations. She went to bat for her team, supported her team, etc. Total unicorn.)
Element’s individual contributor employees are not without blame – everyone contributes to the culture.
I think most employees recognize everything that is wrong at Element (as evidenced by the reviews), but the overwhelming choice was to stay and complain about it.
I thought often of the Robert Frost poem The Road Not Taken. Paraphrasing: two roads diverged in the woods, I took the one less travelled and that has made all the difference.
I knew that I would leave, and I knew that 99% of them would stay (to live career lives of quiet desperation).
Do not make the mistake of taking a job with Element Fleet Management.
