General Mills Reviews

Pros

Great people - smart, hard-working, respectful
Ethical people - never feel like I would be asked to do something that isn't "right"
Beautiful corporate campus
SUPER about work-life balance concerns - - extrememly flexible

Cons

It can be tough to get promoted once you hit senior manager level

Advice to Senior Management

Keep doint what you're doing - - it's a great place to work!

Pros

Smart, nice People
Challenging brands
Cutting edge methodologies
Great benefits
Competitive pay
Campus emmenities like Drs office, dry cleaner, salon

Cons

Can be too big at times
Not always open to change the way things are done
Pretty cut-throat with the marketers (It's either you move up fast our you move out just as fast)

Pros

The pay is great and benefits are better t6han average

Cons

Takes forever to become a union member.

Advice to Senior Management

Get out in plant more often.

Pros

Amazing family feeling one you start working there by the time you trust some of your co workers you will already have a few knives in your back.
Benefits are amazing from day 1.
health/ dental/ 401k match at 6%
You cant look at the job itself, you have to look at the big picture (job/people/benefits) to keep you sane enough to keep working there.
Bonus checks and raises.
Employee sales.

Cons

Everyone will act like your best friend, but will throw you under the bus at the first chance they get.
Management is a JOKE! Well atleast on day shift! A production worker can be there for 10 years, but we get a new Management Intern thinking they can tell us how to run, just because they have a degree and bent over to get in the door.
God for bid you have a issue with your boss, and go to their boss, you will get the run around saying "I dont think theres a problem here, I think you two just see on different levels"

Favoritism to the max!!!!!

meetings all the time. (osha/communication/AM's/) Cant just work your 8 hours a day and be done.

Trying to make production machinery older than me run with NO downtime.. Too cheap to just get newer.

Management is constantly saying we strive to be the best, but an hourly production worker has no voice! were their puppets making the daily production goals. :(

They dont care about the work/life balance. They say they do, but in reality working 6 days a week for 3 weekends in a row, with only 1- 2 day weekend a month is a little bull%^#! The only thing they care about is that they have a body to fill a spot in.

The more positions you know the more you get $#!@ed!!! TL doesnt care how many you know, or how flexible your being.

High turnover rate!!-- Can you blame them??

Advice to Senior Management

Who knows where to begin?! I used to love working there, now its just a pay check. Look more at the hourly production workers instead of having all salary people on their golf outings!!!

Pros

Decent pay, employee centric culture

Cons

Poor work ethic and shallow understanding of manufacturing principles.

Advice to Senior Management

None

Pros

General Mills "walks the walk". Excellent career development, great leaders at both the corporate and manufacturing facilities, superior work-life balance, and senior leaders who are not only easily accessible, but who listen and recognize outstanding performance.

Employees - Virtually everyone is top notch and brings something to the table
Ethics/Integrity - General Mills jealously guards their reputation and is highly ethical
Products - Great products with a focus on making them healthier
Community - Give back is an understatement
Pay/Benefits - On par, if not better, than peer CPG companies
Senior Leaders- World-class, always available, hires the best
Continuing education - GMI offers classes internally as well as supports their employees taking external classes
Respect - Leaders/managers respect and recognize the hard work of their employees
Productivity - The company continues to increase productivity without reducing headcount
Pension - GMI is one of the few companies left that continue to offer full retirement pensions on top of a matching 401k
HQ - Full service cafe, Caribou, salon, on-site fitness, coffee, healthy snack bar, lectures from world renown experts in all fields, beautiful campus

Cons

Really no downsides. I have read other reviews and the common "con" theme is the promotional process. Yes, it can be frustrating and can be political, but all in all, there are a limited number of positions the higher your level which can limit those that deserve to be at higher salary grades who are not. The grass always looks greeener on the other side. I've know many who leave the company for a $20,000 bump in salary and end up coming back because the the grass really wasn't greener.

Other: Conference rooms can be very difficult to find last minute. However, the large seating in the cafeteria is always available and ample.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work. Continue to hire the best - Leaders not managers. Address the promotional process in a candid and frank manner, even if it is what employees already know but don't want to hear.

Pros

General Mills has a great work culture and is very employee centric / focused. They are definetely a market leader in terms of use of technology and marketing. Some classic product lines whic are going great till date.

Cons

General Mills tends to be less agrresive in terms of company growth / working style especially outside the US. Their major focus has been the US for a very long time which is why other companies beat them hands down in the international market. The company also has a flatlined but pretty complex organizational structure which can add to complexity in communication / decision making. Not a great company to join when your young and want to really learn a lot.

Advice to Senior Management

Generals mills is a great company but to compete internationally especially with companies like Unilever, P&G etc we have to work a lot more harder and take some aggresive decessions.

Pros

People are respected and treated well
Good learning and development practices
Good fringe benefits (vacation, flexible working arrangements)
Fairly shallow management structure, and Director-VP level people are accessible

Cons

"Minnesota-nice" culture sometimes limits the candor of feedback
Technical functions do not have a lot of input on business teams
Lots of turnover on business teams, especially in Marketing
Overly focused on diversity for the sake of diversity

Advice to Senior Management

Respect the quality of your brands, and recognize that continual cost-cutting over time will erode that quality. Recognize that people will develop differently, and really pay attention to people when they put things on their development plans. If those plans don't match up with an individual's perceived performance or potential, have the courtesy to share that candidly.

Pros

Great company with strong moral fiber and leaders with good intentions/cares about employees...Management strongly supports employee development and flex work hours

Cons

weak on strategic vision and inability to prioritize causes poor work life balance...promotion track in marketing slow...and the "minnesotan nice" culture sometimes makes process/execution slow...while it makes the top ranking on diversity, the company (mainly through the marketing organization) is still run by very white male midwestern type guys...thus diversity of thinking and leaderships style is not appreciated as much, not because they don't want to, but because they don't have exposure to diverse thinking and don't understand how to leverage it

Advice to Senior Management

Prioritize, and get out and see the world more!

Pros

Twin Cities Location
Competitive salary
Schedule flexibility that allows for family matters
Good people with whom you can develop great friendships

Cons

Highly political organization, some executives are all about their careers without regard to actual results
How results are communicated up is more important than the actual result, if you are a great performer but not a great communicator you lose
A degree of nepotism

Advice to Senior Management

Become bolder on actions, times have changed... What took GMI here, will not take it there. Identify true performers and weed out low performers