Unilever PLC Reviews

Pros

It is a great opportunity to grow and learn from others. There are opportunities to move up if you are motivated.

Cons

In order to move up, you must be visible - that is, your oral communication must be great so others can see that too.

Advice to Senior Management

To appreciate the employees more and provide more bonuses and raises. They are why you are so successful so treat them welll.

Pros

- Great training opportunities
- Looks good on a resume
-They understand that people are career switchers
-Laid back environment - can work from home, wear jeans everyday
-Subsidized food from cafeteria
-Shuttle from NYC to work (although it is a little pricey)
-Great 401K

Cons

- Pay - base pay and bonus are not competitive
-Jobs keep getting larger - every reorg consolidates two jobs into one without a pay increase
- No opportunity to have direct reports until you become a mananger
-Manager positions constantly being eliminated, limiting upward mobility
- Takes too long to get promoted
-Work experience before business school not counted when looking at upward mobility/promotions.

Advice to Senior Management

Lots of WL1s are jumping ship...do something about promotional opportunities.

Pros

Strong values and ethics
Diverse middle management
Strong corporate social responsibility
Very talented and bright people
Collegiate, consultative work style
Driven, ambitious people who are on the whole respectful of others
Well established control processes mean this a business that is less likely than others to make bad decisions.

Cons

Collegiate and consultative style can delay decision making.
Control processes can be badly applied by some individuals limiting creativity and entrepreneurial spirit.
More needs to be done with regard to diversity, particularly in leadership roles.

Advice to Senior Management

Decide on a clear strategy and stick with it for sufficient time to see the outcome. There has been so much change in recent years, some of it very necessary, but there comes a time to stabilise the business and focus on competing.

Pros

Unilever employees are down to earth, and actually care about the work they do. Overall, the company stresses ethics, and tries to make the workplace feel small in your individual responsibilities, but yet linked to a huge multinational resource.

Cons

Some of the work I was assigned was routine, and not the most challenging. Additionally, I felt like there were not many outlets for new ideas.

Advice to Senior Management

Give more challenging projects, and more responsibility to younger employees. Also, encourage new ideas and creativity, and create an environment where learning and problem solving is the norm.

Pros

There's a lot of very nice and good people from my experience. Good benefits, reasonable managers and if you are really passionate, you can go places.

Cons

Just like any big companies, there's pressure to perform. Still gotta make the money and give them the results they want.

Advice to Senior Management

Managers should make more of an effort to learn what was done from the previous organization and ask feedbacks from their employess what works and what doesn't

Pros

Great culture, Good benefits, Cares about people, Great for the CV, opportunies to travel. Good benefits. Good bonus. Growing business.

Cons

It is quite bureacratic and slow as a place to work. Hierarchical and paternalistic culture. Does not feel like people are empowered to get things done.

Advice to Senior Management

The business needs to to be simplified so that things do not take so long. The vision is great so good to continue with the work that has been done there.

Pros

Unilever has a clear vision and mission to serve the masses through innovative consumer products of daily life. A highly professional teams in all departments, a marketing company that always care for their customers and consumers through innovations, speed to serve, high efficiencies, quality and affordability according to regional marketing strategies.

Cons

Cost is still a high concern mainly due to lots of gaps in overall sales and operational issues leading towards low margins and higher cost than expected.

Advice to Senior Management

Review sales and operations strategies, reduce SKU's, reduce inventories carrying cost, improve operational efficiencies and customer services. Hire consultants for each area, probably old and experienced employees.

Pros

Great to build marketing skills
Nice people
Very flexible in terms of location

Cons

Very poor salary
Lack of good managerial skills from the leaders

Advice to Senior Management

Revise salary as it is below the industry average
Improve balance of ABMs vs. BMs (meaning more ABMs giving BMs more experience to lead people - meaning more than one person)
Ensure that directors are good managers and have great managerial experience leading teams before promoting them

Pros

- Great facilities that promote creativity, safety and work/life balance
- Responsible corporation with frequent CSR activities
- Young and active employees with sharing spirit

Cons

- Too large to feel your identity
- Limited promotion opportunities
- HR is more business-oriented than people-oriented

Advice to Senior Management

- Better care for its employee and people (compensation, support from seniors at work)

Pros

Unilever is a lovely company to work for with awesome opportunities for learning, personal and professional development through trainings and on the job skills acquisition. There are systems and processes in place to guide and aid performance. There is strong emphasis on delivery of set targets while not compromising ones integrity

Cons

There is usually a lot to do so if time management is not a strong competence, there is the tendency to get work life balance wrong.

Advice to Senior Management

I'm enjoying my career in Unilever and I think it is a result of the clarity of the focus and direction of the leadership team. There are also many members of the leadership team that inspire confidence and respect in me.