BP – “Really interesting work opportunities, good work / life balance, poor performance management culture.”

Pros

An enormous company with great diversity of opportunities: really interesting place to work.
A culture that enables a good work / life balance
An entrepreneurial intent, which tries to delegate responsibility and give lots of space to work
A supportive culture that looks after its employees

Cons

Not a strong performance management culture. Very hard to get a proper review, and get credit for the work you do unless you "work the system". The system sometimes seems to be more about networking and marketing yourself than doing great work. Performance reviews for many employees are once annually, too often not taken seriously, and not linked properly to bonus.
Alongside this there is a stringent and narrow grading system that requires x years in each grade and no grade hopping - if you come in at the wrong grade, its dam hard to get career enhancement commensurate with your skills and performance.
Frequent re-structures occur in certain parts of the business

Advice to Senior Management

Focus more on performance management and meritocratic HR policies. Performance review processes need to be more rigorously applied, and business leaders need to work harder to find out about real performers, not just those who are very intent on shouting about themselves.