Symetra Reviews

I have been working at Symetra full-time

Pros – absolutely no pros to this company

Cons – i hated everything, except the sick leave

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Symetra full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Many of the company's "doers" care genuinely about the products/services they provide, and the company's customers. The benefits are good for the company's size. The flexibility to work from home or shift hours is nice, and shows focus on work-life balance.

Cons – The company's culture seems to be shifting to one that cares less about what the company is meant to provide, has less accountability, and makes employees afraid to speak up.

Advice to Senior Management – Don't forget how important collaboration across levels is. Be careful not to alienate our dedicated and knowledgeable workforce. Improvement requires change, but being open & collaborative with employees is more likely to keep them on board with changes than keeping them in the dark is.

Come to the floors where the doers do, and maybe get your hands dirty with us occasionally. It's hard to stand behind a management team you never see, that works on a floor much nicer than any of the rest of us do, and that we hear from mostly when being blindsided by changes. The best managers ask, listen, and offer perspective.

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

I worked at Symetra full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Most non-management people are great and hard-working
Great location
Good benefits
401K

Cons – Lack of clear vision
Entering a very mature market at high costs. (Everyone is asking why are we doing that at all?)
Constantly shifting priorities
Executive Management cares more about their job security and perks than anything else
Politics are horrible, people being reprimanded if they voice their concerns openly
Interdepartmental conflicts and competition
Favoritism
Miniscule pay increase for worker bees, expenses and budgets being cut, while executive comp is growing by 30-40% per year (check out financial and executive comp info from public sources)
Many good, talented people left, some were let go. Waves of new out-of-town senior management people come and bring their own people with them, who are yet to prove themselves
Lack of managerial courage and responsibility - lots of finger pointing.

Advice to Senior Management – Instead of talking about willingness to make positive changes DO IT! I know management conducted polls and were "shocked" to learn how unhappy people were. Either there is a huge disconnect or you know the problem and don't want to admit it.
If you really want turn this around start actually doing what employees suggest, not what Divisional SVP thinks.
Also, minimize the gap in treatment and comp between senior/executive management and workers who actually make this company great.
Don't be afraid to reward and appreciate talented people. And stick to your promises.

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

I worked at Symetra

Pros – Benefits - 401K
ESPP (Employee Stock Purchase Program)
Subsidized transportation
Vacation
Location
People

Cons – Communication is poor
Morale is very low
No confidence in most leaders
Turnover rate is extremely high for a company of this size
Flexible/remote work schedules are being eliminated

Advice to Senior Management – The leadership at Symetra needs to stand back and take a close look at all the changes being made and how they will affect the future of the company. While most changes are a breath of fresh air, there seems to be the need to change just to change OR that the leadership isn't sure what to do so they feel the need to change things. There is also a very unhealthy competition between Sr. Leadership and it is starting to affect the employees. No one at the company feels that they can focus on their jobs. Every day employees wonder what changes are coming today and who will lose their job or leave. Very unsettling and creates a work environment of fear. I know some will disagree with this statement but a lot of talent has been let go or left over the past 8 months. they are struggling to find appropriate talent to replace those that have left and found it necessary to set up an east coast office to employee the same level of talent that is missing. What was once a great company to work for is now a company trying to find itself. Have seen comments that it is a 'Company on the move' but I wonder if leadership really knows where the movement is taking them?

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Symetra

Pros – * Great coworkers
* Casual dress code for IT
* Close to the Bellevue transit center
* CEO seems to be genuine

Cons – * From an IT perspective the CIO has surrounded himself with 'yes' people. Any suggestions for change/improvements directed at said 'yes' people are ignored and not filtered up.
* Recent organization changes have caused more VP's and managers, which now feel the need to micromanage IT employees at the front line.
* Flexible work schedules are going, going, gone
* They tout work/life balance, but expect you to be available to stay late/work weekends regularly.
* Women in upper management positions are few and far between (if they are in upper management, they most likely have been there since the Safeco days)
* Longevity is looked at as a bad thing. It is very thinly disguised they are looking for younger workers (the 20 something crowd) to fill the open positions to bring in fresh thinking. Total disregard for employees who have grown with the company; you have become irrelevant and outdated.

Advice to Senior Management – The goal for leadership this year is to make Symetra the place to be. While the gesture is great, the actions you are taking are not driving you toward that goal. Candid and frank discussion given to your VPs regarding why job moral is low (in IT at least) are falling on deaf ears, and in a few instances have been met with hostility. Also am alarmed at the lack of hiring females into upper management positions. You are turning into an East Coast good ol' boys club.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Symetra

Pros – nice coworkers, ok benefits and nice location

Cons – stressful workloads
poor communication from leaders
little reward to deserving employees
rising parking costs
very little money spent on training
executive top heavy
change in culture is not positive
good employees are leaving
need more competitive products
Taking away free benefits to employees such as flexible work schedules
jeans only 1X per week
Forced ratings

Advice to Senior Management – come off the 14th floor and get to know your employees. Speak to them, listen, learn...encourage training and free benefits such as jeans and flex schedules. Show appreciation and reward great performers. Stop forcing a rating system which doesnt reward performers as they deserve

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Symetra

Pros – Benefits are consistent with other companies of Symetra's size.
Company location is an advantage; with transportation, exercise, eating places and shopping close by.
The lobby area is a great place to get away and just walk around or sit in a nice cozy bench by the fire pit.
The culture is generally welcoming at first look.

Cons – The product lines are each a culture unto themselves. Each product line operates completely differently and separately from each other. Deep divisions between the groups exist. Middle managers do not entertain ideas from their staff. Training is lacking and this is difficult for new employees. New employees must learn where they fit in the pecking order within their group. Employees with seniority are concerned with protecting the territory they've built over the years. The grapevine network is very powerful.

Advice to Senior Management – My first words of advice would be to stop rotating middle level managers. This practice allows management to evade real accountability and it prevents them from providing their staff with consistent and reasonable expectations. It also negatively impacts job performance. Employee morale is very low, people are afraid to question or speak out of turn. Pilot having executive managers show up at team staff meetings and have a real exchange of ideas with staff.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Symetra

Pros – 401k matching 6%
Insurance option are good
Discounts on commuting - vanpool with bus pass unlimited use 12.00 per month
Other commuting discounts ride share

Cons – Salary - it is forbiddent to tell anyone what your salary is. This is a disadvantage to existing employees who may have been with company for years and a new unexperience person comes in at same or higher salary. This also applies to new hires who may come in at a very low salary compared to others hired at same time with same skills.
Management is overworked and is judged on numbers not quality, which is a change from older models. Exising employees are at a disadvantage with this numbers driven model. Quality used to come first but with new CEO this is has changed. Newbies should do well.
Employee well being is not a priority. Any work life balance steps initated in the last few years have been dialed back with new CEO. They want butts in seats even if they are not as productive. Most work from home, job sharing or flex schedules have been revoked. This creates challenges for all employees, we all need to be able to take care of personal business including sick children, illness (don't want to spreed a cold) without using all of your sick days when you could work from home or work the missing hours from home or make up time at work. Used to love working under former CEO vision where employee were a priority.
Any complaints to HR are frowned upon. Management is favored in these compaints and the employee should watch out it goes in your file and you are marked as a trouble maker. HR should represent both the employee and management.

Advice to Senior Management – Employees that are treated well will perform better. The old model had a focus on employee's including subsiding costs related to work, free parking (currently about 80 per pay check!!), bonuses for successfully completed projects or assignments. Favoritism is a problem, even though the managers say they do not have favorites they do and who ever they are get away with murder. Micro management by many of the managers is sufficating, stessful and a hinder to the overall employee experience and performance.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I have been working at Symetra

Pros – Good pay and benefits
Opportunity to advance
Enjoy coworker camaraderie
Challenging and interesting
Never a boring day
Great place to learn new skills

Cons – Poor communication between departments.
Many employees have been there for a long time and are not proactive and have trouble thinking outside the box.
New management is very aggressive, but need to build out infrastructure more to accomplish goals.

Advice to Senior Management – Build the infrastructure of the company more. You can't accomplish big things if all you have are chiefs and a few worker bees.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

I worked at Symetra

Pros – Nice offices- good location downtown Bellevue with good restaurants and shopping. Across the street from Bellevue's transit center. semi flexible work schedules

Cons – Very old fashioned company. Technology is about 20 years behind. Hard to get involved and make a difference. Promotions are unfair if not impossible

Advice to Senior Management – Rotate people around- especially the ones who have been in the same position for 20 years (95% of the company!!!)

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend