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Ghirardelli Chocolate

Engaged Employer

Ghirardelli Chocolate reviews

4.0

65% would recommend to a friend

(343 total reviews)
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Justin Reese

78% approve of CEO

66% positive business outlook

Ghirardelli Chocolate has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 343 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Ghirardelli Chocolate employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Manufacturing industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

343 reviews
2.0
Jan 30, 2019

Ok for stepping stone, not great otherwise

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

-Brand recognition looks good on your resume to other CPG companies -Most peers are at least somewhat nice and reasonable -Lots of free leftover food, chocolate, and good coffee machines / tea -Being a smaller company, opportunity for more hands-on involvement -Work life balance is great for most

Cons

-Managers of people have zero leadership skills and are not encouraged to support their employees. If you get a stingy manager, good luck getting any outside perks that cost money approved, regardless of your tenure/enthusiasm/ performance. -Pay is not terrible, but certainly not competitive in the Bay Area, and profit sharing bonus has not been fully paid out in years. Do NOT count that percentage as a guaranteed part of your salary when assessing overall compensation. -Resource management is poor. Some departments have way too many headcount, others have too few. This makes it hard to get work done. They really need to do a better evaluation of value-added headcount. -Under the thumb of Lindt, which inhibits empowerment and upper level promotion opportunities. -Poor career advancement unless timing is right or you're in a good department. If you have a passive manager, good luck ever moving forward in your career path. -Lack of diversity in Management team. Mostly white men, a white woman or two on occasion. Not a pipeline issue, because if you look at other companies in the Bay Area, they do a better job with representation. -HR does not seem to advocate for the employee and spend a lot of focus on the fluffy stuff like workshops and team building things, which are fun, but won't improve day to day challenges that cause people to want to leave. Feedback from exit interviews does not seem to be taken. And multiple people leaving the same department doesn't seem to raise flags for them to intervene. -High turnover rate, low tenure, low morale.

2.0
Mar 25, 2017

Problems begin with poor management

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

...Chocolate. There are *some* friendly, passionate, good people to work with. It's an ok company to quickly join and leave if using it as a stepping stone to a better place. Brand recognition.

Cons

Upper management and even the CEO care only about short-term profits leading to poor decisions and unrealistic targets. Yet upper management gets to spend $$$$ on high-end, luxury cars with company $. Promotions are NOT based on performance and metrics but are instead awarded by favoritism. Certain groups, e.g. Finance have very high turnover and low morale partly due to inexperienced middle-management. Also leads to no opportunity or effort given to employee career development (focus is on short-term objectives only). Average to low pay. Cramped office, promise to expand to new building for several years but no action.

4.0
Apr 14, 2017

Middle Manager

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great product, friendly people, good communication from CEO. Top managers are very approachable. Also, good vacation package, 401k match, and occassional chocolate taste testing! As a female manager, I feel my ideas are very welcome; I am treated professionaly and frequently given a "seat at the table" at all levels -I have never experienced a hint of sexism here. Also, while you of course have to get your work done, they are flexible about schedules so you can do child drop off or pick up, and allow many employees to work from home one day per week. Most of the corporate employees are located all in one location - it is easy to get up from your desk, walk to see a co-worker or just go to another department and say, "If I need to learn about x, who do I talk with in this department?" People always seem willing to help. Lots of small perks make for a pleasant day - free chocolate, early Fridays in the summer, frequent give aways of tickets to sporting events, work out clubs at lunch. Many efforts to make a nice environment.

Cons

Company is making a jump from a small/mid size business to a larger one. There are some growing pains with this. Nothing terrible - it just makes people uneasy sometimes. Really need to upgrade their technology and get systems that talk to each other. IT department seems a little out of date or not quite ready to help take us to the next level. The company is only so big right now, so you can't necessarily grow your career by advancing 3 levels or something like that in a short period of time. (But, we have plenty of folks who have grown with the company, including our CEO.) Salaries seem to be falling a little bit behind but I think I heard HR will be working on updating these soon. Office space is too tight right now - not enough meeting rooms or casual spaces for doing work together.

Viewing 4 - 6 of 343 Reviews

Glassdoor has 381 Ghirardelli Chocolate reviews submitted anonymously by Ghirardelli Chocolate employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Ghirardelli Chocolate is right for you.