Ferrero used to care about the fair treatment and welfare of employees. Unfortunately Mr. Ferrero's sickness and then his death brought many changes that are leading to the end of all his values and the decline of employees’ moral. Some examples below:
- Impossibility to get a clear career path even when constantly challenging the manager/HR.
- Lack of opportunities for young employees: current focus on external hiring narrowing internal growth. Ferrero is a company you should better join once you are already a senior manager, so that you can enjoy the several benefits offered without great responsibilities.
- Most Senior Managers are willing to settle for the way things are, even when they’re not good, since there is a lack of accountability over decisions and its related risks, and managers are not reprimanded for bad management. Moreover, micromanagement and individual contribution skills are fostered in the company, while it is rare to find a manager with team and/or people management skills, with no interest from HR to change this attitude.
-Low wages at employee level: The salary used to be in line with market level thank to the so-called "housing allowance", an extra granted to all the expats moving to Luxembourg, but this extra is not given anymore, hence salaries are currently below Luxembourg's market level. Due to the low wage, the company struggles to hire from people from Germany, France and Northern Europe, focusing on countries whose wage level is way lower than Luxembourg, such as Eastern and Southern Europe (Italy, Spain, Portugal, Greece, Romania and Poland).
-Italian-centric structure: nepotism, non-Italian speakers are strongly advised to learn Italian as most important meetings are held in Italian (and some top managers hardly speak English), career opportunities for female workers are lower if compared to the male employees.
- Flexibility schedule wise is not granted, but, given there is no badging system in Luxembourg, a great percentage of the employees takes advantage of this “bug”, arriving late or leaving early. The lack of badging system also results in additional hours not being paid or recovered.
- The company is slow in making changes happen and reluctant in applying disruptive ideas. There are so many processes that make the company very bureaucratic and resistant to change. This slowness often results in employees’ negative mood since most of the projects begin but see no completion.
- The company also result in many inefficiencies: some activities are completed twice (or more times) by different teams, sometimes resulting in contrasting outputs or results. On the other hand, some other departments are understaffed and struggle to get things done, with employees working day and night with low recognition from upper management.
