Good people, badly managed. Conservative company with little career development
Pros
* The environment is indeed international with reasonable diversity in terms of nationality. * Nice colleagues. * If young, the first years can be a good learning experience as a first career or to gain more experience in chosen field. * Company car, phone from lower-management up. * Lay-offs rare as company run on such a lean workforce, but becoming more common
Cons
* Increased outsourcing in last couple of years, leaving people worried about their jobs long term * Bad communication from management and HR downwards. Leads to rumours and insecurity. * Conservative Japanese company. Slow decisions. Lack of cultural understanding. * High staff turnover, particularly younger staff, due to overwork, little progression, few benefits compared to elsewhere. * HR and management tend to overstate benefits and potential development, opportunities during interview and contract process leaving many disillusioned once clear that not all promises delivered upon. * Japanese influence is slowly reducing but many European managers there so long that they are unable to move away from the Japanese way of thinking. Leads to some being less dynamic than the younger Japanese managers!! * Political environment means managers focus on own careers. * Good people but stale management and little emphasis on employee motivation. Self motivation essential. * Career progression for most requires political savvy and popularity, visibility with the right senior managers. * Many company benefits limited to Japanese staff and highest levels of European management * In terms of nationality, very diverse. In terms of race, less so and local prejudices on this topic vs for example UK, USA remain.
