P&G Western Europe Reviews

Pros

Intense assignments' cycle in different countries and organizations (markets, plants, HQ, service centers).
Dynamic, multicultural environment well-oriented toward common goals.
High business conduct, safety, work and life balance and corporate responsibility standards.

Cons

Promotion from within hampers management styles variety at higher levels.
Dominant market position nurtures self-centered, "we're the best" attitudes.
Size and complexity provokes bureaucratic behaviors and high inertia.
Promotion system and short assignment cycle encourages competitive and to some extent stressful environment.

Pros

young and dynamic multicultural and smart team
good pay
nice colleagues

Cons

bureaucratic
unfair promotion
poor communication between business units

Advice to Senior Management

less bureacracy and more focus on business

Pros

*in the first 3 years of your career top class training. Then it drops near to none
*exposure to many different businesses and geographies. Easy transfer between units
*some of the world experts in market research used to work there. many of them left but still some golden nuggets to benefit from

Cons

*over 35 y.o. you are in the grand-parents section already and the youngster will feel free (and feel encourage) to disregard any advice. Experience is not valued, only process is.
*very little consideration for your well being: 12 hours work days and taking calls during vacation are the norm.
*All the power is in the hands of your direct boss to decide on your promotion, and you change boss every 3 years, so quite often not enough time to get to know each other enough so that she fights to get you to the next level
*a yearly rating system puts you under pressure to "over" deliver on your objectives, which are usually very demanding. If you fail, your past performance will be of little value and you will be shown the door quickly. If you succeed you will get your salary raise but don't expect a promotion unless your boss is ready to figth his boss to get it

Advice to Senior Management

Have a look at the statistics in "burn out" rate (or talk to the psychiatric services at hopital cantonal)
fix HR objectives and spirit

Pros

Work Culture is the Best!

Cons

Sometimes slow in responding in various aspects

Advice to Senior Management

keep up the good work, you should although think of revising the policy of "hiring only the freshers"

Pros

Development - Success - Dynamic environment. Coaching on the job. YOu will be surrounded by top people all doing their best to create the successes. Great place to work - to start your carreer

Cons

Very structured organisation - gives you few chances to make real changes outside your role. Do not stay too loing because you will face problems to adapt even if you go to another big company. Recently the well known respect for the employees 'our most important asset ' has gone down. Kind of self fulfilling prophercy once you are top rated - most likely your rating willnot chnage since managers are affraid to make bold changes

Advice to Senior Management

Great job - continue like this - but be aware that the world outside is changing - try to go more outside / hire from time to time people from other industries too to get a better diversity - diversity is not about gender only...

Pros

Excellent Salary - Flexible hours

Cons

Highly political and very bureaucratic

Pros

Great opportunity to build leadership skills, great marketing capabilities & develop deep business understanding. This is being accomplished by constant trainings and on the job coaching

Cons

Heavy workload often jeopardizes employess work-life balance. Fierce competition in Marketing for a promotion due to very high standards in terms of performance

Advice to Senior Management

motivate people's creativity, give more often rewards & recognitions for great performance and put more fun in everyday's life by smart ways given the many hours that they spend in the office

Pros

- the company tries to be as objective as a company can when evaluating employees
- there are a lot of training opportunities
- it is possible to change to even a completely different function if interested

Cons

- some of the systems and work processes are quite time consuming
- decisions can be slow, despite company efforts to make them faster and leaner

Advice to Senior Management

decisions should be taken faster and then having the team stick to them. When changing work processes, gather the input of the whole organization.

Pros

- high responsibility early on
- ownership for your area with a manager enabling, but you are doing
- good compensation & benefits, great campus to work in
- "American" workstyle at its best: Casual, direct, results-driven

Cons

- some global austerity measures cause disruptions without saving much
- occasionally processes are too cumbersome
- the size of the organization makes it slow (but we try)

Advice to Senior Management

it is ok to demand a lot if the reward is clear - for the company, and the individual. we usually have a good balance in this.

Pros

The culture pushes you to excel and it is inspiring to work with other like minded individuals.

Cons

Too many processes so decision making is slow. Too much IQ and not enough EQ. limited spontaneity and creativity due to academic decision making.

Heavy politics - learn to network

Advice to Senior Management

As the company moves its control centre to Geneva and shuts down the country MDOs we lose the individual country sensitivity and ultimately lose touch with our customers.

Stop having junior new hires report in to mangers in other countries and worse in other time zones.