SAFRAN Reviews

Pros

People want to do the job right, and do the right job. Simply put - Dedication.
Great town hall meetings.
Engineering staff that was great.
Manufacturing staff that was great.

Cons

Too much "not invented here" syndrome.
Management was often missing from discussions. Failed to show up to meetings that were critical to department performance.
Cutback in benefits and staffing.

Advice to Senior Management

Never assume that you have the whole story of what is going on.
Spend some time doing skip-level meetings and interviews with front line employees..

Pros

Technical Focus, and working on excellent technology, sometimes the best in the industry.
Great respect for the individual contribution
Strong customer focus.

Cons

Inter group mobility and strong coordination between the group companies is lacking. Which means an employee can get stagnated in the same company without any option to move outside to some other function or group.

Advice to Senior Management

There should be strong effort from the senior management in defining the strategy for the group, and exploiting the synergies between group companies.

Pros

Comfortable working environment. Supportive team members. Challenging workload to be completed, with flexible deadlines. Innovative design procedures and consistent outstanding results on products developed.

Cons

Remote location. Long commute if living in Toronto. Promotions and career growth limited by competitive workers and low management requirements.

Advice to Senior Management

Expand horizons and markets to places more closer to the major cities. Provide more opportunities for international placement and career growth.

Pros

Safran is a very stable, government owned company. If you want a job that will always be there for you, then this is the place. Expectations are low, but along with the low risk from working for SAFRAN comes low reward. The salary is low and there is little room for improvement since this is throughout the different levels of management.

Cons

Being government owned has created a lazy work atmosphere. Working for Safran in Toulosue allows for no work life balance. All of the Cadre (management) are expected to work 12 hours a day (minimum) and most of the time is spent making other people do their work so that you cannot get your work done. The management style is something unique, extremely paternal where only one person can make decisions throughout the company. Since only one person can make the decisions, no one else would dare make one. So the effect is that you have a bunch of $100k guys making $1 decisions. This is contrary to management in the real world, but this is France and not the real world.

Advice to Senior Management

stop treating everyone like dirt