Astoundingly poor at demonstrating belief in its staff - Professional Canon Employee Review

Anyone thinking of working for Canon UK should expect to put their career on hold. Only those who fit the Canon mould are allowed to progress. Specifically, this means individuals who never challenge company thinking, never think outside the box and are willing to give up increasing amounts of their free time to overcome deficiencies in the centralised systems and structures that are ALWAYS unfit for purpose. And at Canon you don’t complain; you just maintain. The HR department is totally useless and sits behind a wall of opaque bureaucracy. Both internal and external recruitment processes are unbelievably slow and inefficient. Hiring new staff is painful and a smooth transfer of knowledge from departing staff hardly ever happens. New recruits are often forced to learn the job from process notes as the previous employee has long gone. This leads to a gradual erosion of knowledge within the company and a downward spiral of overall morale. The result of all of this is a company that has become inflexible and backwards-looking. The people at the top are clones of each other- lacking any kind of dynamic creativity. The company is utterly stymied under inefficient processes. It is no surprise that Canon has recently been forced to downsize and sell its Head Office. Most companies would take this opportunity to review and improve its processes; Canon has instead chosen to simply outsource them abroad. I seriously suspect that any positive reviews about Canon must come from its management or the minority of compliant clones who’s efforts have been rewarded. Both are blinkered to the wasted opportunities from Canon’s failure to harness a diversity of talents. Canon may claim to invest heavily in staff development but the reality is that very few people get to realise their potential. Most people leave in a cloud of disgust. You have been warned.