Aetna Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Aetna full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Overall I enjoyed my time working at Aetna out of the Blue Bell office. The AIS (IT) department was a good place to work.

Cons – I experienced working in an area based outside of CT and PA. This entire area was one big clique that favored and looked out for each other.
The opportunities for career advancement are poor especially if you're not based in CT.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Aetna full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – The company encourages furthering your education and cross-training in other job titles. A lifestyle of healthy habits gives opportunities to be compensated and lower health insurance premiums.

Cons – I don't like the companies political views in my face. I'd received company emails encouraging employees to join their group for political current events & interest. I guess that would be okay if I agreed with their political views.

Advice to Senior Management – I would prefer politics kept out of the work place.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Aetna full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Flexible work arrangements (including hours as well as the ability for many of the job functions to be able to work from home; job advancement, & competitive salaries

Cons – Healthcare benefits are on the low end of the insurance market for it's employees, job security is a thing of the past (several rounds of job eliminations the past couple of years); certain job functions are understaffed so employees are getting burned out

Advice to Senior Management – Need to go back to the basics for employees; there have been so many things taken away including positive reinforcement, frontline staff is being overworked so morale is at a long term low. If things continue at this pace, there will be mass exits as markets pick up in certain areas of the country where the market is more competitive.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Aetna full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – I worked as a service consultant which was great but the pay wasn't enough. Flexible hours, bonuses, and manageable workload.

Cons – As a service consultant and as a customer service supervisor, the environment is much like junior high and high school. There is a lot of gossiping, disrespect, and poor work ethic. Unfortunately it is nearly impossible for someone to be fired for inappropriate behavior so everyone else has to suffer. Also in the Medicare division, information is constantly changing in an environment where it seems it should not be that way.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Aetna full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Technology, people, work atmosphere, standards

Cons – too much outsourcing leaving Americans without jobs

Advice to Senior Management – Listen

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Aetna full-time for more than a year

Pros – Terrific, long-standing company with innovative edge. Trying hard to change culture and be a leader in the new healthcare environment. Extremely smart people work here. Nice people too.

Cons – Big, complex company. Can be difficult for new people to see how to connect in and make a difference. Can feel bureaucratic.

Advice to Senior Management – Decide clear priorities and how to handle areas that are not priorities.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Aetna full-time for more than 10 years

Pros – Great people to work with; company takes employee survey results seriously.

Cons – When it's time for layoffs, the quality of your work and your metrics results don't matter. I was there 15 years, with results that exceeded anything that was asked of me. There is still a lot of dead weight that gets to keep their jobs.

Advice to Senior Management – My former team is now on overtime getting the work done. We had not had approved OT in YEARS, but now that I am gone it is mandatory. That tells me that my elimination was not well thought out. If you're going to impact my life in this way so greatly, in this economy, could you at least give it some forethought?

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Aetna full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – There are many different employment opportunities available. Work at home options are great. Great 401k match. Casual environment. The CEO implements an open-minded attitude. Workers are friendly, and teams tend to have a family-like feel to them.

Cons – The salaries at Aetna tend to be low, unless you are in management. Their business strategy seems to have been to offer early retirement to the experienced workers, and snag those struggling in the tough economy at a low salary. The low salaries cause a poor turnover rate, and this hurts teams that have jobs with steep learning curves. Communication between teams is poor. There are many occurrences of inefficiencies that cause resources to be poorly managed.

Advice to Senior Management – Be less stingy with employees that bring great value to you.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Aetna

Pros – typical big company with a lot of people............

Cons – typical big company with a lot of people

Current Employee – been working at Aetna full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Base compensation competitive, but they are not clear on communicating targets to achieve bonus. Even when the bonus payouts are calculated, it's a secretive process with much fluctuation. Directors or managers are rushed to put in dollar amounts, but these ultimately get adjusted by the most senior leadership. For 2012 bonuses, employees were told that the decreased bonus distribution (ranged from 25% to 50% of what we were to get) was tied to Aetna stock price. Then when Aetna achieved the market stock price, employees were told that there was an "internal" number/goal and we "fell short of that." This logic not was communicated when we set individual or team targets at the beginning of the year. So, even now at the end of the first quarter employees are not clear on what it will take to earn a bonus in 2013. However, it's very clear the company found 5 billion dollars to acquire another company and the CEO and his top tier received full bonuses. This has deeply impacted morale at the company.

Cons – lack of consistency across product lines. Riding on the coat tails and eputation built on commercial business, and trying to carry that momentum to government sector. There is not strong leadership over government programs, and the company allowed lower level leaders construct RFP's and contracts that are going to be costly. It seems the company will do anything to expand it's government sector, but at great cost to quality. The training is nearly all virtual, and the IT support for the software, especially for clinical segment, is weak. The vision you get of Aetna for commercial products is the not the vision you see for Medicare and Medicaid product lines. Aetna seems to be trying to acquire that, but the company they have acquired (Coventry) is not that strong itself.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't play games with employee salaries and bonuses. Be clear about how bonuses will be calculated, and let the employees hear how their bonus are calculated and by who. Step back and look at all the companies you have purchased and figure out how they are going to work together. Figure out your IT issues, and invest on getting systems and system support--including training--up to par.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend