3M Reviews in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN Area

Pros

The company is so large that you can move from department to department if you are let off. Very large range of skills there.

Cons

Sometimes it can be too large. It's easy to make connections inside your department but there are so many people that if you want to be recognized you really have to swim through the rest.

Advice to Senior Management

They do a great job of including everyone in meetings and really do listen to each other. The meetings are rarely larger than 8 people.

Pros

Great job for getting your foot in the door. Very personable, competent coworkers. Potential for high mobility within the company.

Cons

Contract workers stick around longer than usual, which can be good and bad. Poor communication with regards to external application process.

Pros

Smart people who are very dedicated to providing industry and consumers with excellent technological solutions. Kind work culture. Good work life balance.

Cons

Low diversity. Poor marketing skills thought organization. Lack of focus on business investments within divisions. Lack of understanding on how to grow a business (other than buying one, or throwing it out there with minimal support).

Advice to Senior Management

Spend more on marketing activities. Set realistic growth targets in mature businesses. Take a risk once in a while. Ufda.

Pros

- Wide variety of interesting products
- Comfortable work environment
- Nice campus with lots of amenities
- Respectable contributor to the community
- Full time employees seem quite satisfied; contractors are treated very well

Cons

- Parking can sometimes be nightmarish, especially if there is a training event
- The campus is quite large and finding a particular building can be tricky

Pros

- Compensation is good for management level employees though a large chunk of pay is division performance based.
- Working at a factory will get you promoted and recognized quicker than working in corporate HQ.
- Great health, dental, and vision benefits. Good 401k. Stock purchase at discount.
- Performance feedback good (depends highly on your specific manager).

Cons

- Middle management tends to be smarter than senior management. Senior management known to make short-sided and poor decisions frequently.
- Older management team does not understand how to manage younger employees. This should change as older employees start to retire.
- Pay for junior employees not on par with pay for junior employees at comparable companies. Management and senior level employees get paid on par with peers at other comparable companies.

Advice to Senior Management

Start developing younger employees to take over management positions in the future. Your high performing younger (28-40 years old) employees are leaving because you are not developing them for management positions. Current managers will start to retire in large numbers in 4-6 years leaving you with few choices to replace them with.

Pros

The R&D software group was different from anywhere else I've worked. They move fast, but give you a chance to learn and grow as you need two. Most importantly, mistakes are very much tolerated, and are viewed as a chance to grow and experiment until you get it right.

Cons

The facilities are old and shabby. Very much seems like old lab buildings, which makes sense given the company. Also, the cafeteria is downright awful.

Advice to Senior Management

Upgrade the buildings for your researchers with the same enthusiasm that you do for your business users. The innovation center is a great example of what things could be like. This would attract better talent.

Pros

- Had chance to meet executives within the company
- Employee discount on 3M products
- Tours of plants and facilities available

Cons

- Male dominated
- Location of office
- Pigeon-holed
- People are homogenous
- Age and generation gap are large
- Very stuck in their traditional ways of thinking despite priding themselves in being innovative
- Poor feedback

Advice to Senior Management

Ask if your employees actually like what they are doing- listen to their voice.

Pros

solid systems and interaction between businesses

Cons

little upward mobility and serious micro-management

Pros

Diverse technologies applied to diverse markets
Focus on premium markets and high quality
Global markets and expanding market focus
Large company with opportunities to move around

Cons

Some businesses require much travel for performing job duties
Many long term employees; hard for new employees to stand out

Advice to Senior Management

Continue focus on new market areas and new geographies
Return to leader for valuing employees with leading recognition / benefit rewards

Pros

A lot of technologies to chose from when interested in expanding your career growth. Each division is run like a seperate business unit which can host many available jobs.

Cons

Because there are so many divisions promotions and yearly ratings may differ largerly because of the group or division you are in.

Advice to Senior Management

Some good technical people are not good managers or supervisors but follow that path to increase there compensation which really hurts the company more then it helps.