Vantaggi
If you are a capable employee willing to invest in yourself, they do notice and reward personal growth. I started as an intern in "concrete land" (production) and moved up to "carpet land" (office) after college. I worked there for over a decade and was consistently promoted. Once you are employed at Samtec the job security is pretty strong. They offer furloughs and voluntary sabbaticals versus lay offs. When lay offs are necessary, they do offer severance packages.
Svantaggi
Some [long-time] employees are content with doing just enough to get by. Because of the past compensation practices, it seemed to lower overall morale because why work hard when the company will let you get by with slacking? Many of the measurements of employee value were subjective.