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Nokia/Intel Partnership: Are the Employees in Support?

Glassdoor Team — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:19:28 +0000

Nokia and Intel formally announced a long-term partnership Tuesday morning and without skipping a beat, debate fired up among reporters and analysts about who had the most to gain from this alliance. For example, as InformationWeek points out this was a “big win for Intel,” and adds “Intel has gotten a big boost into a market the chipmaker has been unable to penetrate.” However on the flip side, PC World calls out, “Intel may be taking a big risk with its dive into the mobile wireless device market with Nokia. Intel has to be careful not to upset its current partners (including Apple and Microsoft), yet still work with Nokia to deliver new and impressive devices to consumers.”

To add in another perspective, is this partnership one that employees would have suggested for their respective companies? Was Intel’s entry into the mobile market the creative and innovative direction employees wanted the company to head? And was Nokia’s partnership with Intel the technological step employees thought the company should focus on? Provided below is snapshot of advice employees at these respective companies have suggested for senior management.

Intel Employees Advice for Senior Management: Within Intel company reviews, employees suggest cutting out bureaucracy and improving the planning process, but what we find more telling is that they caution top executives to consider more of the long-term benefits and outcomes that a new partnership would bring.

“Be a foundry and leverage your advanced process technology. Short-sighted moves like partnering with weaker companies makes them better and you weaker.” - Intel Corporation Senior Process Engineer

“Poor project planning and constant re-orgs/shuffles are distracting to the individual contributing employees.” – Intel Corporation Component Design Engineer

“Get rid of the good old boy network before it negatively impacts Intel the way it impacted the Big 3 in Detroit. Some organizations within Intel are just world class…others need a lot of work.” – Intel Corporation Process Engineer

Nokia Employees Advice for Senior Management: Nokia employees, on the other hand, seem more supportive of finding ways to advance their product line, and it may be that this partnership is just the ticket. From some of the recent commentary, Nokia employees note the thirst for keeping the Nokia technologically competitive.

“Focus on technology, instead of becoming just a user experience company.” – Nokia Architect

“More money should be focused on understanding the latest technology, rather than on marketing in random movies or buildings.” – Nokia Product Manager

“The lack of direction is frustrating…We’ve forgotten our purpose, which is make life easier for the consumers of our products. Instead of constantly expecting them to adapt to our systems.” – Nokia Manager

As the partnership begins to take effect, we will continue to keep you updated on whether company and CEO approval ratings will rise or fall. At the time of the announcement, we observe the CEOs are relatively close in approval and disapproval ratings, and that there is significant room for them to improve according to employees. Stay tuned to see if the ratings for one company and CEO start to fluctuate.

Glassdoor.com Report
Company	Company Rating	CEO Name	CEO Approval Rating (%)	CEO Disapproval Rating (%)
Intel	3.5	Paul S. Otellini	63	15
Nokia	3.7	Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo	61	17

Tell you us what you think about Intel’s engagement into the mobile foray. And if you work at Intel or Nokia, keep us informed as to what the impact has been on company and your job.

Nokia/Intel Partnership: Are the Employees in Support? is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Does a Green Company Mean a Satisfied Company?

Glassdoor Team — Wed, 06 May 2009 15:38:33 +0000

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released a list of the Top 50 companies who purchase the most green power today in the U.S. as part of the Green Power Partnership. These green power purchases help reduce the environmental impacts of electricity use and support the development of new renewable generation capacity nationwide.

But what we wanted to find out is if there is any correlation between a green company and a satisfied workforce. We looked at how these top rated environmentally-friendly companies are rated by their employees. The table below lists the top 12 companies (with 20 or more company reviews) and their corresponding company and CEO approval ratings based on employee feedback.

While there is a wide range of findings when looking at how these companies rate according to employees, what’s interesting to note is the fact that only four of these top 12 green companies (Intel, PepsiCo, Whole Foods and Cisco) have CEOs whose approval ratings are above 50%. Among the EPA’s list the US Air Force and Whole Foods receive the highest company ratings, 4.0 and 3.8 respectively.

Another observation we caught is the newcomer to the EPA ‘s list, Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart has made some significant strides throughout the past year to become more active with their environmental efforts and are now ranked at number 15. However we did note that despite the eco-conscious efforts made by the company, Wal-Mart’s CEO has a modest 34% approval rating and the company receives a neutral 3.4 rating.

Glassdoor Report: Top Companies using Green Power*
Rank		Company Rating	CEO Rating
1	Intel	3.5	63%
2	Pepsi Co	3.5	71%
3	Kohl’s Department Store	2.9	44%
4	Dell	3.0	46%
5	Whole Foods	3.8	66%
6	Pepsi Bottling Group, Inc	2.7	35%
7	Johnson & Johnson	3.3	41%
8	US Air Force	4.0	43%
9	Cisco	3.5	75%
12	HSBC	2.9	33%
15	Walmart	2.9	34%
16	Kimberly Clark	2.9	17%

*with 20 or more reviews

From the employee perspective, being green doesn’t always seem to make up for some of the issues employees express in regards to senior management. See what some employees of these companies suggest to help improve their satisfaction at the workplace:

Listen to your employees. Encourage suggestions. Train, train, train. Do not expect the impossible of your team leaders and associates when they do not know what is expected of them. Too many really fine workers leave in frustration and tears because they are treated badly and pushed beyond normal endurance.- Department Specialist, Kohl’s Department Store

Appreciate and value your employees much more than you do today. . Frustration toward executives and fear off layoffs are dramatically impacting productivity.- Project Manager, Dell

Listen to your employees in the field and on the front lines. They know more than you think.- Sales Representative, Johnson & Johnson

Does a Green Company Mean a Satisfied Company? is a post from: Glassdoor Blog

Salary Freezes at Intel; Employees Show Satisfaction with Compensation

Glassdoor Team — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 17:28:49 +0000

In an effort to stay afloat in today’s economy, many companies are now turning to salary freezes– either in lieu of or in addition to lay-offs. As a case in point, Intel announced salary freezes yesterday across the board, from the CEO on down. This follows the mass lay-offs of 6,000 people at Intel that occurred in January.

While it seems as though Intel is trying to do right by their employees with this salary freeze, to avoid laying-off more folks, it will be interesting to see how employees respond. Take a look below at how current Intel employees evaluate the company, its compensation & benefits and the CEO. We observe that employees are relatively satisfied but how will this change as a result of this action?

Glassdoor Report: Intel
	Company Rating	Company Rating: Compensation & Benefits	CEO Name	CEO Rating
Intel	3.5	3.6	Paul S. Otellini	62%

Here are some comments from employee reviews on how they view salaries at the company, both good and bad:

Good pay, secure but challenging job, excellent products – Engineering Manager (Santa Clara, CA)

Intel has always offered very good medical benefits, and bonuses that grow with your time n the company – Senior Software Engineer (Chandler, AZ)

With good pay, good benefits, you will meet a lot of interesting and highly skilled people at Intel – Program Analyst (Portland, OR)

There pay is not competitive to others in the same industry. The pay is not even competitive between employees. I have the same qualifications and do the exact same job as some of my peers and I am paid 7$ a hour less than my nearest peer. And it has nothing to do with my work ethic. I have never received anything less than a exceeds expectations on a performance review – Maintenance Tech (Hillsboro, OR)

Pay is at best “poor” compared to the alternatives out there – Director

Will the current level company and compensation satisfaction prevail as the salary freeze takes effect, or will we see Intel employee reviews become more negative as they become less satisfied with a stagnant income level?

Do you work at Intel? Let us know what you think of the salary freeze, and if you think management is handling the situation as best they can.

Salary Freezes at Intel; Employees Show Satisfaction with Compensation is a post from: Glassdoor Blog