Panduit Reviews

Pros

due to the crisis, there is no other career opportunities

Cons

all lies and more lies.
bad payers
poor managers
bad management
crooks and gangsters
the worst company I've worked with
if you do not belong to the mafia group, you are considered rebels, and you are lost.

Advice to Senior Management

controlled and eliminated, the people you put in charge of the company, are building an image that will cost you much to recover.The competition is aware about that

Pros

Panduit - amazing Story - and Jack Caveney built this company starting in his garage, and..with a little help from his friends and his brother. Quality products and quality people from sales to engineering staff, world-wide - top shelf. The market for industrial products is rapidly changing. 3 million jobs have moved over seas. (most of this has been industrial manufacturing jobs). This trend may slow somewhat as Lean Manufacturing cuts production costs in the U.S., quality issues develop, transportation costs go up, and the U.S. Government addresses manufacturing legislation for U.S. based companies. But, in the end, many manufacturing jobs will continue to move overseas to India and China. This is a given.

Panduit will need a firm hand at the wheel over the next few years. In the end, they will survive.
It is not just Panduit that is changing, I have seen this same thing take place at numerous large industrial companies.

The next wave of opportunity in industrial manufacturing will be foreign companies looking to expand manufacturing to the U.S. In fact, a Chinese financial consortium was attempting to buy 3-M corp. but the U.S. Government stepped in. So like Japan, France, Germany, etc. we will see more foreign companies setting up manufacturing facilites in the U.S. This is a future opportunity for Panduit - they are now an internationally based company.

Panduit Management has no alternative. I am sure they have a 5 year plan in place with set objectives and time frames to meet. They have saved as many positions as possible. Everybody needs to think about two things - the end user, and how doing my job well will help save the persons job next to me.

Cons

My observations regarding Panduit:

 1.) First, an overall communicated business plan needs to be developed and everyone needs to sign off on it (all divisions). A plan that every division should have in there hands each year. - All Divisions pulling towards the same goal, Tools, connectors, signage, labeling, new products, etc. - focused on specific market segments - not accounts - but identified growth markets. Yes there are vertical marketing groups, horizontal product management teams, but targets change and focus changes almost quarterly. Case Harden your Plans and communicate them out, across, and down, and then drive them and get all groups to stay on plan. If cost reduction without a well communicated plan is the main course served at Panduit, then is Panduit being designed to sell, that is the question in the industry that is still unanswered.

2.) CRM Development: I could never get feedback from the working team that is pushing to get this very important communication tool in place. It is a must for a Market Concentric Focused company.
Where are the automatic control reports for the verticals and product managers so they can plan and track market concentric programs? This is the backbone for any combined marketing/sales/market focused and driven program/company.

3.) Panduit has made a major shift in market focus. As margins and sales drop in existing primary markets due to the ecomomy and increased competion from low cost producers overseas, hopefully Panduit will have the staff and training programs in place to go after this - New Direction. In my humble opinion, however, existing product lines and markets still need to have some focus. If existing distribution starts to think that Panduit is exiting the electronics market place, well - Shakespeare said " nothing is neither true nor false but thinking makes it so:" In this case it is rumors that might make it so. Then again, maybe someone is waiting on the sidelines to purchase Panduit. Have recent moves been made to reduce costs, prop up the bottom line, and prepare panduit to be folded into a company that can take this operation to the next level?

Advice to Senior Management

Just one word -- Communication - not easy given the changes required. At this point, cost controls, lean manufacturing ( underway), but from reading the comments on this site, a new building and cotton cany may help somewhat, but bring out the cheer leaders. Moral is dropping and fear may keep feedback to a minimum.

Pros

used to be good company
benefits and job security were two aspects about this company

Cons

become greedy - all about money - all previous promises broken
I think they should have reinstated the 401k as soon as they started doing better
They are taking advantage

Advice to Senior Management

be reasonable

Pros

Good team in current group

Cons

Lack of communication, knee jerk reactionay management, poor work life balance. The know they have everyone against the wall because of the poor economy and exploite the workers because of it.

Advice to Senior Management

listen to the people doing the work, free them up to achieve the results you want, gut the internal red tape, look at the middle upper management folks and ask are they really leaders or just politicians out for their own interests.

Pros

People (non management of course). No longer work there. Benefits. Not really too many good reasons to work there i suppose.

Cons

Management, lack of professional job growth, attitude of management towards employees, no communication, overall disrespect of their employees. HR has no clue what's going on and when confronted with questions will lie to you every time. No smoking on off shifts!!!

Advice to Senior Management

Treat your people like human beings, not robots. Keep jobs in this country, not everything in life is about money. I honestly don't know how you people can sleep at night.

Pros

everything that was good is being, or has been taken away including employees. every time a letter is written by upper mangement we have a little less than we had before.

Cons

many employees with alot of time invested in the company are either being forced out or their having to take jobs that are less in rank and pay then they hold now. mangement is only concerned about themselves and how to stick it to the people below them.

Advice to Senior Management

mangement should be replaced by people who actuality care about the employees and work to keep them instead of replacing them with their friends and relatives

Pros

The people are really great. There is a family feel and definitely Panduit people; down to earth, friendly and fun/

Cons

Not much recognition for people outside the US, very US centric processes. Limited scope for promotion, poor pay.

Advice to Senior Management

Give people more career development and make packages competitive

Pros

Close to home
Nice new building
Some good people to work with

Cons

Micromanagers rampant
Excessive lay-offs
Spending way too much money on corporate headquarters and parties rather than retaining staff
Very limited resources to help you get the job done
Uncertainty about being bought out by another company
Many bitter, unhappy people who work here
Poor reputation in the area and industry
Any job here sucks the life out of you

Advice to Senior Management

It's too late to work on the things above - just sell the company already

Pros

15 years ago it was a great place to work. Hard work was rewarded with promotions and pay increases. Benefits were good, vacation and sick time a little above average for the area.
The management was fair and reasonable.

Cons

Over the last 10 years, upper and middle management has been replaced, now it is all about the money. No matter how unreasonable a goal is, it must be made at all costs. The management theme is "Failure is not an option". Instead of seeking a solution to a problem, some one must be blamed, and will be remembered at review time.

Advice to Senior Management

wake up, employee's are people. You cannot beat them up everyday and expect loyality.

Pros

Good location - new headquarters is beautiful. Health and dental benefits. Great exercise program (walking from the parking lot to the front door), free parking, clean air, windows. Wellness program is a plus.

Cons

Many cons -- benefit package is not competitive, salaries are not great, workload and stress is panormous. Lack of leadership, lack of cohesiveness within departments. Don't like the layoffs and the job insecurity.

Advice to Senior Management

With the exception of one or two of you, you should all resign. You are not leaders or motivators. Why the owner of the company handled the keys of the kingdom over to you is beyond comprehension. Please look up the word, Karma, in the dictionary.