Mattel Reviews

Pros

Great benefits. Overall pleasant place to work.

Cons

Company reorganization/outsourcing is unsettling. Limited growth potential.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep your talent.

Pros

Excellent strategic business planning, great processess and room for career growth for those who are interested. The Senior leadership team is very experienced, down to earth and and in touch with the business. I have a great boss and there are quite a few great bosses there.

Cons

Salaries are just okay especially if you have been with the company for awhile. But benefits and bonuses can be good. The office itslf and furniture is kind of outdated.

Advice to Senior Management

Keep focused on growing the business profitably so the company can prosper and stay in Canada! We don't want to be run out of the US!

Pros

opportunities for growth (but you must work for it, it wont be handed to you without merit

Cons

very political and too hierarchial

Advice to Senior Management

Understand you audience is not just kids playing with toys (plastics). Digital is how kids play and will continue to become more important to get in and lead in this space.

Pros

Great pay & benefits. Problem is, they suck you in and you find it hard to leave.
For career growth, best to stay a couple years, get a promotion, then move on.
If you're a director or above, it's a pretty good gig, and you're well protected.

Cons

A highly politically charged environment. If you aren't part of the in crowd, or don't play the politics just right, don't expect to get anywhere.
It's a very dysfunctional company, where rules continually change. HR isn't really there to help you in your career growth, they're just on the sidelines to protect management when needed. And many times they aren't involved in the decision making.
Layoffs for managers & below are frequent (once a year or so) and stressful.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop micromanaging your people. Hire more workers (managers and below), and get rid of some of your dead weight (directors and above). I've never seen a company more top-heavy on directors, VPs and above. Listen to your workers more to weed out bad upper management.

Pros

Although I have only been here for a short time, I got really nervous looking at some the feedback prior to accepting the job offer. There was some really critical things that turned me off based on the reviews. However through the interview process I did not find the concerns raised to be reflective of the people I met with. Under a year with Mattel and I can share with all that read this, that I am EXTREMELY happy with my decision to move here. I had a great gig where I was at before, so I had no reason to move except for the challenge of working at the largest toy maker. The biggest 'pro" for me so far is the people I work with. I have really been impressed with the cordial and friendly atmosphere that seems to be all over. There are some unhappy people, don't get me wrong, but from what I can tell, its seems to be from very old time folks who are still upset about the layoffs that happened a few years ago and restructuring that's taken place. But all in all, I'm very happy so far. Comp and benefits is really good too. Love having Xmas to New Years off without affecting vacation, sweet!! Plus everyone is off too, so email and backlog is almost non-existant when come back after the New Year. Double sweet!

Cons

In regards to politics, I have observed the concern raised by others, but the reality is that exists in every large organization. One difference here I noticed is that people do 'check-in' with folks not because it's the political thing to do, but because they want to be inclusionary (which is not a bad thing) when making big decisions.
The HQ office is tough to get too unless you live in the west side of LA area. Although they have an onsite cafe with lots of variety, there are very few dining options (walking distance) when you just feel like going outside. Parking also sucks unless you got a reserved spot that is not just for compact cars (very minor irritation).

Advice to Senior Management

Try to continue to communicate the direction, you cannot have too much. There are still people (from what I can tell) who still don't "get" what is happening. We have great products, we have a good place to work. What seems to frustrate long-time employees is the accordian approach last few years (expand and cut back, expand and cut back). But I can't speak to that since I can only reflect on 2010 & 2011.

Pros

Mattel has good benefits, amenities and is in a great location. There is a lot of energy, and an atmosphere of dedication among the intelligent and vibrant employees.

Cons

Mattel asks a lot of its employees. There is a lot of work which needs to be done, often on tight schedules, with minimal staffing. Layoffs are not uncommon.

Advice to Senior Management

Mattel needs to spend a lot more time and effort on training its supervisors how to be supervisors, and how to be motivators. There needs to be emphasis put on being good managers, not just getting the work done.

Pros

Some of the most creative people I've come across--I'm inspired on a daily basis by many members of my team.
Great vacation time---week off between Christmas--New Years and mini "Spring Break"
Mattel walks the walk for product safety
Fun-loving environment
People take pride in the work they do
Diverse resources to get projects done--from in-house media, production, research

Cons

Work-life balance depends on department and mgr. style
Debilitating politics--very demoralizing
Top heavy with not enough worker bees and lower levels getting burnt out--many different job functions are over workload capacity.
Although it's a fun loving environment, after the last round of layoffs the moral is down from being overworked.
Lots of reorgs that are disruptive to teams--most of these reorgs seem more reactionary than strategic

Advice to Senior Management

Our business depends on happy creative teams and our human capital is our greatest asset. Don't focus on saving a few marginal dollars if it means overloading people and not leaving time to sit back and think of the next great idea.

Pros

Great pay, great benefits, great work life balance.

Cons

Interview process - 7 people over 1 month.
Lack of promotion and ability for growth. There is rampant micromanaging and it's very hierarchical.
Frequent reorgs
People very often leave and come back to the company to get promoted.
They innovation is becoming very stale or by innovation you mean taking ideas from inventors. People stay in the same position for 5 - 10 years and deliver the same formats.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide ownership in projects and opportunities for growth.

Pros

The people are great, half day Fridays, and benefits are good.

Cons

Slow to promote or rarely promote. Quick to add on to the work load without praise for what has already been taken on and completed through tough time lines and demands. Poor training as well- learn by trial and error.

Advice to Senior Management

Look at the employees that are quiet but are doing outstanding work without complaining- Promote them not the loud mouths.

Pros

1) Fast moving and growing creates opportunities
2) Everyone knows your business so long lasting discussions with friends and other contacts
3) Far ahead of everyone in methods, processes, technology, globalization and many other issues. I have worked for very big recognizable companies that are years behind Mattel in these areas.
4) The people are challenging, direct, a bit abrasive, brilliant and unafraid of taking risks.
5) If you deliver and perform and "toot" your own horn you will be recognized and rewarded..
7) By far the most creative group of people I have ever worked with. Everyday was a discovery of something exciting. They are merging technology with creativity and creating new play patterns that are exciting. In the cons there is a huge challenge.

Cons

1) Long hours and if you travel you can be gone a long time
2) The most political company I ever worked for. In my situation I was lucky, I had a very high level mentor and protector.
3) This is the worst, people who are high performers and do not sell themselves every day are not recognized. I had to dig to find them and then train them to sell themselves.
4) It is possible to be capable of selling yourself and not capable of delivering and get rewarded over those who deliver. 3) and 4) go together.
5) The toy business is shrinking and being replaced by the electronics consumer products and services. Mattel is slow to react. They should be a leader. Mattel's electronic debacle of the 1970s is still remembered by the board and is shunting their growth
6) They have yet to figure out what to do with "tween girls. 7-12 year old girls in the USA and all of Europe dramatically reduced their play time with toys and have increased their purchases of teen like products and services. They must solve this problem. There are some 30 million girls in this age group. A country by itself.

Advice to Senior Management

The board of directors is well balanced. Five years from now the world will not look like it does now and there will be major changes in a child's play pattern. As a strategy, Mattel needs to get out in front of these changes to seize the market. Right now they appear to be one to two years behind. I give you one example. Steven Jobs and the iPhone. Think about what Apple did outside of its comfort zone in a crowded market with huge competition. In two years they took a huge market share. Mattel of the old days, used to do that.