Johnson & Johnson Reviews in Toronto, ON Area

Pros

Large company environment. Good career opportunities for younger people. Profitable company. Decent career and education prospects. Not a bad place to work.

Cons

Opposite of what I wrote before. Unless you are a member of the leadership team - not much initiative needed. Not too much support for innovation.

Advice to Senior Management

Create some excitement. Perhaps we need a call for a "moon shot". We need to inspired. We need to be rapidly growing or acquiring other businesses and technology.

Pros

Working for J&J gives you instant recognition in the field, even if your job is the same as before, say at Tier 3 company.
A lot of talented people, make you learn more and learn from each other.
Great performance is recognized, but all depends on the organization and your boss.
They try to develop the "weakest links" without simply cutting them off.
A french tutor on site.
Ovearll a really comfortable place to work - some people who have no drive but are just good at what they do can stay in those positions forever... No need to try to push yourself up.

Cons

Some inconsistencies in how people are promoted. There is an HR document about how the progression should happen, but many times this is used to hold someone back, whil those who need to be placed higher skip the line.
In a lot of instances it is who you know. Great worker with no connections can be passed over for a good worker with connections.
Sometimes it is evident that it is expected you will devote greater proportion of yourself to work than what you would expect from this "family oriented company". Comments such as "he/she is a company man/woman", "devoted to the business" are common in describing employees.
There could be difficulties in getting courses/additional education through the company. Internally there are several training sessions you can take, but they quickly run out. External courses are almost unheard of.
International opportunities are very rare, unless you are really high up or - again - know someone... Marketing side, as usual, gives you more of a chance.
Recent bad publicity with public recalls caused some shame for employees, no real tools to address this. Penalized on the bonus for these items outside of our control.

Advice to Senior Management

Need to see more developmental opportunities offered - whether internal or external - i.e. funding needed. More collaboration is needed across departments - no silos! Don't penalize us multiple times for company underperforming.

Pros

Money is the only thing that makes it worth looking at

Cons

everything else

-its a soap opera
-people get promoted based on who they know/help/socialize with
-they tend to throw people away like garbage

their latest engagement survey indicated that over 50% of employees intend to leave within the next year. terrible stuff..but the US folks are wonderful. this is a Canada-specific rot

Advice to Senior Management

see rot comment above. this is not a Bill Weldon issue. speaking french should not be a fast-track to the prime roles

Pros

salary and benefits are comparable with other tier 1 companies

Cons

- political environment
- structure not inclusive of all arms of the company

Advice to Senior Management

- listen to your employees and make a concerted effort to improve shortcomings
- empower and engage your employees no matter at what level

Pros

- good work life balance - ability to work from home and summer hours
- laid back atmosphere
- very friendly coworkers
- very ethical
- great opportunitites for lateral movements

Cons

- status quo mentality - hard to implement change and improve processes
- lots of beaurocracy/politics
- hard to advance without connections in senior management

Advice to Senior Management

Work on retaining best employees and improve criteria for promotions.

Pros

Salary and benefits are strong.

Cons

Disconnected and isolated. Very siloed.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate more.

Pros

Company reputation and brand equity

Cons

Chicke and the egg syndrome - can't get into sales without marketing experience and can't advance in marketing without sales experience

Advice to Senior Management

Take a deeper look at young talent.

Pros

Well known in the industry, company is well branded with quality products, managment and staff support employees with self development quite well.

Cons

Work life balance does not exist (at least in the finance department), relationships mean more importance than performance it would seem, company does not have a engaging deparment outside of individual teams

Advice to Senior Management

Don't try to preach the CREDO (mission statement), if you can't practice it on a daily basis (especially from senior management)

Pros

J&J provides an acceptable work/live balance and tools to make your work. Fair payment and bonuses.

Cons

The company seems to function in silos where different areas of the organization are completely disconnected. Micromanagement is clearly evident and new ideas are usually not welcome. Not all the senior managers are aligned with the Credo and it is applied when is advantageous for the company. The recent changes driven by “globalization” added complexity to certain processes that need local tweaking.

Advice to Senior Management

The beloved "Credo" is been used to steer important decisions to protect their name and brands. However I evidenced that is not been used to the same extend to protect the wellbeing of the employees.

Pros

Stock options, defined contributions 50% matching program, health care coverage, flextime (dependent on the operating company you worked for), generous travel expenses and mileage.

Cons

Non-competitive salaries as compared to market (but other benefits may make up for this). Little incentive offered for great work done on the job. Non- moticvating management. Lots of non-specialized, cross trained management: this spreads the knowledge too thin, and leads to "jack-of-all-trades master-of-none" type management i.e. scared to make mistakes, so nothing gets done quickly. Global alignment means little to nil innovation, advancement opportunity, or budget to impact change at a local level on local teams: you become a human asset with little control over what or where you can go/do. Little to nil chance for advancement quickly in Canada. They put a lot of money into leadership development, but do not support those who they train. As a result, few directors or managers are hired from within; most were hired from outside. This leaves internally trained individuals over qualified, under stimulated, and looking for opportunities elsewhere.

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership needs to grant a lot more authority and reward for all that responsibility you entrust to employees. There needs to be a balance between risk, responsibility and reward to motivate employees.