Avery Dennison Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Avery Dennison as a contractor for more than a year

Pros – Things move very quickly, Some of the new products are fairly exciting, Good pay and benefits. The people who are not in management are very friendly and very helpful when you need to know how to do things.

Cons – Company is not keeping up with the times, management is stuck in a rut. Management tries to utilize Lean and Six Sigma practices, but it's all very superficial, no one seems to want to actually find the causes of problems, just give the perception of trying to find them.

None of the internal databases talk to each other, and there is no clear definition of how to do things. Some projects have gotten to implementation only to find out that approval is needed from 3 -4 other business units.

The company has just been sold and morale is extremely low. Good employees are fleeing.

Advice to Senior Management – Instead of the perception of efficiency and problem solving - you should actually problem solve.
Invest in an all inclusive database and create clear documentation of your processes which include ALL parties involved
Know what your people do, and how to best utilize them.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Avery Dennison full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Op3 machine operators have it easy. Half is of what they do is working and the other half is just standing around, and or just talking..
Coater operator team is even easier. One quarter is working and the other 75% is talking and standing around.
Hours of paid wages per week are somewhere between 60 to 70.

Cons – If your wife works a normal week, you will only get 1 weekend together, every 7 weeks, if you work on the coater.. Your work schedule changes weekly. Monday/Saturday off the first week...........Tuesday/Saturday off the second week, etc. They want to eliminate any overtime, so they stick it to you to set aside a 6 day work week, and only pay you for 5..

Anyone starting at this facility will be starting at the upender. It is a fast paced job, because the 2 slitters associated with it are running at full tilt. Besides upending and wrapping the skids, you have to jump on a forklift, look at the 8 or so sheets to see where they go, and waste time putting in locations or trucks. Demanding, frustrating, and most times impossible. Get your own skids, and no relief person when you take a break.

Last years raises ranged from 5 cents to 50 cents.
The only other easy job is the rewinder operator.

All machines are rated, and if you have areas in your chart that are red, they call you in for an explanation.
This facility is a military compound, with all supervisors being ex military people.

They can't find maintenance people that want to stay. I have seen maintenance people work 21 day straight, without any days off. I have also seen 2 of them get divorces.

Benefits were changed to eliminate retirement benefits.

Everyone snitches on each other.

Advice to Senior Management – You have made a statement the you want to have an increase of $500,000,000 in this years production.
Personally, if I am still working there, I would love to see your stock drop down to about $10 a share. If the CEO took a bonus payment of 4.5 million dollars, even though he admitted that he did a lousy job..........then I am within my rights to expect this satisfaction.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Avery Dennison full-time

Pros – Used to be a friendly, team-oriented company but that changed in the last 3 years. Good benefits in terms of 401K, medical plans.

Cons – Micro managed, political, no retirement plan. I would not by stocks anymore in this company. the CEO will take a large raise and stock option while the workers get negligible or no raises. Company is divesting and downsizing. They just cut 25% of Corporate, are trying to sell 1/3 or the company (Office Products - this is public knowledge) and they keep cutting the IT departments frequently and working them like slaves. No real future here if you want to work in those areas.

Advice to Senior Management – Suggest consideration of your employees, rather than just how much profit you can pocket. We call it "Slavery" Dennison for a reason.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Avery Dennison full-time for less than a year

Pros – smart people, good location (Boston)

Cons – long winded business approach. No focus on growth

Advice to Senior Management – Please focus on growth. Be nimble.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Avery Dennison

Pros – Nice place to work. They know how to find great people because it's a revolving door. Great benefits and good work life balance

Cons – Will lay people off when ever something goes wrong with the bottom line. Upper management manages to the quarter and what the stock price is doing. They care more about stockholders than the employees and even more than their customers.

Advice to Senior Management – Let someone else lead. Stop managing based on what wall street is saying and doing. Its time for a replacement of upper management. Find people that have been successful running a company and get rid of the yes people that run the company.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Avery Dennison

Pros – Great peers, salary is competitive and it is a Global organization.

Cons – Such a complex organization with too many layers. Employees are not taken care of anymore.

Advice to Senior Management – Take care of employees, great people work there!

Current Employee – been working at Avery Dennison

Pros – Salary, travel, exploring new technologies

Cons – Lack of direction and no opportiunity for advancement

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Avery Dennison

Pros – For the most part I enjoyed the people I worked with. They want to do the right thing but are quickly losing faith in Senior Managements ability to lead.

Cons – 1-The Human Resources department in the divisions I encountered was horrible. They were a bunch of cute young women overly concerned with their own careers and how quickly they could advance. For just about every question you asked them their answer was an 800 number to call. One HR Manager admitted to me that she would not post job openings in other Divisions because it was a hassle for her to back-fill positions should someone leave.
2-Leadership at the plant level changed every 2-3 years. This appears to be a mandate from Corporate...and it is not working in any way, shape, or form.
3-My Division, specifically, did not develop from within enough. We had bright people looking to do more and more times than not they had to leave the company to get what they were looking for.

Advice to Senior Management – 1- Put the human back in Human Resources. Too many HR folks are involved in strategic decisions.
2- Let the Plant Managers take ownership of their plants. Leave them there for 5-8 years and develop relationships with their people. The ability to leverage relationships is not a bad thing.
3-Make everyone working in a plant report to the Plant Manager instead of a Director miles away. As times get togher in each business segment you need everyone pushing in the same direction with one clear agenda.
4-Do not be afraid to fail, but recognize failure quickly. The fear of failure often leads to short sighted goals and programs. Let your people implement ELS, hold them accountable for RESULTS, and move them out if they do not meet expectations. You should know if someone is a performer with 8-12 months.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Avery Dennison

Pros – Compensation, benefits and flexibility for time off. Fellow employees are hardworking and personable. Multiple divisions without much overlap. Easy to move among the divisions. Many opportunities within the U.S. Opportunities to work with a very diverse customer base. Not many quality issues with the products. Supportive managers (generally).

Cons – 15 years behind in IT technology. Frequent mid level management changes. Generally, good company and division strategies are put in place, but never anything truly innovative. Always a follower of bigger and better Fortune 500 companies. Execution is usually extremely poor. Truly disorganized. "Right sizing" has left morale low. One year the answer is RFID tags, the next year Paxar.

Advice to Senior Management – The "right sizing" was done without any streamlining or technology improvements. None of your initiatives, Six Sigma, ELS or Horizon Projects, will go far with everyone focusing on work that should be automated or outsourced. Start focusing on your core markets and sell the peripheral divisions. Smaller, faster and more profitable. Move beyond sticky paper. We honestly like you, but we need a more radical vision.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Avery Dennison

Pros – good pay for the job

Cons – long commute, NO chance for advancement

Advice to Senior Management – be more for the employee