Leadership is lacking. Fix it. Do it soon and give hope to current and future employees. - Employee Nutrien Employee Review

2.0
Aug 16, 2019
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great people in the 'boots on the floor' positions Lots of money for initiatives Decent compensation

Cons

Though there are bright spots, narcissism is endemic in vast pockets of senior leadership - and it appears to be a product of a) massive insecurity, or b) potentially sociopathic and/or unethical behavior. Unfortunately, this behavior is systemic in many large companies, only Nutrien seems to have it down to an art – and exemplified gloriously in IT. There seems to be a difficulty in all departments (though again, IT is especially bad), in giving credit where credit is due, giving non-management the lime-light, building up and encouraging employees, and not hoarding information – all products of narcissism. The leadership tone is set at the top - the very top. Right now, it's obviously off key, and that bad note floats down through the entire company. The wrong people, with unethical values and actions, have been given both senior leadership titles and roles that influence the company and employees. This only goes to further validate that the company doesn't understand what true leadership is or is failing at its ability to assign leadership effectively. In doing so, Nutrien has seriously distanced itself from the values of the agrarian customer they purport to serve. This has been further enhanced by moving the corporate headquarters (in all practical senses) to Calgary and further distancing the values of the company from the values of the customer. Let’s not kid ourselves, Saskatoon is no longer the ‘headquarters’ of the company in any true sense of the word, and (at least corporately) the flavor and identity of understanding the farming lifestyle has been lost. ‘Feeding the future’ and ‘Growing our world from the ground up’, while pragmatically true tag lines (we provide product that enables the process of food production and plant growth), are disingenuous phrases at best, and deceptive at worst. In both instances, there is a high cost to providing the feed and the growth i.e. we’re not giving the product away for free or helping the growth because of some altruistic principle. Profit is the bottom line, and that profit has been heavily borne on the backs of the employees - and I don’t see it stopping. As an example of profit being the bottom line, training was one of the items pulled from employees to hit a nefarious and ill explained $100 million dollar savings target - yet, money seems to abound for other initiatives. I could go on.

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Nutrien Response
6y
Thank you for taking the time to submit a review. You’ve raised a number of items which are of concern to us, especially around ethics and compliance, and we take these concerns seriously. We also recognize that changes resulting from the merger in 2018 are often difficult to adjust to. When recruiting new employees or elevating existing employees into senior management positions, we work to ensure final candidates align with our core values and engagement principles, namely Integrity. If you feel a leader has violated our Code of Conduct or acted without integrity, you’re strongly encouraged to reach-out to our confidential ethics and compliance hotline. With regards to the location of our head office, like many other major corporations, we don’t have just one major corporate office. In addition to our Saskatoon, Saskatchewan office, where we are in the process of building a new state-of-the-art office tower, we have significant corporate offices in Calgary, Alberta and Loveland, Colorado. All three of these centers are located in the heart of agricultural production and our operations - in the Prairies of Canada and the Large Heartland of the US. We take our role to “grow our world from the ground up” very seriously, and feel that, with this as our Purpose statement, our employees will as well. We’re disappointed to hear this statement does not fit your experience with us. We also understand how the recent initiative to delay or reduce some non-essential costs can impact employees; however, they are necessary. We launched this effort as a direct response to recent tough growing conditions and challenges resulting from trade disputes which have impacted growers and our business this season. When growers have difficult years, so do we, and we recognize this and take appropriate action.

Explore other reviews about Nutrien

5.0
May 30, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Collaborative but individual work too. A lot of traveling to different sites

Cons

Individual work requires being open minded and doing own research or experimentation

2.0
Apr 17, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

For the area, the pay is decent.

Cons

Management that does not care about the people. No flexibility in working anywhere other than the plant. Outsiders hired before qualified employees. Another merger/selling on the horizon - memo sent out to employees and then they were told it would not happen in 2026. Big changes happen every year such as benefits reduced, people being moved from one position to the other, employees getting fired after one small mistake instead of a warning as it used to be, corporate people leaving/getting fired.

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