Honeywell International Reviews in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN Area

Pros

Great people to work with
Excellent training/educational support
Good Pay, Excellent Benefits
Good exposure to new products and technologies.
Well respected company.

Cons

Profit margins on jobs are too large, makes it had for the local branch to compete against independent contractors selling the same product.
Uses touchy feely goals in performance reviews

Advice to Senior Management

Make local sales branches independent entities so they can compete using lower profit margins. Re-institute profit sharing bonuses to allow employees to benefit from good company performance..

Pros

adding experience in a big company, global exposure, cross functional structure, working knowledge, training, big supplier base, pay is so so.

Cons

no career path, hierarchy, poor leadership skill in the sourcing group,poor human resource support, no team work, cold company environment

Pros

Company has great technologies in good industries as they say.

Cons

Compensation and benefits are quite bad.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to reward employees better with higher pay raises. I know so many coworkers are looking at jumping. I wouldn't be surprised if between people retiring and jumping ship 20% will leave my site in 2012.

Pros

Good company; lots of opportunity if you are in a centeral location; performance driven for a large company. Recommend working there.

Cons

Heavily matrixed; must be able to opperate in a large org. environment. Lots of approvals required for change. Overall good company.

Advice to Senior Management

continue to cut through redtap. Balance need for moving work to low cost countries with impact on the business in a region

Pros

Learning organization at all levels
Job security in challenging economy
Interesting work

Cons

outsourcing mfg to optimize cost in the short term
long hours

Advice to Senior Management

Sourcing to low cost emerging countries is a short term strategy
Look at total cost not piece part cost

Pros

Pay is comparable to other engineering based companies, benefits are about average, facilities (at least in Golden Valley, MN) are nice after the remodeling, most of the rank-and-file are very hard working. Paychecks always cleared - although they were trying to extend T&Cs for vendors to 90 days or longer if possible.

Cons

I was a competitive hire, and after 20 months I returned to my previous employer. Honeywell is no longer the practical engineering company with a midwestern mindset that many people think it is. Specifics:
- SAP at any cost ($60M per year, 5 years running and at least 3 years remaining). Original window was 4-5 years. Unfortunately, several strategic mistakes were made in planning, and this has cost the company millions.
- Six Sigma for most everyone, even if you must fly to another city to be trained. Half the people in my class did not understand the basics of statistics, problem solving, etc.
- More meetings with people who did not contribute a single comment, take responsibility for an action, or otherwise participate. Since many meetings are hosted "remotely" (using LiveMeeting or similar tools), often people who should have been listening and participating were busy reading their email or checking their BBs.
- Stated targets for back-office functions (IT, procurement, etc) were based on industry "best-in-class" comparisons, but after probing for additional details the basis for these comparisons were never provided.

Advice to Senior Management

- Listen to your employees and make the improvements they suggest
- Don't always take the "all-or-nothing" approach (e.g. SAP)

Pros

Large company, variety of career opportunities. Depending on the business unit, there can be a range of relocation options available. Also, Honeywell generally values training and development. The culture is fairly relaxed and dress code is business casual in most areas. People are friendly and usually helpful.

Cons

Sometimes slow moving, not the most dynamic industries. There is a wide range of cultures between the divisions. Some have morale issues, especially areas with large numbers of jobs being cut or moved overseas. The compensation/benefits are in line with what's available at similarly sized companies. Acquisitions can sometimes be a big headache.

Advice to Senior Management

The culture is somewhat old school. Recruit a younger workforce.

Pros

A large company with many job opportunites and places to live. If you want to live overseas that is a strong possibility. In some places there are people who have worked in the same building for ever 30yrs so it feels like a family at the workplace.

Cons

This company does not reward employees often and when it does, it does not amount to be much of a big deal. Also there is not really a good system in place for new employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't be so self centered.

Pros

Opportunity is their if yuo are allowed to pursue.

Cons

Colleagues are whiners. Also talk behind your back a lot. I guess most of them went thru some severe downsizing when the service sector got shipped overseas.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't let employees to be negative. Nip it in the bud.

Pros

The name of the company is widely recognized. Having the company on your resume will help a lot while job searching. There are dozens of branches within Honeywell that offers a variety different kinds of opportunities. If you ever look for a job with Honeywell, I'd suggest the Aerospace division that constantly gets rewarded by the government with fat contracts.

Cons

No advancement opportunity if you get stuck in the manufacturing department. The work is very mundane and boring and gets very repetitive very quickly. If you are an operator, this is the place to be. A union shop with the operators readily taking advantage of their own bosses and trying to even mess things up whenever possible.

Advice to Senior Management

Try to control your operators, and get rid of the union somehow.