Sara Lee Reviews in Chicago, IL Area

Pros

Compensation is competative and inline with suburban companies remains to be seen how they will step up to be competative with down town firms
Big focus on career development if you want to take advantage of it

Cons

Constant state of reorganization
Lack of decision or clarity from senior management.
Relocation of coprorte offices seems to take place every 6 to 7 years/
Pay freezes or capped merrit regardless of performance
Beuocracy and process fit for a 20B company that we were have not improved for the 4B company we are about to become

Advice to Senior Management

Jan and Marcel have exhibited a complete lack of respect for the current employees. You ask for feedback and input and then do the complete opposite. When the results of the employee survey came back overwhelimingly to keep the headquarters in the general area of Downers Grove and then announce that the preferred location is downtown shows that you have no value for your employees. You justify it by trying to compare the vision of our future to becoming the next Google or Apple...incase you got confused we make sausages and hotdogs, we should be looking to the powerhouses in the FOOD industry, what are they doing right and how we can we attract their top talent. You need a talented and experienced employee base to lead the new fresh talent that you think is lining up for us in the city.

Pros

diversity good and employee competence usually rewarded

Cons

long hours and some of the management reward their friends

Advice to Senior Management

train better

Pros

The people are great to work with

Cons

No work/life flexibility
Too much uncertainty around future of company
Too much on one persons plate
The office space is stifling, dull. Squashes creativity
Training programs are laughable
Zero communication between groups

Advice to Senior Management

Hire the appropriate amount of people for the workload
Give more incentives to employees

Pros

People have integrity and are fun, creative foodies.
Good location, easy commute (they bus from the train station)

Cons

Acquired companies never fully integrated--Silos in meat brands separate company.

Advice to Senior Management

grow company through real "wow" type innovations rather than--yeah kinda makes sense I'll try this, spark interest rather than just "manage" brands, Leave the meeting room with the powerpoint pats on the back and get out there--have most upper management VP/CEO's talk one to one to your lowest level empolyees who never hear from upper management to create a stir, find the really rediculous ideas that spark true innovation, have fun!

Pros

-People you work with are great
-Good brands that are #1 in their categories
-Good culture that the company is working on making a great culture

Cons

-Does not always promote from within or promote the right people at senior levels
-Benefits are below average for the industry

Advice to Senior Management

-Continue to work on establishing a best in class culture
-Grant stock options or RSU's to more levels within the company

Pros

Great colleagues, great brands, convenient location if you live in west suburbs, decent compensation

Cons

Not an inclusive environment; very relationship driven at senior levels. Sara Lee wants to represent themselves as open to diversity, and they are in pockets, but recently have largely ignored diverse talent in favor of those "who look like me".

Advice to Senior Management

Be clear about the direction you are headed in as a company, shareholders may be happy, but you are losing credibility with employees.

Pros

- Great benefits
- Great bonus structure
- Great perks (coffee, tea, hot chocolate, etc)

Cons

- Alot of people feeling in the dark about the current situation and dismantling of a great place to work.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more transparent.

Pros

Great opportunity to leverage advanced technologies and processes in fast-paced CPG environment. Organization is ahead of the curve on cross-functional interactions. Clear-direction on company's operational priorities.

Cons

A lot of uncertainty regarding job security and future advancement as Sara Lee has divested several businesses and announced a split of the remaining assets. End-game appears to be further divestitures and an eventual sale to another meat manufacturer or private equity entity.

Advice to Senior Management

In terms of potential cost-cutting activities, convey deeper sympathy for those impacted and be more transparent. Sara Lee keeps stating announcements will be made in a clear and timely fashion, however the organization has not delivered their promise. Be open and communicate the % of headcount reduction needed to reach your desired SG&A targets so everyone understands what being being a smaller, better, faster company potentially means...

Pros

You are placed on cross functional teams with many different types of people. You are treated as an equal. You are supported and tracked by your manager to see progress on existing and future products. This helps with verification of projects. My fellow employees were very helpful and willing to answer any questions I had when I first started. The company provided many fun activities for the employees to attend and gave us a chance to interact with one another on a personal level.

Cons

A negative factor of working with such a large corporation is the ability to expedite projects. You must go through proper steps and stages to move through a project. If you did not have to conform to company policies I feel projects could be completed at a much faster pace.

Advice to Senior Management

I enjoyed the support I received from my manager. I was asked where I was at in each project to ensure progress.

Pros

some are very nice people work very hard

Cons

poor communication, lack of training

Advice to Senior Management

need to be have workers treated with greater value and opportunity and be less political or favored few