Newell Rubbermaid Reviews

Pros

Ability to move around the company and interact with people.

Cons

Low salary and not good feedback from management

Advice to Senior Management

Increase compensation of junior associates and provide better feedback

Pros

only work from 9-5, no pressure to perform

Cons

no responsibility to perform well, the management doesn't care about the product line or the people working under them, only about where they can move to next

Advice to Senior Management

be honest about what the companies goals are and work hard to promote enthusiasm for the product line employees are working on

Pros

The corporate headquarters is a great environment to work in, a brand new building with awesome facilities: excellent cafeteria, Starbuck's, company store, on-site gym, free parking, etc. The building contains state of the art conference facilities, as well, and the work spaces are open architecture - everyone is in cubicles with a plethora of conference rooms. The centralization of the business unit headquarters functions also promotes cross fertilization of ideas and personnel within the company. The company is also an excellent place to start your career. i met some wonderful people here and made some great friends.

Cons

Corporate policies are not applied consistently to all employees; some managers play favorites and have a double standard for their direct reports. Because of the open architecture layout this behavior is readily apparent to other managers, as well as H.R. - yet nothing is done. In my experience management does not really care about subordinates. Again, in my experience, the workload managers expect associates to bear destroys any possibility of a healthy work/life balance; sixty to eighty work weeks are routine to common - respectively. I found there was no comp time for some salaried exempt employees; instead, management required the use of vacation time for personal employee business (physician and dental care, home repairs, legal assistance, etc. The corporate culture is one of competition vs. collaboration and command vs. coaching and can be extremely rude; it does not encourage process ownership, personal responsibility or an entrepreneurial spirit. Health care benefits are extremely poor and sick time policies are unevenly applied and burdensome. Because many employees fear retaliation many do not participate in employee feedback surveys. This fear of retaliation, and the perception H.R. will not act, also prevents many employees from approaching H.R. as well. Depending on business unit and/or department, an employee's initial job training can range from non-existent to incredibly through.

Advice to Senior Management

To fully grasp the magnitude of internal problems I suggest an annual employee feedback survey which does not ask for any employee identification questions, like: department, history, job, etc. Also, I suggest the institution of 360 degree feedback as part of the evaluation process for all personnel. Finally, I suggest one of senior management's reporting inputs be a Cost of Turnover Report.

Pros

Discounts on products, and nice offices

Cons

Culture: Newell is entirely too political. Since the company grew through acquisition no one identity has been established. Therefore the environment is overly political.

Benefits: The benefits here are not good, and a company of this size should be ashamed with the health insurance options offered. Additionally the company is very "old school" with no real progressive programs offered.

Training: The training at this company is virtually non-existent. Don't get me wrong they offer training classes but you could get more from just reading the slide decks.

Structure: The number of VP's at this company is staggering. Every GBU has a finance team, a sales team, a marketing team, a supply chain and logistics team etc......Every VP gets a company car, an exorbitant salary, and ridiculously large bonus structure. This is great if you are one of the hundreds of VPs. However if the company leaned out it could operate much more efficiently

Advice to Senior Management

Get a clue, this isn't Black and Decker, this isn't P&G, this isn't Coke/Pepsi where most of you came from. This is Newell and unfortunately it retains terrible characteristics of the company's you all came from.

Pros

Benefits. Great for college graduates.

Cons

Transitions are not thought out and lack leadership.

Advice to Senior Management

Implement 360 feedback process for management to receive critical feedback annonymously. Think through the impact of change. Live the Newell Rubbermaid values by visitng them weekly and asking if they are being walked and not just talked!

Pros

Fancy building, laid back atmosphere

Cons

politics driven and too many ignorant people

Advice to Senior Management

settle down and pay more attention to real voice from the little people

Pros

The management does allow employees to take care of personal items when needed. The compensation is fair for the area.

Cons

Not a lot of chance for advancement as corporate is in Atlanta.

Pros

Nice corporate building, laid back atmosphere, corporate gym

Cons

Management sneaky, not easy to develop and promote.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior/corporate management needs to review their Presidents.

Pros

A competative company who is willing to spend to stay among the leaders in their industry.
Always trying to improve their products.

Cons

Upper mangement was constantly changing. Atmosphere in the workplace had a "watch you're own back" attitude. Lack of control in the organization.

Advice to Senior Management

Find a leader who is willing to listen and give him/her a chance to implement his/her plan. Stay with the person who has proven results rather then potential. Think Quality not quantity.

Pros

Great team environment
Great learning culture
Good structure within the departments
Amazing senior level management

Cons

Long hours are common place
Work life balance is non-existent
Lot of approvals for new projects/opportunities
Vague responses to rumors about company being sold

Advice to Senior Management

Remember the small people... they always make a big difference.