Whirlpool Reviews

Pros

There is always change happening and if you work hard I feel you are rewarded. Compensation could be more though.

Cons

still many people that are not pulling their weight
too many hourly people in salaried positions capable of making more money than if they were salaried

Advice to Senior Management

local leaders are fairly strong. lots of maytag influence that older whirlpool people do not always agree with -- mostly hourly.

Pros

Great location to raise a family - family oriented culture.
Abundant career opportunities and an openness to move across functions.
Very ethical company.
Low cost living.
Great beaches in the summer.

Cons

People are allowed to move too quickly from role to role with no accountability for what they leave behind.
Small town can be limiting for single colleagues looking for an active life.
Work is dependent on relationships and not processes which hinders effectiveness and ability to transition roles effectively.

Advice to Senior Management

Explore a better talent system to identify, develop and engage talent from day 1. It isn't enough to recruit talent and leave them to fend for themselves.

Pros

good values. integrity. respect for people

Cons

an old economy company with low investment in research and innovation

Advice to Senior Management

invest more in technology

Pros

Southwest Michigan is a great place to raise a family.
St. Joseph is beautiful in summer although workload prevent nearly any time to enjoy it except weekends.
Very easy to get a good business education at Whirlpool.

Cons

Extreme emphasis on making monthly and quarterly numbers often causes very short-sighted decisions to be made at the expense of longer-term opportunities.
Employees, especially at lower levels, are seldom encouraged to take risk or pursue ideas that might fail, and failure is looked upon very negatively.
LOTS of warm bodies filling seats and carrying out orders by the higher-ups. Culture is such that challenging management is a good way to eventually be on the outside looking in.
Very few true leaders in middle and upper mgmt ranks. It was very hard to find a mentor that embodied qualities I was looking for.

Advice to Senior Management

Take risk, embrace failure, and change quickly--the same qualities that enabled Whirlpool to become the behemoth it is today. In the business environment you're currently in, a top priority should be figuring out how to get everyone at all levels in the company working in unison toward the same goals.
Look for legitimate top talent and promote and incent those individuals as soon as possible. Most are leaving or looking to leave soon.

Pros

Decent place to work, flexible work time and holidays. The pay is very good for the area. Good about training their employees.

Cons

Average work week is 50hrs, you are expected to be available 24hrs a day 7 days a week. Almost every Holiday or vacation involved work.

Advice to Senior Management

A fundamental issue is strong leadership from the top down. Maybe the EC level leaders are good, but when you get to the VP, Director and senior manager level, many of them don't even understand the basis of leadership, like trust, vision etc.

Pros

Lots of opportunities to shine
Ability to experiment with different career paths

Cons

Constant internal churn
Senior Level Management opinion often trumps in market research
Senior Level Management gets overly involved in the day to day business
Matrix based organization resulting in an overwhelming amount of review meetings
Poor talent retention

Advice to Senior Management

Put people in roles that best represent their skill sets
Accept market research and don't change project direction based on opinion

Pros

Employees have decent benefits, and some of the ongoing projects are making it easier for us to serve our trade partners effectively. Communication is improving, and immediate leadership (team Leads and Operations Advisors) are effective and competent in their positions.

Cons

There are gross discrepancies between how employees and contractors are treated, even though contractors are expected to meet the same standards of productivity and quality as employees. Hiring freezes and arbitrary policies are pushing out contractors who are handlers of key accounts, which is having a detrimental effect on overall employee morale as well as turnover rates.

Advice to Senior Management

Please stop the double standards; hire the contractors who do some of the key work with the company. Remember that a focus on quantitative data needs to be balanced with qualitative data.

Pros

Opportunity to learn a lot and own big projects

Cons

Political atmosphere
Industry is extremely tough
Whirlpool relevance declining with entry of new/different competitors

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on the competition, not internal politics
Know who is working the hardest, not talking the biggest game.

Pros

Good place to work as a young engineer. Supportive of further education within their guidelines. some mentoring provided. Special co-op type training available that provides for a 'fast track' within the company. One good piece of advice from Whirlpool: There is no right way to do a wrong thing.

Cons

Constant changing in management prohibits any strong association with a manager unless you happen to appeal to him/her. Makes for an anti-team work environment. Managers have 'pet' projects that get pushed and since managers are constantly changing, the 'pet' project keeps changing also. There is a lot of politics played in the managerial arena. Unfortunately, most of the Dilbert strips could come straight from Whirlpool.

Advice to Senior Management

If it were possible, exchange places with a design engineer for six months, undetected. Listen to what the other engineers are saying and observe how you are treated by the managers. Find out who are the good managers and who are the bad ones. It's been said, "Let's let the engineers, engineer". Find out how much time an engineer really spends engineering. It's getting less each day.

Pros

Encouraged movement wihin company, global fortune 500 company, broad range of opportunities, innovative, thought leaders, good values, great location, senior leadership engagement with employees

Cons

Inconsistency with how some managers expect their reports to complete performance reviews versus how other managers do. Leads to a higher level of employee dissatisfying behavior.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to drive effective and meaningful employee engagement at all levels and all regions of the company, this helps us feel more empowered.