order picker

pricing analyst

packer

machine operator

shift leader

Sauder Woodworking Co.

When it comes to factory work,  Sauders is one of the cleanest and a good and successful competitor in the field of furniture. However this is largely due to IKEA saving them from bankruptcy 10 years ago. Since then, many changes were made to satisfy IKEA. Sauders is never afraid to test ideas for improvement even if it involves getting a design team and engineers to fabricate them. However from a worker's standpoint, it takes a VERY long time to move up. If you want a good position on first shift, you have to wait for someone to die or retire. For a young or healthy person, the "Benefits"  are a joke. With insurance rates that cost 10-15% of your income depending on whether or not you smoke and a deductible of $4,000 that you have to reach out of pocket before the insurance pays for anything, it's worthless for healthy, young,  single people. They are growing very conscious of times and aren't discriminatory towards LGBTQ community which is very surprising as a company with heavy Amish influences. They offer Tuition reimbursement for qualifying degrees/certificates at nearby colleges. But they are in the middle of nowhere and the housing market is tough, apartments are sparse and expensive. I don't recommend moving to the area to work here. It's great for a first job but if you're looking for a career, look elsewhere, there are better opportunities than Sauder.

When I first came to Sauder the idea of making training videos was just an idea. The first day they asked what equipment I needed, and as time moved forward, they asked about what gear would be more useful. I have not got them almost all the items they could need for most situations that arise here.Management brings me to the meetings when videos for training are brought up. They listen to what I have to say and respect my opinions on the issue. The culture varies all over Sauder due to how each area is run differently in a way to another however they all have an overlap which is where I was able to interact comfortably with all the workers.

I would say the hardest part of the job is due to my status as an intern they did not let me do the voice overs in the videos which mean I was waiting for the person I worked with to have time to do the voice over. This was also an issue when it comes to filming some parts due to me not having locks so I had points that I could not cross to get the best shot possible.

The most enjoyable part of this job was the fact that it was a fantastic area to grow as a videographer and an editor. The only limit I had on how I edited the videos was that it had to stay at the high quality that we set forth to achieve. If the job was offered to me, I would stay at Sauder. This internship did teach me that I like making videos and I enjoy education. I would work in a place that mixes the two again.

I was on third shift so my typical night at work consisted of setting drill bits, loading boards into boxes or onto machines to be drilled, entering in bad boards, switching work stations, and listening to my seniors on the job. I learned how to calibrate boards and set drill bits. Management, I was not really impressed with them because, it seemed like they did not really care about their workers and when they did care it was because one of the seniors had problems with newer help, and did not give the newer help much of a say in certain matters. This to me seemed a little too biased for comfort. My co-workers were pretty decent though some tended to be overly dramatic. The hardest part of the job was dealing with the overly dramatic people who started fights and I often found myself being a peacemaker or helping to divert their anger away from their target. The most enjoyable part was the physical labor. I like lifting heavy objects because it challenged me to do my best on my own.

If you like to play on your phone and not work at all this is the place for you! They tell you, you get profit sharing, you don’t, we use to have a perfect attendance policy where you get 1% bonus they took that away. They took our 401k match away…. They take away more then what they give. Long term employees are better off quiting and starting over… if you do a good job they take advantage of you and if you mess up they hold it against you till the day you quit. They have more managers then workers, and even with ALL the management they are still blind to see why this company is loosing people. Insurance is terrible. I would say the positive is they only require you to work 40 hours a week. If you want to work saturdays or help out in other areas your manager gets angry, and acts like it’s going to cost the company millions. Which is also another the company will do is tell you they lost so much money this year but it will be okay which is why we don’t get profit sharing. The lies keep piling up for this company and the employees know it. New empoyees now start with 3 weeks vacation, and senior employees get nothing new.  You will have to be there a total of 10 years to get your 4th week. So people that already been there and out there time in get nothing. Stay away from this place at all cost!  

I had very high hopes when I started with Sauder.  I worked very hard to move forward, volunteering for many different duties. I became a production tech on second shift, and really enjoyed my job. I recently had my position stripped away after the company decided to restructure and make 2nd shift a 10 hour shift from 6:30p-4:30a. Basically 3rd shift hours. All second shift workers were forced to work those hours or transfer to 1st and lose our shift differential. It's a very unstable time at Sauder, as with many manufacturers, so expect to move around wherever they would like you to go.  Our group leaders and shift leaders are basically "Voluntold" where to go.  Some love the challenge of moving around, but if that's not for you, this isn't your place.  The culture is not the best.   I've never sensed any pride even in people that have been there 20+ years.  As I stated at the start of this review, I really had high hopes for this job.  I really tried to make an impact and difference.  Here I am on Indeed looking at jobs just like you..

i was working on a line that pressed and bored different parts for the furniture that we produced at Sauder Woodworking.  I learned a lot about the machines and stuff, even helped a litttle bit with setting them up even though I wasn't really supposed to do too much given that I did not receive any benefits at my temporary "college help" position.  The managers were laid back, mostly just made sure that the lines kept busy and were all running when supposed to.  Occasionally during set up, they would come to see why it was taking so long to get the machine ready for the next board or part.  My typical job was physically demanding as I had to keep feeding hundreds of various sized boards onto the belt that drilled holes and sized the boards.  But it was enjoyable because you could talk with coworkers and at times, we even played games like tictac toe on the saw dust that formed with all of the drilling and sawing going on constantly within the factory.  Different boards ran through the machine at different speeds.

The insurance provided at Sauder is awful. People have been asking for better insurance, but the higher ups just do not care. If the insurance was better it’d be worth staying long term, but it just seems like a dead end job. Not a whole lot of opportunities to climb your way up, but there are some. 
Most people seem to be friendly and this makes the environment tolerable. 

the company could listen to its employees a little more. Can’t get people to stay, it would help!

Sauder Woodworking is a great company where benefits are offered. In my employment at Sauder Woodworking a learned quite a bit. I was trained and excelled in Core Level Boring Training. As well as being a boring machine operator I was also a Koch saw operator. I was taught the basic skills and had to develop the rest of my knowledge through observations. My co-workers were a fun, hardworking, positive bunch. We worked very well as a team and excelled together. The hardest part of my job as a machine operator was having to learn and experiment on machines I wasn't properly trained on. The most enjoyable part of the job was learning new machines and learning new skills and knowledge.

Some individuals will tell you that Sauder Woodworking is not a great place to work, and I will truthfully say the only reason why they feel that way is because they are not taking opportunities within the company.
I have personally had the privilege to explore the entire company from very beginning processes (Product design), all the way to the very end processes (warehouse/distribution). And to put it plainly, there is something for everyone at Sauder Woodworking. Only reason I left the company is because I moved to a different state

The hours are great, Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5:30 pm. Great benefits. The management is great: supportive, approachable, easy to work with and for. The department as a whole it great. The hiring process is grueling for this reason. Everyone truly gets along and the work atmosphere is surprisingly enjoyable. The only caveat? It's a call center and all that implies. High volume contact (call, email and chat) with unhappy, sometime irrational, customers. The focus is on quality of contact, but even more on efficiency. The "burn out" is real. There is a reason the pay is as good as it is. All in all a great job, but I won't be able to do it long term like I'd hoped.

Top Job Titles	Average Salary
Order picker 10 salaries reported	$30.00 per hour
Pricing analyst 52 salaries reported	$66,500 per year
Packer 6 salaries reported	$18.75 per hour
Machine operator 2 salaries reported	$16.50 per hour
Shift leader 1 salary reported	$114,000 per year

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