Nokia Reviews

Pros

Work life balance is great. Flexibility to manage personal life is great.

Cons

Lousy company to work for in the US if you are in one of the corporate functions

Advice to Senior Management

You must deliver to ATT and Verizon.

Pros

Global precense; FOrtune 100 company. Multicultural work environment. Face pace consumer products allows for new innovating challenges. Strong brand name.

Cons

Process heavy company that potentially slows down development. Under-going major product change in currently struggling market so future is unknown

Pros

Nokia has one of the best commitments to work-life balance I've ever experienced.

The benefits package is at least comparable with the best, and it includes medical insurance.

There are some really good people working here.

Cons

Despite the presence of many good people, there is a lot of dead wood here. I would estimate that about a third of Nokia staff don't really do anything of value. However this is likely to change now that many people are being made redundant.

In relation to those redundancies, it seems quite clear that the ones who are favoured and retain their jobs are the Finns. Since it's Finns who decide, mainly, who gets to keep their job and who doesn't, this looks more than a little bit racist to the non-Finns who work here.

Nokia is now beginning to catch up in smartphones but marketing seems inadequate. We're almost completely off the radar everywhere I look.

Advice to Senior Management

Take a very close look at who is keeping and who is losing their job. It's based on nationality and not talent.

Pros

I have had really nice and sweet managers (3 in three years) everybody is really nice, but as they have been middle managers with too little power, I assume their possibilities and willingness to manage the subordinants careers has been limited.

Freedom an worklife balance are OK. Working hours are not counted, but the finnish 37,5 hour work week affects so that Nokia House is empty by 4 pm every day. I don't believe this is a good thing from the business side, but you stress levels are in your own hands. Also you can havea remote access to the office any time ad work from home when you wish.

Nokia has invested alot in to new communication measures last year. The internal social media applications are really good (minority contributes, but good anyway).

In average the mindset of the workforce is quite flexible and open!

As a top talent it is easy to gain more salary and education.

Cons

Many managers are promoted when they have shown enough loyalty to the company; this is why many of them don't have best skills to be team leaders or change management skills. I have understood in the end they are like puppets to the big guys above them.

The most disturbing behavioural phenomenon in the organizational culture seems to be "Plenty of buzz and talk, resources first, but then even big projects can be buried in a silence.
Nokia has not yet managed to have performance driven culture, as not just the performance reviews, but also tasks and projects are shared not so fairly.

Talent management is poor. it mainly concentrates in the top guys in the director positions and to those once got the positive stigma "top talent". Top talent rating is hard to get, and the rating is kept secret even from the top talent him self. Many top talent loose the motivation, or are promoted too fast. On the otherside there are many talented people left frustrated.

Plenty of tabous in the organization. Different people are not really allowed and different thinking dies quickly.

Seem to be that the true power is in hand of few, how have been in the company since the 90's.
Everybody seems nice, but you don't really know whattey are thinking, or are they just staying in the company because during the good Nokia years they got such a good salary they couldn't get the same anywhere else?

Advice to Senior Management

As the company is currently doing; the culture change is needed and it has hopefully started.
Don't punish for open comments or if people worried.
Really educate and train people. People would stay and you could turn your mediocre employees to stars as well by giving mpore learning possibilities.

Pros

Great work/life balance, great management and team, team building is very strong, benefits are excellent, compensation is ok. Innovation and social responsibility are promoted.

Cons

Constant change and reorganization, compensation could be better

Advice to Senior Management

Retain talent

Pros

Good benefits packages, good bonuses, good health assurance.

Cons

In most of the cases salary increase is maximum 10% per year. But there are exceptions as well.

Pros

Flexi timings
Work life balance
Immediatel line managers are very cooperative
Compensation is decent if not excellent

Cons

Growth opportunities are limited as the company is not doing that well in the market
Immediate growth is not available. You'll have to wait for several years before you get your number

Advice to Senior Management

Need for Accountability and aggressive work culture. Reward performance and meritocracy rather than mediocracy. Go for the kill and make Nokia a success. We support you as employees

Pros

A truly global company, great place to learn new things. Forward-looking attitudes, e.g. work-life balance and remote working are encouraged.

Cons

The pay is generally not best in class. Raises / promotions don't occur, unless you find a new job, either internally or externally. Job rotation is however encouraged.

Advice to Senior Management

Oh well, everyone knows about the OS problems. Hardware has always been great - but now I'm more than a bit worried about HW suffering because everything is done on the SW terms. Plus there's still quite a bit of that old design-to-cost (rather than user experience) mentality around.

Pros

One can sleep well at the end of day. No overtime, not stress...

Cons

No difference between exceptional vs. average. Upper mid management ... not up to task. No one is ever responsible. Always is some kind of steering group!

Advice to Senior Management

1. Take calculated risks,
2. Do not gamble
3. Leave. It's okay to leave. You will be able to collect air miles at other companies as well.

Pros

Hard working, bright people. Relaxed, casual working environment.

Cons

It takes a long time for a big ship to turn around

Advice to Senior Management

Don't try to be all things to all people.