DHL Express Reviews

Pros

Global Company, presence in all continents. The biggest (and only) reall Pro that I had was that HQ are close to my home).

Cons

Did not received a performance review during my three years there. HR Directors and VP were always secretive, doors behind. People is more focused on to the basics at getting the job done than on building real foundations for DHL to stand in the US market. The promotion scale is strongly based on the "who do you know" rule rather than on any real performance.

Advice to Senior Management

- Executives: Stop going on vacation! You spent 4 weeks/year on company paid vacactions on average but really take twice as much without reporting that.
- Directors: Focus on the people at the company, not only on the golf match against your peers or VPs at jacaranda lakes!.
- Managers and Analysts: Stop the practice of "anything goes" when it is about climbing the corporate ladder by backstabbing your coworkers!

Pros

Great if you like being a part of a large international organization. Great for career advancement. Competitive salary. People are friendly.

Cons

Information is not communicated to staff in a timely manner. Not sufficient structure, internally and externally. Too much investment on things that may not be the most important.

Advice to Senior Management

Conduct more feasability studies before making such big decisions. Adjust benefits. Focus more on the customers' and employee's needs also be more forward thinking.

Pros

- Great experience,
- Some fantastic hardworking people
- International exposure excellent
- Business acumen appreciated
- Able to influence if know right people

Cons

- Poor pay
- Internal politics
- Favoritism
- No emphasis on professional development
- Work life balance poor for management

Advice to Senior Management

Eliminate favoritism and listen to lower levels of staff for what is happening on field. Management presentations are biased to make everything seem okay.

Pros

- part of a global enterprise (DP DHL - was "DPWN") with deep pockets
- plenty of opportunities to work out what was necessary and present solution proposals (although then getting it done effectively was near impossible)
- reasonable pay and benefits

Cons

- it's the part of that global enterprise (DP DHL) that's been the learning experience and victim of the new global management direction towards standardization of processes and IT systems
- many silos in the organization with little apparent desire for the whole to succeed across the individual groups' self interests

Advice to Senior Management

listen to the people you brought in for their diverse experiences - the NIH perspective towards ideas from the more recently hired personnel drives then away and you're left with the same people doing the same things and you keep wondering why nothing gets better

(note that John Mullen is no longer in the DP DHL management structure)

Pros

Chicagoland, union pay, union benefits, overtime always available, ability to switch locations and shifts on a bid basis, meeting happy customers.

Cons

Mass company layoff in the USA market. Management doesn't recognize excellence in job performance, rewards with more workload. Management fails to address lazy drivers and instead puts more of the workload on the drivers who do the most hustling. Management often doesn't listen to driver recommendations on workload distribution,

Advice to Senior Management

Lazy drivers need to be held accountable for lack of performance and field productivity. Extra workload shouldn't be put on the drivers who are already busting their butts just to pick up the slack of lazy workers. Management should listen more to drivers who have good suggestions for route structure and customer needs. Areal reward system should be in place for workers who perform at a excellent level.

Pros

They provide medical, dental and vision for part time employees, we are a union shop which keeps our pay decent even though we have been reduced. Its a job.

Cons

After the layoffs, still kept much of the same inept supervisors/managers at the company. The company is still spending unnecessary money, which is what got us into trouble in the first place.

Advice to Senior Management

Go back to the drawing board and start over, get the management better training, treat employees with more respect, especially when we are all in the same boat. The company needs to stop hiding information when it comes to employees lives.

Pros

Pros would be that hard work can move you up. Unfortunately that hard work is long stressful hours. They have good vacation plans for lower-level management.

Cons

I'm very disappointed with DHL and how the built up a market share so fast and then threw the brakes on causing $$Billions and many good, honest people their jobs. It's obvious that DHL could have been a competitor in the US domestic market, but.... for some reason they just kept loosing money. Management pushed change that they didn't even understand.

Advice to Senior Management

Get new management, which I think they did. Start making money in the internatioanl market again and come back to the US domestic market slowly, logically, and have a better management team.

Pros

The pay was relatively high for the menial job that I was doing. That was the only way that they coud keep people employed.

Cons

Terrible management. They have very little understanding of what is actually happening in the company. They ruined an entire town by firing 8,000 people because of their poor management skills.

Advice to Senior Management

Go back to Germany.

Pros

If you do not want to work hard, DHL is the place to get away with it. If you spend enough time at Cornerstone 3, you will get promoted.

Cons

There is complete disregard for hiring or promoting on qualifications. One should expect a financial person to have education and experience in Finance or Accounting. One should expect an IT person to have IT credentials. One should expect a Sales Executive to have Sales credentials. One should expect Leadership to extend themselves beyond their direct reports. There is a practice of promoting friends and family, instead of merit and experience.

Advice to Senior Management

There is not much to say when the leadership is registering single digit approval ratings. The best and most qualified have been let go and the rest are just waiting through the recovery.

Pros

Initially DHL Express was a good company with solid management team and a quality non union courier base that provided premium international express service. The pay and benefits were decent and you could manage your group without too much interference from above as long as you made your goals.

Cons

Everything changed after 2003 with the acquisition of Airborne Express to gain a foot print in the US domestic market. Hours increased, goals and targets changed monthly...Communication to the front-line supervisors and managers became threatening and in some cases very secretive. Promotions and the review process became something of a joke and had more to do with favoritism than actual results. Courier base shifted to some unions and independent contractors as the DHL company trained couriers were laid off. Premium service suffered customers were lost.

Advice to Senior Management

No advice as the company has begun a massive pull back of services thus eliminating jobs. Company will continue to fail as orders are coming in from Germany who never understood how to operate in the US labor market. Look at what Mercedes or Daimler did to Chrysler