Learned a lot+Work/Life Balance but Unreasonable Salary and Evaluation Process - werkgeversreview Trainer bij IBM

2,0
9 jun 2011
Aanbevelen
Goedkeuring directeur
Zakelijk vooruitzicht

Pluspunten

Brand Recognition: ID inspires envy Compensation: annual performance bonus; medical/dental Middle Management: With some of my direct managers, the few times that I was bothered about something, it was addressed. Open door policy: Towards the beginning I felt this, but towards the end it was starting to feel like it's not a priviledge anymore. My advice is that everyone should make an effort to foster an honest relationship with their managers because they try when they can and deserve the credit. Work/Life Balance: I was never given a difficult time to ask for leaves but I noticed there were some really over-worked people who were. I think employees must also learn when to push back when they feel they're untreated fairly. It's just frustrating how other just decide to keep their mouth shut not out of fear but they just can't be bothered. No one is worked like a horse, or maybe in the departments that I'm more familiar with Impossibly busy periods are inevitable, happens every so often, but not constantly throughout the year. If there are some who do, I feel that they can do something about it but just don't to appear that they are capable to do 'everytthing' and get that much-coveted 'Top Talent' title. Employees: Colleagues are brilliant, you will learn a lot if you constantly ask and everyone just did their job. A few slackers got in though and gets away with murder, middle managers seem oblivious simply because they don't work the same hours. Hehe. Others: in-house counselor

Minpunten

Performance Evaluation: The use the bell curve, who still uses that? Middle Management: It's a lottery..if you're lucky you get a supportive, knowledgeable and fair boss, otherwise, you get the opposite who credit-grabs to boot. (I've been lucky half the time, other have it worse so I can't complain.) Compensation: This is really the straw that finally broke the camel's back...they offered a salary package lower than what I was getting as a middle school teacher. My fault too because I didn't do my research. During the hiring process I was told that annual salary increase was 10-14% depending on my performance. On my first year, I was a top talent an only got a 9% increase. On my second year, I was a mediocre talent (ha) and didn't get an increase...the catch is NO ONE got an increase except for the ones who were promoted. This really resulted to a lot of demotivated employees compelling most to leave, including myself. Company Structure: Constant restructuring, I had 4 managers and was with 3 departments in 2 years. For such a big company who values its brand I didn't understand how it has gotten to the place where it is now.

Ontdek andere reviews over IBM

5,0
1 jul 2026
Anonieme werknemer
Aanbevelen
Goedkeuring directeur
Zakelijk vooruitzicht

Pluspunten

very fun company good benefits

Minpunten

lots of work. slow moving

4,0
26 aug 2014
Aanbevelen
Goedkeuring directeur
Zakelijk vooruitzicht

Pluspunten

Disclaimer: A lot of what I'm writing below of course depends on the work area and management chain. But I found this to be fairly pervasive policies in IBM in my 9+ years with the company. 1. IBM's policies and management are very flexible when it comes to working remotely or accommodating various life situations (sick days, doctor visits, etc.). Management is encouraged to measure an employee by their work and impact, and not by hours spent at their office. 2. Great colleagues! Though unfortunately, many have been leaving due to the instability of IBM's HW development business. 3. At least in my area, there's a high level of flexibility on which projects should I undertake based on my and my management assessment of business impact.

Minpunten

1. Unfortunately, IBM still uses the "normal distribution" rating system, where at the end of the year each employee is ranked as a top contributor (5%), above average contributor (15%), average contributor (~75%), and bottom contributor (5%). This curve is difficult to apply in the R&D world, where you may have many members of the team working long and hard hours, and end up being "average contributors" at the end of the year, because there just isn't room for all to be top contributors. 2. The above may not be so disturbing, if only IBM didn't practically cancelled all raises, performance bonuses and incentive for the non top-performers. I've had a consistent "above average" rating in the last 4-5 years, and my raise and performance bonus were ridiculous mere 1.5-2% of my salary. Were I rated "average contributor" I would have gotten NOTHING. So you can imagine that people can go year after year without any raise to their salary. From talking to manager friend, this is IBM's way to eliminate the non-top-performers without having to fire them, as part of its direction of reducing US manpower. 3. Hiring freeze in many areas - again, as part of IBM's attempt to reduce its workforce across North America and Europe we see many jobs move to the India and Far East markets. This is of course upsetting to see local teams shrink and disappear, especially when many great local IBM colleagues and experts begin to drop out. From my experience thus far working with India SW teams - they are still very far away from the standards I would have expected from US and Europe based teams. 4. Poor top down communication about company's and divisions' future. Employees learn from rumors and news websites what's about to come...

636
avatar
Reactie van IBM
10y
Thanks for sharing your experience, and we're glad that you've had a positive experience working with talented colleagues and taking advantage of IBM's programs. IBM is in the midst of a major transformation, --our Systems business is going through its own changes to strengthen competitiveness. Change is never easy. As part of our transformation, we just launched a whole new approach for how we are coaching employees, delivering feedback and managing reviews. No distribution guidelines or what some think of as 'stacked rankings." What's particularly great is that this was co-designed with our employee base from all over the world... to the tune of hundreds of thousands of page views, comments, on-line debates and discussions. IBMers even named the new system Checkpoint, to reflect the regular feedback rituals we're adopting. Managers are more empowered with the new methodology to help them acknowledge the great work of their teams and help their employees develop professionally. These steps and more are showing up in our employee surveys as well. So IBMers are feeling the change. We are confident these changes will help us in continuing to attract and retain great talent.
Bekijk reviews op: Nuttig|Beoordeling|Datum|Alle