Pros

stable job
opportunity to learn

Cons

poor management who frequently played favorites
poor advancement opportunities
below average pay compared to the competion
poor morale

Advice to Senior Management

Retrain some of the senior management because their actions are a big part of why morale is low

Pros

The salary tends to be good...for example, according to the latest earnings announcement, McGraw-Hill had a drop in revenue but somehow still managed to increase compensation for its employees by nearly $70M (10%) over last quarter. Rewarding (poor) performance is a top priority.

Cons

The company tends to have a difficult time making important business decisions and often puts emotions over profitability. It is definitely still an "old boys club" in many ways. Managing people is not a skill that tends to be valued or rewarded within the organization.

Advice to Senior Management

Consider management overhaul and focus on rewarding results rather than politics.

Pros

Benefits, ok pay, great place to work if you have a family, competent upper managers, normal work hours, many people are so comfortable they stay put for many years.

Cons

Hard to get promoted, very slow turn around rate at the top, most people stay there more than 10 years ( which is god in some ways but if you want to "work your way to the top" the slow turn around at the top creates few opportunities at the bottom.)

Advice to Senior Management

Make it possible for employees to experience growth and don't be afraid of new ideas.

Pros

Professional, innovative, collaborative, compassionate, honest, effective, growth-oriented and stimulating environment. You are provided an opprotunity to be the best you can be while helping others to do the same.

Cons

At this time I have not experienced any downsides to being a member of the McGraw-Hill family of companies, so I have nothing but pros to show.

Advice to Senior Management

Please continue to guide the firm in the spirit of its founders and successors so that we can continue to be a leader in each of the markets and regions that we serve.

Pros

Strong, established company with great benefits; an honorable job and cause. Nice to see the heads of the company being as philanthropic as they are.

Cons

Favoritism and nepotism abound. Lying to consultants to get them in the door, only to offer mass layoffs within two years of employment.

Advice to Senior Management

You truly need to listen to your employees who are "in the trenches" and step off your ivory towers. Bad decisions are made because of "yes men" who pander to upper management.

Pros

MGH's benefits package is pretty good and the standard work week is 35 hours - that's a rare thing these days. Salary can be decent, depending on which business unit you work with.

Cons

There is little chance of getting head as an AA there, unless your manager really pushes on your behalf. Unfortunately, not too many managers would do that. Very difficult place to make any kind of career change - once an AA, always an AA there.

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership should be aware that there are other employees there that deserve a chance to move ahead, not just the ones that are already in executive roles.

Pros

Hundreds of employees are hired at a time for this position. An undergraduate degree is required for this position. Fairly easily attained position.

Cons

This position requires you to be seated in front of a computer grading papers 100%, excluding breaks. May begin to feel like tedious work awfully quickly.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide employees with solid numbers regarding expectations, accuracy percentages and number of papers needed to be graded in order to stay on the project.

Pros

The editorial staff with which I worked was remarkably competent and dedicated. In my many years of working in publishing, I had never before encountered such a skilled bunch of coworkers. I felt a huge amount of loyalty while working at CTB/McGraw-Hill, but that loyalty was directed solely toward my coworkers, not management.

Cons

(1) As a corporate entity, CTB/McGraw-Hill seems to be sliding into oblivion. It produces and scores standardized K-12 tests under contract with state education departments, and it is suffering the fallout from education-department budget cutbacks and from aggressive industry competition that didn't exist several years ago. Substantial worker layoffs have been occurring periodically, in waves, since early 2008. In addition, I know of at least one important customer that the company lost solely because the contract, when up for renewal, was incompetently drafted by the company's legal department.

(2) Regardless of the company's financial condition at any given moment in time, management truly seems not to value the wonderful editorial staff it has. When rounds of layoffs take place, those with the most experience and knowledge are typically at the top of the heave-ho list. Moreover, the company has long mastered the art of exploiting temporary workers; it receives what amounts to full-time labor, over the course of many years in lots of cases, from tons of people to whom it doesn't need to offer paid vacation time, health-care insurance, or other benefits. A sizable percentage of the company's de facto full-time workforce consists of "temps.” In fact, the standardized tests produced by the company, once they have been administered to students and returned to CTB/McGraw-Hill, are scored by temporary employees only! Many of these test evaluators (as they're called) are hired "off the street" on an as-needed basis and have never scored a test before in their lives.

Advice to Senior Management

Please read the review above and give some thought to how you treat your workers. Frankly, it is unconscionable to reap the fruits of the labor of persons who contribute to your "bottom line" on what amounts to a full-time basis and yet hang these people out to dry as "temps" indefinitely.

Pros

Very well diversified company. Solid products and services. Integrity. Values work/life balance. Many opportunities for growth if you're willing to move. Sustainable.

Cons

Very traditional/conservative senior management in some divisions. Pay is low relative to others. Growth opportunities are limited if unable to move.

Advice to Senior Management

More progressive work environment.

Pros

Overall, McGraw-Hill is a good company to work for. The salary is relatively comparative to other roles, the benefits are decent. They offer a Dental and a Vision plan, which not too many companies offer. They offer adoption benefits which includes financial assistance and paid leave.

Cons

Management doesn't always recoginze and reward talent. So many times people who deserve to be rewarded and promted are overlooked. In the end, they leave the company. The people who remain are not productive and just do enough to get by.

As a previous review said, it is very bureaucratic. Getting something done takes too long. There are too many politics involved. Also, there are too many siloes. No one knows what the other (group) is doing.

Advice to Senior Management

Take some risks. Stop worrying about the bottom liine and settling for mediocrity. Look ahead to the future and the changing landscape of how business is done. Spend money on technology and don't do things half-ass only to have to go back and re-create what you set out to do.

Leverage the other businesses/units in order to make things more efficient and/or to enhance the products offered. It's a diverse company, if you make attractive packages, people may be inclined to do business with McGraw-Hill.