Milwaukee Tool recently shared an interesting bit of news, that they are included in Glassdoor’s 2021 rankings of the BEST Places to Work.
Among other things, Glassdoor is a place where past and present employees can anonymously rate and review the different companies they work for.
Advertisement
In this year’s rankings, Milwaukee Tool moved up 16 spots over last year’s nomination, and is ranked 44th out of 100 companies included in the list.
Milwaukee Tool’s rating is 4.3 out of 5, and the top-ranked company is rated 4.6 out of 5. The rankings are based on U.S. employee feedback from 10/22/19 – 10/19/20.
Quoting the email I received:
Throughout the last decade, Milwaukee Tool has experienced incredible growth. In the last year alone, the company has invested more than $135 million in domestic expansion projects and now employs 4,500 people nationwide.
For job seekers, Milwaukee Tool’s recognition in “2021 Best Places to Work” is exciting news. We are looking to fill many positions right now – especially in Engineering and IT! Applicants are encouraged to visit www.milwaukeetool.jobs, select their location and apply for open positions.
I’ve posted about Milwaukee’s USA expansion efforts before:
Advertisement
Milwaukee Pledges USA Jobs and Cordless Tool Manufacturing with New Expansion Plan
Coming Soon: Milwaukee Made-in-USA Hand Tools Planned for 2021
I have also had the pleasure of visiting Milwaukee Tool’s headquarters over the years, and have witnessed snapshots of their gradual expansion. Milwaukee has also acquired several USA-based tool brands, namely Empire Level (2014) and Imperial Tool (2018), and they also acquired Stiletto a few years earlier (2007).
I’m not surprised by the high Glassdoor ratings, as Milwaukee Tool does look to be a great place to work. I would also expect it to be a challenging workplace, but every Milwaukee Tool associate I have ever met and talked to was prideful about their products and the brand themselves.
The information sent to me about the Glassdoor ratings wasn’t a press release, it was a personal email with the subject line “AWWW YEA!” (Sorry, I don’t mean to put anyone on the spot!)
Sure, they probably shared the news with me because they thought (correctly) that I’d find it interesting and post-worthy, but an “AWWW YEA!” subject line conveys a genuine sense of pride, excitement, and enthusiasm for the brand.
I’ve been writing about tools and the tool industry for 12 years now, and I like to think that I can tell when someone cares about the tools they talk to me about, and also the brand they work for.
While my exposure to Milwaukee Tool associates is limited, their pride and passion for the brand is usually quite obvious. Reading through some of the recent Glassdoor reviews has only reinforced my impression that Milwaukee Tool must be a great place to work.
See Also: Milwaukee Job Board
See Also: Glassdoor Company Rankings
What’s also interesting, aside from the Glassdoor reviews and ratings, is Milwaukee’s job board. I browse the listings on occasion, to see the types of positions they’re looking to fill, and where they’re hiring. Milwaukee Tool’s USA footprint is fairly substantial, and it’s only getting bigger.
fred
Good for them – especially that they seem to have employees that like to work for them and are willing to provide feedback to Glassdoor in the affirmative.
Pardon my bit of healthy skepticism, however, in that I try to take all online ratings with a grain of salt. I realize that many job seekers look at Glassdoor as a reliable source of input about a prospective employer. And positive ratings are a source of encouragement. But I view them as providing anecdotal information from a small sampling of employees who choose to provide Glassdoor with their input. Like tool reviews on Amazon – a Glassdoor rating would be more informative if you were able to put them into context and know something about the statistical significance of the sampling and if any gaming might have preceded changes.
Not that the companies that I had an interest in were of a size that would rise to the level of a Glassdoor-type analysis – but I always viewed the measure of whether we were a good place to work by the long-term retention of our employees. I liked to think that the fact that we had a very low turnover rate and that many employees chose to work for us for most of their working lives as an indication that we might be doing something right.
Tom D
I have heard rumors of stories about gaming Glassdoor – though it seems pointless in the long run and I’m not sure it would be beneficial for Milwaukee to even bother.
One thing I look for beyond turnover is generations/relatives working there (you might suffer through a crappy job but you’re unlikely to recommend your kid follow in your footsteps).
fred
That’s a good point about multi-generational employees. We had a few. But some (most) were only children of employees working for us when they were going to college. The sobering fact was that we had many more employee parents who were carpenters, masons, plumbers etc. who were rightly proud of their children becoming doctors and lawyers. I say sobering – because I perceive that college and even advanced degrees seem to have taken precedence in the USA as the route to a career path. That has resulted in a shortage of those willing to work with their hands in the building trades. In my neck of the woods it seems that kids want to work on Wall Street, or be computer scientists/technicians/programmers or go into the professions like medicine or law rather than even contemplate being a plumber.
Jim Felt
fred. Good analysis of Glassdoor. We’ve experienced only a few “reviews” mostly middling. Though factually I’ve had colleagues in more then one state that stayed in one case 40+ years and two others nearly 30.
And they’re still friends.
fred
Goop point about multi-generational employment as an indicator of job satisfaction. This is also true about recommendations for employment from those already employed – who are willing to recommend friends and family.
We had mostly sons and daughters of employees who worked for us while they were attending college. We also had many employees who were justly proud of their children becoming lawyers and doctors. The sad reality, however, was that I think many (if not most) of our tradespeople (carpenters, masons, plumbers etc.) wanted their kids to aspire to different careers in professions other than the building trades. I’m not quite sure about the socio-economic reasons for this trend. But despite our employees earning very good livings via the sweat of their brow – being able to support house buying (second homes too), nice cars, boats and college education for their children – that model often did not pass on to the next generation. In my neck of the woods, high-schoolers seem to want careers on Wall Street or in law, medicine, computer science or in most anything else other than the building trades.
Jim Felt
fred. Some of my contractor (as vendors) friends, especially larger ones, have also noted this “trend”.
But fortunately for the trades immigrants now at on average are the most dedicated. At least to me at least on Left Coast it certainly seems that way.
fred
True enough – but in the Union dominated plumbing arena in some of the area that our business serviced – the Union set the bar for Apprenticeship applicants as follows:
Must be at least 18 years of age at time of filing (Proof Required).
Must be a Citizen of the USA or Permanent legal resident of the USA.
Must have a high school diploma with a minimum grade of “C” (70) in Sequential Math 1 and 2 ~ or ~ a State Issued High School Equivalency (GED or TASC) with a minimum Math Score of 550.
The applicant must obtain the application in person (Bring a positive form of Government Issued I.D. such as a Driver’s License). Only 1 application per person.
Must appear for an interview on a scheduled date and also take an aptitude test given by the New York State Department of Labor on a scheduled date.
An application fee must be paid at time of filing.
Applicant must be physically fit, and able to take and pass a drug screening test, at the time of job offer.
A-A-Ron
FWIW, this doesn’t surprise me in the least. Milwaukee’s customer service has a much better reputation than most other brands. This extends even into social media like Facebook, where they’re far more engaging, quick to respond to inquiries, and thorough in their responses (I.E. – not just brushing off questions with canned answers like a certain teal company).
Plain grainy
Many things effect the workplace environment. The financial health of a company is a major factor. Coworkers that are respectful and strive to do a good job. Safety programs in place that are closely monitored for effectiveness. To ensure the workers return unharmed to their family everyday. And are safe from long term exposure hazards. A government that has the knowledge to build an environment that lets companies and workers flourish financially.
Jp
Humans go out of their way to complain. Rarely in a relative sense, do they take the time to praise. I’m not skeptical about these ratings. It’s unlikely that unhappy people are refraining from complaining.
fred
Good observation! If you have a bad experience at a restaurant – you might be inclined to say so on Yelp or Google. But do you write in to say something positive about a good – let alone middle-of-the-road experience?
Dave the tool
Most of the top tool companies and corporations subscribe to the “woke” ideology today and I am grateful I had the ability to work for a couple of them beforehand as it was challenging, educational and many times just fun. Work hard and get rewarded for you efforts. Today not so much. If you don’t fit into the predefined corporate diversity and inclusion ideology, skills and experience mean nothing. Thankfully I left corporate companies almost a decade ago!
Andrew
Dave, maybe you are arguing the pendulum has swung too far, but I believe it is indisputable that it was not (and in many places still isn’t) unusual that someone’s demographics prevented them from receiving promotions or other rewards, regardless of hard work.
blocky
The inclusive social shift just so happens to coincide with corporations becoming more administrative, more bureaucratic, and covering their legal bases in every way imaginable.
Challenge, education, fun, hardwork and reward are all still there to be found. Maybe there is less reward though, because wages haven’t kept pace with the markets, but I’m not gonna blame other working people for that.
Broadly speaking, in the US, we are getting a more diverse skilled workforce all the time. The women, men, and 3rd-gendered people of all backgrounds that I work with are professionals. It’s completely ‘give respect, get respect’.
Dave the tool
I can relate to what your saying about Demographics be that would not include me as I live on the West Coast. I have received numerous awards for customer service, sales and marketing (when I was involved in corporate tool companies as well as other corporate companies) and believe me the BS the “woke” crowd has instilled in corporate America is exactly the same as the mafia and gangs do with neighborhood shakedowns ie “do this and that or we will destroy you!” But now we are getting into another area completely off base of the forum of Toolguyd. I stick with my original comment as I have been there, done that and seen it happen repeatedly with others as well as myself. which is why I left and won’t be coming back. As I mentioned, it was great when I was involved and I worked with some great people and some idiots but saw the writing on the wall and jumped off that train.
Mike
I don’t care if they build in the USA the money still goes back to China stop supporting CHINA