Q&A With General Mills Inc. Employees

I think General Mills is trying to be more innovative while focusing on their core products. Its a delicate balance.

Innovation is (IMO) at the hands of each employee. The company is only as innovative as its employees. In my area, we are always looking for new ideas and excited to implement them.

General Mills is becoming more innovative with IT, now that we finally, for the first time, have a CIO that has an IT background

General Mills is a relationship based company. Every time I meet someone new I always ask if they have any other contacts that I should meet.

Take the time to get to know the Company Priorities and Department goals. Talk with lots of people and ask questions.

HR is becoming more of a strategic business partner, however, they are stretched really thin, so more and more HR employee issues are going to the manager.

GMI has a lot of process around HR issues - it helps issues be resolved in a timely and fair manner.

As most companies do, there is a "tell us about yourself" section, just have your self-elevator pitch ready.

Depends on your department.

2-3 personal days per year but new hires get 3 weeks vacation that increases to 4 weeks at 5 years of service

2-3 personal days per year depending on the number of holidays, I believe new hires still get 2 weeks of accrued vacation, which increases to 3 weeks at 5 years of tenure. At 15 years, you get 4 weeks of vacation. Enforcement of vacation is fairly lax, and you can generally work with your manager to carry over some vacation days into the new calendar year, so long as business needs continue to be met.

influence, relationship building

Dress for your day. Mainly business casual.

The Blue Buffalo segment allows pets in the workplace. However, all other parts of the company do not currently allow pets.

A lot of flexibility in schedule and ability to work from home. However, this is dependent upon role and location.

yes

Ah-mazing.

Layoffs happen every couple of years in the IT department. We have had 2 big layoffs in the last 6 years, but the current trend is now small layoffs that are not communicated.

Curiosity. Drive. Innovation. Initiative.

With respect to any employee impacted.

Great - I've found that you are rewarded for the work you do and are able to move as far as you want.

The career growth opportunities are not very good, unfortunately. There is not a lot of turnover, so there are not a lot of opportunities for upward growth, because the numbers of higher level positions are capped, and there is intense competition for the higher level positions. Your chances of career growth are much higher if you are a minority, and slightly higher if you are a woman. General Mills IT does not give promotions based on skills and accomplishments; rather, they give promotions based on the perceptions of the directors. If your manager wants to promote you (to a higher than midlevel job band), they need to make sure all the other directors will approve your promotion. The directors make their decisions on perceptions, not accomplishments or skills, so if they do not have a great perception of you, they will not approve your promotion. Some people are great at selling themselves (regardless of abilities or accomplishments), and these people have a greater chance.

You need to have, in addition to the basic financial skills (accounting, math, calculations, Windows Office, financial negotiations, etc.), a keen critical sense and a vision of the business as a whole, not just the closed view of your area (how my activities and decisions impact the business?).

It is a sector where there are great opportunities for development and growth. The entire finance structure is well designed and the environment provides great learning and opportunities. I feel very accomplished and happy to be part of the team.

Marketing at General Mills is very much a rotation culture, so you are exposed to a wide variety of different types of roles and products in a short time period. Given this, Marketers tend to be very well-rounded. In addition, this is a performance-based culture so the best performers are rewarded with the biggest, most challenging roles and promoted quickly if they deliver results.

Tolerable; however, more and more work, and higher level work, is being put on lower-level employees with no bump in compensation or no promotions

Standard practices. Often a case study or written test along with a handful of one-on-one meetings.

Natural and Organic is seeing strong growth, but off a small base. Outdated products like Hamburger Helper and mainline yogurt brands are struggling the most.

The culture is terrible right now. Several large, public rounds of layoffs have been replaced with smaller, quieter layoffs where no group seems safe. Company focus is all about cost cutting, so people keep their head down and just hope to survive another month. Not a great way to drive innovation, creativity, or solutions. Many of the individual benefits have been taken away, and the cost cutting is out of hand. Some departments even lost their trash cans as a cost cutting move. The only way to combat this is to reinvest in people. Make their jobs secure and eliminate the threat of further cuts, so people can focus on their current job, not their next one.

We have a new CEO, so most people are still waiting to see how well he does. Some of the recent decisions have been well received, but business results speak for themselves. The jury is still out.