Gennum Reviews in Toronto, ON Area

Pros

Roles are very well defined and respected
You can learn a lot of diferent tasks
Open to implementing new ideas
Work on advanced technologies

Cons

Can be hard on work-life balance (depending on unit)
Management has a hard time recognizing problems and acting quickly
A lot of effort is spent on extinguishing fires instead of preventing them
Employees need better salaries. You can not expect to get the best and brightest if you offer average salaries

Advice to Senior Management

Implement a retention program for critical personnel
Projects need to be planned realistically
Listen to youre emploiees

Pros

Good , dedicated and smart people.

Cons

The direction of upper management is not clear.

Pros

Good Stable company to work for
Great people

Cons

Poor leadership and company direction

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the experience there, instead of getting rid of them or letting them go.

Pros

Bonuses were good in the early 2000s .

Cons

New CEO cares less about employees vs the previous ones, and his decisions made the company worse off.

Advice to Senior Management

Attempt to manage a bad situation so that it is profitable, rather than cutting and selling a potentially lucrative business and in the end just making your company worth less that it would have if you just did your job.

Pros

No other alternatives in this region at the moment

Cons

No clear planning for future

Advice to Senior Management

Better evaluations of the resources abilities and better planning. They are asking everybody to work with motivation but there is small reward to go beyond normal job.

Pros

Only Semiconductor company in the area with a positive outlook.
The company is growing and winning in key markets.
Products are innovative even though they leverage a lot on legacy manufacturing technologies.

Cons

Very immature first line management.
Many first line managers are good engineers that got promoted into the role but have no clue how to be a manager.

Advice to Senior Management

Define better ways of training new manager and measuring their performance as managers

Pros

-gain experience about a variety of topics and work with experienced engineers

Cons

-smaller work environment causes lots of gossips and small talk
-unreasonable firings

Advice to Senior Management

they should start promoting engineers to become management.

Pros

Good respect for family life balance. The Burlington area is quite nice. The people who work at Gennum are very friendly.

Cons

*Extremely* political place. Even though there is new senior management and some changes, there are still a huge number of people who 'started with the first brick'. There is a "not invented here" attitude.

Middle and upper managers are often not true to their words.

The company pays a great deal of lip service to the concept of bring in new industry best practises, but when it comes down to it, they have a great deal of difficulty in accepting new ideas and the ways to change things.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop the politics. Pay attention to the exit interview comments. Be honest.