The document discusses Alcoa Fjarðaál, the largest aluminum smelter in Iceland. It summarizes that Alcoa Fjarðaál started production in 2007 with a total investment of around 200 billion ISK (2 billion USD). It focuses on the company's culture, which emphasizes teamwork, training, diversity, and employee participation through continuous improvements and committees. This includes establishing an industry school in 2011 where most teachers are employees and students work on improvement projects. The company also conducts annual employee surveys and believes its focus on culture has led to high engagement scores and low turnover rates.

1. The link between
excellent employees
and excellent workplace
October 2019
Guðný Björg Hauksdóttir
Alcoa Fjarðaál
Act with integrity
Operate with excellence
Care for people

2. ▪ The project started on March 15th 2003 when contracts were signed for the construction
of the Kárahnjúkar Power Plant and the Alcoa aluminum smelter in Reyðarfjörður
▪ Alcoa Fjarðaál in Reyðarfjörður started production in 2007. Its the biggest aluminum smelter
in Iceland exporting around 350 thousand tons of metal per year
▪ Total investment in Alcoa Fjarðaál was “HUGE” around 200 billion ISK or 2 billion USD
▪ In the beginning a lot of work was put into work design and organizational structure of Fjarðaál

3. 3

4. Company Culture
7/10/2019 4
▪ Team work - Role based production teams
▪ Operator Centric - ABS
Process driven, lean production
▪ Training and skill building
▪ Diversity and gender equality
▪ Employee participation and empowerment
through continuous improvements

5. ▪ The Fjarðaál Industry School was established in 2011
▪ Most of the teachers at the Industry School are Fjarðaál employees
▪ Improvement committees and projects - Kaizens
▪ Annual Employee Engagement surveys
▪ EHS training – Safety first!
▪ Implementing role based teams
Human Resources – Education and training

6. •
Fjarðaál Industry School – Improvement projects
Students designed racks for storing jacks.
With the new design the jacks are not damaged, they are more
easy to find and take up less space.

7. Fjarðaáls Industry School – Improvement project
▪ Students came up with a new procedure for
handling products that were put on hold
because of production halts at one of our
three casting lines.
▪ The process used to be complicated, involving
operators moving the products back and forth
and more contractor cost because of special
labelling and handling for export.
▪ The only thing needed was a printer so the
operators could label the products themselves,
saving time and contractor cost and increasing
safety with less traffic moving the products
back and forth.
Estimated annual cost savings 70.000 USD.

8. Employee Engagement and Retention
▪ Employee Engagement is extremely important
▪ We embraced the #metoo revolution and made a Fjarðaðál
Company Compact to improve our culture for all employees
▪ We believe that our actions will improve employee engagement
and retention in the long run, increase diversity and develop
excellent employees
▪ Training and education matter – Turnover among Industry
school graduates is very low
▪ If not for resourceful and resilient employees
▪ Profit is not the only metric for assessing human resources
▪ It’s a tough business and we would struggle to get through
hard times without resourceful and resilient employees
▪ We strive to be an attractive workplace with culture where
diversity is important and where everyone feels respected
and valued
77%
80%
84%
71%
80%
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Employee Engagement
9,3% 9,0%
7,4%
6,5% 6,0%
2015 2016 2017 2018 2019
Employee Turnover

11. ▪ Questions?