Kimberly-Clark Reviews

Pros

Strong collaboration between the company's brands

Cons

Lack of interaction opportunities with peers in other CPG companies

Advice to Senior Management

Support work-life balance

Pros

Great people working to make good high volume, low value products. Opportunities to learn the consumer products business abound. Good place to become a well-rounded employee.

Cons

Performance is not rewarded and creativity is frowned upon It is a top down management style and you either do it the way they've always done it, or you are encouraged to leave. If you are not from Wisconsin or the U.P., you have no hope of advancement in this company.

Pros

- Great workers in the manufacturing plants who are committed to driving costs down and delivering sustainable results
- Decent Benefits
- Decent Pay

Cons

- Current CEO has driven morale to the ground through:
   - Multiple layoffs at levels of the organization which actually get things done versus creation of
     countless VP positions which deliver no value to the business
   - Implementation of a performance management system which utilizes Draconian forced ranking tactics and by design puts 20% of employees in low ranking boxes largely based on office politics alone
   - Making numerous decisions that require employees to give up more in the name of benefitting the bottom line when none of those decisions work
   - Hypocrisy of LEAN. Everyone but upper management is expected to do things the LEAN way. Senior leaders are doing things the way they always have and are killing this once great company that Darwin made strong again.

Advice to Senior Management

- Get back to treating your employees like the people they are - those who are vested in the long term success of Kimberly-Clark
- Get serious about making sustainable changes which will turn the business around - NOT symbolic job cuts which deliver no long term gains for KC
- Invest in your people - those companies who are delivering great results are doing it and it WORKS
- Make KC a fair place to work - just because someone is in an operations leadership position does not make them any more credible than anyone else

Pros

Very collaborative work environment. People generally work to help each other and care about each other. Very professional workforce with strong ethics. Company is trying to change the culture and build brands, which seems to be a positive trend.

Cons

The company does a poor job of rewarding performance. Everyone is expected to work hard, but there is very little compensation difference between a good year and a bad year. Career development process does not inspire confidence. There is an open career posting process in place, but it does not function very transparently.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus more attention on employee development. Discontent over lack of transparency in career advancement process seems extraordinarily high right now.

Pros

Good opportunities to learn with intl company

Cons

Management never promotes from within

Advice to Senior Management

Look at talent inward, not always outward

Pros

Decent benefits, lower level employees are fairly nice, the pay was once great for the area but now its more mediocre.

Cons

KC is running in 50 different directions at once and it shows, the work/life balance may be nice at other mills but here it is horrid, 12 hour rotating shifts and management hides out in the parking lot to catch anyone coming in late, the "validation" system they have setup is the dumbest thing I have ever seen as you are constantly having to re-interview for your job, very clique based i.e. if you aren't rubbing elbows with the higher ups not only do you stand no chance of promotion but it becomes very hard to get even a regular raise, do not even think of taking a break during a scheduled down you are expected to work your 12 hours with a 15 min lunch any more than that and they start breathing down your neck.

Advice to Senior Management

You have people working the machines that not only know what they are doing but have been doing it for 15-20 years and do it well, listen to them and take their advice to heart. Also stop trying to make this into more than it is, its just a mill job and all of this validation review board stuff is just trying to make it seem more important than it really is, no one wants to stand in front of you guys for an hour explaining the mechanics of a wound roll while you look on with no idea of what we are talking about.

Pros

Friendly, helpful co-workers. Engineers and technicians treat each other with respect. Communication between people are good. People here are really nice!

Cons

Seems like end of doing the same things with photo eyes, PLCs, inserting new modules into machines. Don't like the city Paris, small and has nothing to do.

Advice to Senior Management

Leaders seem ok.

Pros

Great people to work with. The work culture of K-C is very good, relaxed, people treat each other with respect. There is good chance for growth. Mid west has the best people

Cons

I worked at Neenah, it has less exposure to outside opportunities. Still the culture is very conservative. People can work a little more. The management strategic plan did not work well for outsourcing.

Advice to Senior Management

The strategic plan for outsourcing has to be reconsidered. Management should train employees more and try to see how to work with Matrix organization.

Pros

KC respects work/life balance at most sites, have been improving their internal communications, have some dedicated and caring staff and their brands have the potential to be iconic if nourished properly.

Cons

There has been tremendous turnover at the senior leadership level under the current CEO, yet results remain mediocre and the new senior leadership breed are much, much more political than their predecessors, very theoretical and with a few exceptions, they are not good at running KC's businesses.

Advice to Senior Management

It's time to remove the consultants (McKinsey and BCG) from trying to run the company and let KC's own experienced leaders regain control. The performance managment system is also very unpopular and many staff believe feedback is incorrectly utilised.

Pros

Company is on the ball. Changing from laissez-faire to taking charge. Just look at the new U by Kotex, Depend and Poise products and advertising.They are meeting conusmer needs and taking market share.

Cons

Comapny is still depending too much on commodity prices. Is working it's way out of that with more differentiated products.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue the course you are taking