Smucker Reviews

Pros

CEO and upper management are visible!

Cons

Must live in Ohio for promotion.

Pros

-Fantastic people! Great co-workers
-Great company culture!
-Very tight knit company (Just like family)
-Product samples
-Employee snacks
-Testing Kitchen
-Company store
-Amazing Management from direct and above , excluding execs (never spoken to majority of them or knew who they were....)

Cons

-Lack of challenge
-Lack of job variation
-Too much politics
-Treats co-ops as a short-term solution, do not really integrate into the company
-Teams are dispersed throughout office, no sense of functionality spirit
-ALOT of red-tape
-Lack of interaction with exec team
-They have a "forbidden" doorway where the exec team is. (Does not really match the culture of Openness, and everyone mingling with all the different functions...)

Advice to Senior Management

-Exec team, interact more with your team

-Too much red tape, the company is not large enough for so many procedures to complete simple tasks... Too time consuming!

-Spot co-op talent and use them to their strengths, instead of limit them to mundane tasks everyday (yes it is necessary, but they can contribute SO MUCH MORE on the side)

Pros

The salary is fair. Some really great people. Interesting enforced training, as in educational, but outdated. Very clear about sharing upcoming company changes.

Cons

In the box thinking. Too conservative. Unorganized, no system in place, rely too heavily on human memory. Some departments have high turn over and theres not enough consistency to make sense of things.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop pigeonholing people and look internally when hiring. Put more oragnizational processes in place to make sense and provide consistency. Get rid of the old school hierarchy, this isn't 1950 anymore.

Pros

They take pride in their employees and take care in hiring people that fit the Smucker culture. People are wonderful to work with and are always helping and considerate of one another. Everyone was very friendly!!

Cons

The workload became extremely intense with multiple acquisitions and management was very hesitant to offer any solutions on how to handle everything that was expected. Employees can only handle so much work and be expected to do it at the high level that is to be maintained.

Advice to Senior Management

Employees work hard to make the company successful. They can only do so much. Take this into consideration and hire more help!

Pros

No pressure, real company with good policies for employees.
Possibility for growth
Financially very Stable

Cons

Laid Back, not aggressive which could get slower at times.

Advice to Senior Management

none

Pros

Respect for the individual, high growth business, strong brands, quality products, fun place to work, continuous and transparent communication of business activities.

Cons

Salary a little bit below market.

Advice to Senior Management

Further embrace change

Pros

Truely sincere, friendly and committed people, great tasting products, and speedy growth through acquisition.

Cons

Low challenge environment, unfamiliar with game changing practice, high probablity of significantly diminishing market(s) share and returns for products due to staple market shift, overexposed (mostly commodity business).

Advice to Senior Management

Innovate. A very bright future is possible via application of an appropriately carfted innovation plan.

Pros

From the first day that I walked in to be interviewed, I was impressed with the company because of the competency of the management team which is not common among other companies. The team that interviewed me knew exactly what they were looking for and it was not a traditional interview. They want to get to know ME instead of getting to know my accomplishments. As time has gone by and I have continued working there, they have only reinforced this idea. They have continued to get to know me as a person and have allowed me more and more responsibility as I have asked for it. Employees are given the freedom to work as they need to in a positive environment and are not constantly being pestered and pressured to get work done. There is simply a trust involved with the management team and with the employees that work will get done in a timely manner and in correct manner. Overall, the positive environment helps to push an employee to work harder and succeed in everything they strive for.

Cons

The main downside to working here is the time that is sometimes needed to be invested in the work. The company is constantly growing and will not stop anytime soon because of the success that has been coming. While the managers do not pressure employeees to stay late or do work from home, it is very possible to become engrossed in your work and continue doing work even when the work day is over. The hours are normal hours with the possibility of flex-time but sometimes you will come into work and even work later on into the night so that the deadlines can be met.

Advice to Senior Management

To continue doing the great job they have been doing and continue supporting the team as much as possible. By doing this, the employees stay satisfied and problems are addressed right away.