3M Employer Reviews

Would still be there if I had not moved away from the area. Varied assignments, flexible schedule, Great Benefits.

H.R. seems to like coming up with rules to punish the workers and not reward them. Dropped starting pay along with incentive programs. Work is OK but it seems everyone here is miserable on a daily basis. I think most management personel forget they are just factory workers like us.

11.29 hr-12.96 hr.Lost good starting pay. Not worth the rotating shifts so I moved to a higher paying skilled labor job,Looks like the HR manager wrote the last review trying to cover his butt.Lol
If you like factory work,rotating shifts and sleep paterns.. it is the place for you. Cheese Plant coming to town so hold out for that if you want a factory – more... job I would say. They did themselves in with the manpower workers who are treated differently and many hundreds have been fired over the last few years ruining the feeling of job security,kind of a place to get a few paychecks or to get you by untill a better job comes along,which does with the other factorys raising starting pay. 14hr for a custodian at TCF is an example of this. Good luck! – less

I saw a few reviews on the Brookings plant here and thought I would add some feedback of my own.

Having only been with the company since 2007 I don't have the experience some have had, but let's start with the basics... it's by far the best paying job in town, with the best working conditions. A medical products plant that is temperature controlled, – more... with ample length breaks (albeit a break room and parking lot that need to be larger with expanded lunch and vending options)

There's a bit of retirement pains going on right now, as many employees that have been at the plant since the beginning are retiring, in large numbers, all at once, so with the new employees comes learning pains... old time operators telling me that it used to take forever just to get 'postings' to run machines that new hires can now get right off the street. New operators training new operators combined with attainment rate pressures will lead to some quality issues. Corporate seems to be offering 'buyouts' which are speeding this process along.

Also a bit of a culture change as well, as old timers are used to constant overtime, whereas new timers don't want to be at work every weekend, week after week. Some of us got lucky and landed 4-crew positions which eliminate a lot of this overtime. Others don't like the rotating 12 hour shifts, so they take the 3 crew positions, which end up being 'level 3' every other weekend all year. Generally you are not required to work more than a 50 hour per week rolling average though. Everyone's different and some love the overtime.

The plant is somewhat compartmentalized in that each department can have a different culture depending on who runs it... some are more strict about coverage than others and can be really nice to work for, others not so much... and also it seems like there is virtually no collaboration between neighboring plants either.

They did reduce their packer pay, their lowest job grade, way down recently.. it made some people unhappy in the process, but sadly, even with the reduced pay these packers are still getting paid more than most places in town... what's done is done.. we shall see how that works out. Hopefully they reverse this decision in time.The corporate policy of not allowing us to bank any vacation hours is also causing some issues. Being able to bank 40-80 hours would be nice.

With that said... great pay, it's the reason I still live here in an area that's too cold in the winter. Temperature controlled. Relatively easy work with an emphasis on safety and ergonomics taking high priority at this plant. For blue collar work it really can't be beat in this economy. All corporations have their problems, but 3M seems to be one of the better ones out there. I can actually go around town with some pride about where I work... that's kind of nice. – less

Benifits and pay being taken away or lowered.The thing I did not like is the way Manpower temp. personell are treated like a lower class. The coating dept. manager was a decent engineer but is not a people person,this is the case in many managers,they have no place managing people as they do not understand how to relate to them. This is the reason for – more... high turnover of employees and low quality products by inexperianced operators. Poor quality products are begining to get to the customers,bad for a medical plant. A whole new set of H.R. managers is needed due to their bad reputation of employee trust. – less

Walk throughout the plant in the different machine areas making sure the plant was operating under strict EPA regulations along with OSHA regulations. I learned from the management that you work as a team with other employees to make sure everything is done accurately and efficiently. The hardest part of my day was to check the hundreds of locations – more... where hazardous waste could be leaking. The most enjoyable part of my day was working with such a great group of people. – less

Having only some knowledge of HTML and the web-designing. I was able to learn so much from this internship. From using a layout to make webpages and editing and publishing the final product is a very great experience!

Most people are nice,but working Every day gets old and makes you grumpy. Took all Bonus and Incentive pay away and lowered starting pay by over 3 dollars an hour. Great place to Stay Away from especialy if you have a family becouse your treated like a number and work all the time. School play or ball game,tough,you are not going. When people talk about – more... having to work there it is a last resort. Used to be the best Factory work in town but lost it's luster,mostly due to an unsuportive H.R. Dept.
Rotating shifts every week or two at most. Sleep pattern changes and makes you old quick,but it keeps you like a drone. – less

Assist senior scientists with building prototypes. I learned how products are developed and the process they go through to be put into production. Everyone is very friendly and helpful. Relaxing, yet competitive atmosphere.

3M has a fast-paced working environment with many opportunities to learn new processes. Co-workers were friendly, helpful, and appreciative.

I worked the night shift. I started at 11 p.m. and worked until 7 a.m. I learned how to be precise in doing my job. There are standards that the product have to meet. I got along great with our management there. There are quite a few co-workers that are my lifelong friends. I miss them and we still meet and go out for supper. The hardest part of my – more... job was not feeling appreciated for the job we did. The thing I enjoyed most was the routine work. I knew when I went in to work what was expected of me. I knew how to run the machine well and meet our quota. – less

I worked for 3m HIS for 10 months. It was a horrible experience. My manager was way too over worked and never available to me for help. I recieved no training and I was way to over worked. I felt like a work mule. They expected me to handle the work of 5 people and still provide perfect products. At one time I had 12 projects at the same time with very – more... specific and different requirements and deadlines for each. I tried going to my manager for help, but she just shrugged her shoulders and told me to carry on. Then when I had that many projects at a time, and didn't have time to perfect my deliverables, I was reprimanded for less than perfect work by leadership. Everyone in my department was way over worked and stressed too. Leadership had downsized employment, with a small amount of workers to do the work of several people. Do not work for this company, you will be disapointed like I was. – less

a typical day at work would be testing water filters in water, molding parts together, inspecting parts, packaging and labeling water filters to be shipped. co workers were somewhat helpful. I did not like there management they had other workers train me and they didn't know what they were doing so it made me look bad.

While working with volt at 3m, everyone was always willing to help everyone out no matter what the job was. The day would start off with a meeting stretch and flex and start picking or depending on what part of the warehouse you were working on. This job was out of the norm for me i always worked with kids or clerical, although this was probably one – more... that i enjoyed the most. Always kept me on my feet and it never got old! The hardest part of the job would be when i would have to pick something that was over 100 lbs, it would be to try and catch someone to help me lift the product. Enjoyable part of the job i would have to say would be my quota i would give myself. I would always try to do more then what i did the day before!!!! – less

this is a proram i learned to use in the medical field. it helps with managing billing.

A typical day at work would start with teaching of healthcare workers in hospitals about infection prevention.
What I learned was that education is needed to improve healthcare practices.
My management was very supportive and innovative.
My co-workers where very professional and fun to work with.
The hardest part of the job was to educate and see that – more... the hospitals didn't have the necessary supplies to improve healthcare.
The most enjoyable part of the job was to see changes in their practices. – less

Duties include web handling, extrusion set-ups, packing of film, Fork truck driving. Assist engineers with product development and manufacturing by performing routine experiments, quality testing, operating various equipment, and locating defects during the production process. Document and maintain records. Duties and responsibilities percentages of – more... the time spent are estimates, and vary for individual positions. – less

came in the morning waited for rolls to come off machines on a line. brought them down and packed them into boxes. Management stayed in the office all day and were not bad people. Hardest part of the day was cutting cores, very boring and my measurements were never right. Most enjoyable part oddly was just working fast pace

More products available than one would think. Seasonality with BTS and Holiday are big drivers and allow for learning of every aspect of account managment from item creation through tracking sales.

Molded me into a multifaceted person, with the many tasking given at once and transfers into different departments.