What it does: Manufactures household and consumer goods products.
Mission: “We are committed to getting better every day in everything we do, as individuals and as teams.”
Size and presence: 33.380 employees.
Best known for: Colgate toothpaste.
The good bits: Well establish safety protocols. Inclusive culture. Room for advancement.
The not-so-good bits: Long working hours at some point.
Colgate-Palmolive's story started with an English immigrant, William Colgate, who opened a starch, soap, and candle business in 1806. He named the company William Colgate & Company. The headquarter was located in New York City and is still in the same city as of recent development. Colgate sold its first aromatic toothpaste in 1873, Colgate toothpaste was packed in jars at that time before the company started to sell it in collapsible tubs in 1896. The next product Colgate introduced to the market was a perfumed soap and perfume/essence.
In 1928, Colgate merged with Palmolive-Peet. The latter was once two separate companies, The Palmolive Company and Peet Brothers, both of which are soap producers. Before the merger, Colgate established its first international subsidiary in Canada, then started to operate in Europe, Asia, Latin America, and Africa. Shortly after the merger, Colgate-Palmolive was listed on the New York Stock Exchange in 1930.
The company then expands its business by developing and producing other household products such as fabric conditioners, dishwashing liquid, hair care products, pet products, and many more.
Some current and former employees stated that Colgate-Palmolive has a very inclusive culture and it has a good safe environment. Many claimed to have a good time working at the company, as it is a place with diversity and co-workers are easy to get along with. The managers are also relatively supportive of their employees’ growth. However, since the company is manufacturing many products, the working hour will be long eventually at some point for some departments.
Colgate-Palmolive accommodates the hiring process through its website. The company urged students and graduates to apply online. The process will be done in a common step which consists of screening, an interview with the hiring manager, and a team interview with another stakeholder within the company. The applicant is expected to answer questions during the interview with the STAR method. Other than applying online, students may find the opportunity to work with Colgate-Palmolive through campus recruiting. The hiring process will take two weeks to a month on average.
The company divides career paths into 12 categories and student and graduate can find the best role that fit their expertise. Some considerable departments that may interest you are; analytics, customer service, and logistics, finance, human resource, information technology, legal, quality, research and development, sales & marketing, supply chain & manufacturing, and student opportunity.
Student opportunity is dedicated to students and recent graduates who wish to contribute to Colgate-Palmolive’s workforce in its various department, from marketing to logistics and sales. In the program, you will gain experience and a lot of invaluable knowledge of how Colgate-Palmolive conducts its business.
The salary for a paid internship at Colgate-Palmolive is approximately reaching up $4.000 monthly and higher. While salaries for full-time and permanent workers are starting from $50.000 annually and higher. A research scientist receives $109.000, a technical associate receives $70.000, a customer development receives $74.000, a business process analyst receives $82.000, a human resource associate receives a salary base of $61.000, a maintenance technician receives $52.000, a data engineer receives $103.000, a project engineer receives $94.000, and a full stack developer will receive $93.000 annually.
Colgate-Palmolive partnered with NGOs, parents, teachers, dental professionals, and health professionals to provide oral health education, free dental screenings, and treatment referrals for underserved communities through its program Bright Futures initiative. The program has been going on since 1991 and it’s already touched more than a billion children in over 80 countries, and 2 billion children in the U.S.
The company also provided $300 million to support shelter animals through its other program, Hill’s Food, Shelter & Love. With this program, Colgate-Palmolive had helped 12 million pets find new homes and they targeted to reach 15 million pets by 2025.
In December 2018 the media reported that the company received six complaints from The Advertising Standard Authority for its misleading advertisement which promised the public instant repair of teeth. The complaints resulted in the banning of the said advertisement and it was the ninth banned Colgate-Palmolive ad in the last seven years, with five of them being dental product advertisements. However, Colgate-Palmolive claimed that clinical studies showed that the product repaired microscopic gaps in tooth enamel, while the ASA countered that that was not the same as repairing a tooth. Moreover, Colgate claimed that its product could repair teeth in instant.