Portland General Electric – “Stagnant work place with overwhelming change and insufficient resources”

Pros

Good benefits
Above average programs and accommodations including: tuition reimbursement, training, etc
Annual pay increases (this is sort of a con too)
Good executive leadership in certain areas
Very talented employees who do work hard to overcome challenges
We don't fire people (Which should also be a con)

Cons

Too many old people work here (That sounds mean, it isn't intended to be. We don't value people's accomplishments rather, their years of service)

Poor people management - sorry not everyone is doing such a great job that they deserve a pay increase each year.

Promotions to management are often for the best workers, not the best managers
Attitude is fully reactive and not proactive.
Inconsistent policies which are not enforced and therefore, are irrelevant.

People hanging on until they can retire - many employees have been moved out of management positions due to performance but have retained their salary.

There is a huge lack of trust in the company, employees don't trust supervisors, supervisors don't trust management, and management massages information to give to executives. People guard their fiefdoms with all of their energy instead of working harder to improve their outputs.

Advice to Senior Management

You need to figure out what kind of company you want this to be. If you keep on this current path, you will have more people walk out the door to companies which actually give their employees the freedom to do their jobs.

Far too many initiatives that cost significant dollars are approved each year which often return little in the ways of ROI. People do more and more each year so they can simply fill up their scorecard (a childish, end of year report which is intended to prove that we actually did something this year) and make themselves look better.

You need to get middle and upper level management on the same page. You need to remove a number of middle managers in this company.

Stop rewarding people for just sticking it out here and completing their meager goals for the calendar year. Truly challenge people by actually letting them have some say in what they think would provide value to the business.

Trust your employees once in a while, they might actually surprise you. And guess what, people still have value even if they forget a comma or a period in an email.