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Finning

Finning is a historic brand in some circles. It has operations in a variety of countries which can provide exposure to international perspectives, in some circumstances. However, it has some challenges that it must constructively address in order to mature as a business.

- Disconnected executive team. Executive management is loosely connected to the heartbeat of the organization. This leads to poor strategic decision-making when it comes to investing in IT infrastructure, marketing and pricing. This is evidenced by the company's decreasing margins in its public financials. Competitors are gaining ground.

- Low innovation. Finning is not adequately equipped to innovate. It can invest money and buy IT systems, but it has difficulty pulling it together in a strategic way. Very poor return on investment (ROI). Innovation takes consistent leadership, honest communication, empowered employees and a competitive drive. Unfortunately, Finning falls short in these categories. IT/SAP implementation failures, write-downs, missteps (digital strategy) have all occurred in recent years.

- Challenged leadership. Some executives (within IT and Canada) have poor leadership skills with behaviours that can be described as belligerent and bullying. This contributes to poor morale and people not wanting to speak up in meetings for fear of being persecuted.

- Low trust environment. Being associated with the correct team is critical at Finning. Work ethic, competence, innovation and productivity are not at the forefront - despite management claims. People are routinely promoted passed their competence level which destroys morale in high-performers.

- Low job stability. This is a long-standing issue at Finning. Ongoing layoffs and cost cutting, despite management claims that they will be different this time around. It is a clear symptom of poor fiscal planning and inadequate operational controls.

- Mental health and poor work environment. The is a proportionately high amount of people on sick-leave and struggling with mental health. This is a direct result of the work-environment.

- Low performance environment. Finning is not an environment for people with new approaches acquired from other organizations. New approaches do not land well at Finning. High-performers from other companies will quickly find themselves frustrated and demoralized. The company desperately wants high performance, but has difficulty creating an environment that fosters high performance. Overall, Finning is a suboptimal mix of wavering strategies that is held together by history. Unfortunately, that is not sustainable in today's marketplace.

Very frequently at quarterly meetings or "state of the company" addresses, the executive management of this company likes to spew buzzwords like "Finning Family". The Sparwood branch laid off 30+ mechanics early in November 2015. ONE day later there were emails sent out by management, requesting overtime. Very "Family" driven, i'd say! Not.

The "Employee Opinion Survey" (EOS) from the last couple years have shown the staggering decline in confidence of the Executive and Branch level management has deteriorated drastically year to year since 2011. Just ask any 5+ year Finning Employee how they feel.

The decisions made to close branches, move branches and divert work to other branches is tearing this company apart. And it is the customer who has to suffer because of it. The shareholders however, continue to be richly rewarded. The executive management are very large shareholders.

The instant there is a whiff of a rumor that work in an area might slow down or shift elsewhere - this company will lay you off. Even if it is for just as short of a period as two weeks. They'd rather waste time on paperwork to lay you off, than have you push a broom and try to retain you within the company.

Local management will try to swindle and circumvent their collective bargaining agreement as best as they can. Very little is done without absolute secrecy and there is zero transparency - until the day they decide to shut down your branch and escort you off property.

Join this company with the knowledge that you WILL lose your job at some point. No-one is safe, not even 30+ year veterans or locations where they have recently invested a LOT of capital to set up shop (Example: Red Deer OEM). 

Get your apprenticeship if you can, finish it if you can... and then find a job with a company that actually values its workforce. Don't think for a second that you can start a new career with Finning and retire there. There was a time when Finning was great to work for, and they are still riding the coattails of that reputation. Hopefully people begin to see the light.

I had near 15 years of tenure with this company, so I have some experience of what Finning once was to the soulless shell of a company it is now.

This company is awful to work for. It's a top-heavy, micromanaged, corporate sesspool; led by uninspiring managers (so-called leaders), and yes-men who all think they're the smartest person in the room, but all lack the ability to actually lead in any meaningful way. Employees are managed by data metrics, KPIs and CRM, and typically from afar (not in the same town let alone the same building).

Finning has long since lost its identity; customer service has been replaced with serve-yourself automation, and subscription-based sales. What's worse is the company could care less about the revolving door employee-base, and ignore the fact top performers exit regularly. Yet, Finning's leaders blindly believe it's still a great company to work for and dismiss their shortcomings. 

The arrogance that "Finning is the best dealer in the world" is ever present, but in my experience, Finning has become so disconnected with what's important and no genuine mission or values, causing them to lose massive marketshare to competitors.

The reality is, Finning will continue to lose good people and customers until they prioritize those two things over the bottom line. Unfortunately, this is unlikely to happen as Finning's sole concern is its shareholders and profit.

Quitting this company was the best thing I could ever do for my mental health and career. I absolutely loathed working here the past few years and wish I could go back in time to quit sooner.


Never in my life has working for a company been so difficult you hear it everyday. You call out sick and use your sick time? Unexcused absences that they’ll put you on their attendance program even if you had doctors notes for the time off.

Accidents happen everyday and most supervisors will just shrug it off and let you go back to exactly what you’re doing. No time outs for those who cause accidents on machines because then productivity takes a hit. 

Budget cuts make it so only a portion of the racking in the building has mesh but they rant and rave about how they’re so safety oriented and they can’t even invest in making sure stuff isn’t going to fall from the sky by accident.

Contractors are left to do whatever they please and leave messes that the actual workers have to clean up after.

Supervisors spend a lot of time at their computers and don’t actually supervise or properly staff busy areas.

If you work at d50 you’re the lowest paid warehouse worker in the finning network despite being the largest and busiest warehouse. This isn’t even mentioning the “temps” who have no union pay increase schedule. If you live alone expect to work a lot of overtime to cover bills.

No accountability between shifts each shift does their work in a different way causing resentment between workers.

Proper equipment is few and far between and good luck having it in good shape.

So many people work so hard and are treated sub human which cause a myriad of mental health issues in the warehouse to the point oh&s was called on them.

This corporation is a sad machine that runs on a very dated and delusional image of its name and brand. 
While constantly downsizing, disposing of good people and closing branches, the fact is that this ship is sinking while trying to maintain yesteryear's revenues and ideals.

99% of managers are overpaid monkeys, puppets, or actors that report to higher-up clowns, all of these arrogant moguls with absolutely no credibility yet yammer and yap like they do. 
Where they should inspire, build people and teams we instead learn to tolerate and even pity them as just another tragic part of our Finning existence.
They have not and could not perform your job but somehow know what’s best for you and that your performance is constantly lacking.
Yes, this aged tyranny still believes in getting the most out of people by overloading with completely unachievable goals then motivating us through guilt, shame, threat, and unbelievably ..  still bullying nowadays!! 
The toxicity and animosity here runs deeper and deeper year over year.
Where mental health is declining and destroying people, families, and society, companies that operate like this need to be exposed for their abuse.
This is not a positive nor inclusive place to come to daily. 
You will regret then despise working for this cult well within a year of your start date - guaranteed!

I've heard stories regarding  Finning  Canada about how they treat their employees and focus more on  revenues of the organization which I presumed is  a given fact, it is the other way around,  I have had personally experience  working for this organization, all I can say that the management team headed by the general manager, supervisors down to the charge hand particularly the D_ _ team were all superb. I never had experience being supported by the management  during my entire life  by any organization in Canada, with Finning I was extremely  supported all throughout,  I  was expecting that an organization like this  massive would easily  let go a low level employee but instead was being supported  mentally and emotionally  especially during the  after effect of  the pandemic, I  hope and pray that economy would still be stable  to sustain the continuous  growth of  the organization. I would prefer to stay working for this organization  if the health of my family permits me to work until my retirement.

I enjoyed working for Finning, the pay and benefits are outstanding and there are regular increases as well. The company itself takes employee concerns seriously, and takes safety seriously. I always felt comfortable talking to my supervisor or my manager about anything. For the most part co workers are friendly and easy to get along with but like anywhere there are people who's life mission is to cause drama. Employees have a lot of freedom to do their job how they want, and there is very little in the way of micromanaging from superiors. 

Hourly staff have good protections from the union, but finning lays people off readily. it's frustrating as a new employee to be motivated and willing to go the extra mile only to be laid off during down turns. It doesn't matter how hard you work if you're not up there on the seniority list.

Advancement is challenging if you're looking to move from an hourly role to a salary role. If you're qualified for a posting you will get an interview with the manager, but jobs tend to be posted with a specific candidate already in mind, so it's mostly a formality. Your qualifications are less important than having a good relationship with the hiring manager. On the bright side, it's a great way to hone your interview skills. 

It's honestly hard to find all that many good things to say about my experience with this company. 
From the lack of real, personalized support to the passive agressive and even downright hostile behaviour of the higher ups, all the way to the special treatment of select employees, I've never in my career worked for such poor excuse of a management team.
Requests for standard issue company supplied personal protective equipment: ignored. Requests for easier access to consumables via vending machines: ignored. Exclusion from attenting company sponsored exents, exclusion from receiving company supplied merchanise, exclusion from attending occupational health and safety meetings. Refusing to recognize first aid training and certification already received from provincial health authorities, and opting to train someone else instead. The list goes on.
They even went as far as to try and tarnish the reputation I had spent years building, at my departure from the company.
There is something deeply wrong with this workplace. 
If you have any sense of self-worth, do yourself a favour and go work somewhere else.

The Kearl moto is Nobody gets hurt and protect today for tomorrow, you can see straight from the get go once the oreintation starts to kick off this is not like the rest of the sites, safety is not just a bargaining chip for admission to work, it is taken seriuos at every level and if you think that you cant work safe this is not the place for you. The teams I work with are from all over Canada and have the exeprince and knowledge that you could only dream of having in your work environment. Everyone brings something different and everyone brings something weather knowlege or just good humour. The attitudes are far superiour to anywhere I have worked and really hone in the great attitudes that everyone brings to the table.There is lots of opertunity on thois site and I believe I will probably be here for a while, but there is always opertunities with other great companies to, which make my job and scope so dynamic. Safety is not for everyone but if you are a team player and you enjoy interaction, as well as good interventions the list are endless.

It’s hard to describe really... imagine if someone who new nothing about business, technical repairs and personable skills owned you. Tells you what and how to do things they do not know how to do and then tried to judge your profit margins at the end of the day. Then, said manager, will throw you under the bus for failing when it’s a fundamentally flawed system to begin with. You take the heat, manager takes the verbal from corporate and the company still suffers margin losses because no alterations are made to the process. Route cause, though identified, isn’t corrected and the square wheel keeps turning (barely because it’s square) but the the shareholder see an ebit difference of .01%(new NEP deal goes through). They’re happy because stock goes up even though there is still the same problems  and nobody does anything to fix the route cause of failure. Honestly the worst company I’ve worked for and I don’t see a happy ending for this (the largest CAT dealer in the world) company. Questionable management from the executives down. Glad to be off the sinking ship and recommend all to avoid.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Heavy equipment mechanic 161 salaries reported	$58.00 per hour
Journeyperson 84 salaries reported	$52.19 per hour
Warehouse worker 41 salaries reported	$24.56 per hour
Equipment technician 11 salaries reported	$47.20 per hour
Cleaner 21 salaries reported	$28.81 per hour

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