General Mills reviews

One of the biggest reasons for me to move on - Recent layoffs. There have been at least two layoffs that have occurred in the last 4 years. What are the chances I can be on the next chopping block - Employee morale is low due to layoffs - Culture has been changing due to all the changes - Company has been on cutback spree. Any benefit you had as an IT operation team is going away like on-call benefits. - Benefits used to be great like pension and retirement premiums which you accumulate overtime to pay for healthcare before medicare kicks in in the event of retirement before 67). They have been cut. - Salaries at General Mills are at least 10 - 20% lower in IT as compared to what market is paying in Twin Cities. One of the main reasons most of Millennials are leaving the company. - Promotions come at a slower pace once you reach senior level. Look for spending at least 3-5 years at the same level before you might be considered for next level. There is no transparency on the promotion path. If you are lucky, your manager might fight hard for you and might get there sooner. And if you want to get to next level after that... good luck spending another 3-5 years.

- I don’t think the GMI leadership has embraced the change that is happening in the industry and the job force. It feels like their mistakes to adjust to the lower consumer demand for once popular brands have been compounded by more mistakes being made to patch up the bottom line problem. Innovation in how they think about their businesses, capabilities and processes just doesn’t seem to happen (even though they say it is). They seem to fail to notice or understand that consumers and customers are changing quickly, and instead of dedicating resources to adapt to or, heaven forbid, get ahead of the curve of those changes, they seem more concerned with the bottom line. - When I first started at GMI, it was a given that pay won’t be as high as other CPG firms (not to mention having to endure harsh Minnesota winters), but the culture, stability and people would make it worth sticking around. Decisions made by upper level management that have been misguided, executed poorly, or simply out of touch with the reality of the situation internally and externally have severely impacted the culture, stability and people. Change is happening in the industry, and how CPG companies adapt to those changes is going to determine where they land in the future. Which brings me back to my first point: How does a company attract and retain high value millennial talent by underpaying employees, reducing benefits, implementing massive layoffs, not effectively adapting to a changing industry, and not embracing innovative thinking? Maybe that mindset of “If they want to leave, good, then they weren’t loyal and we don’t want them” could have worked in the past when business was good, the culture was positive and industry change wasn’t what it is today, but now it just sounds like hubris. I have a lot of friends at GMI, and I honestly want the company to do well, but if General Mills lets great talent walk out the door at the rate they are, the much needed innovation of thought and process is likely going with them. At that point, you have to ask yourself if your next generation of managers are going to do any better than the current.