AEGON USA Reviews

Pros

Good opportunities for advancement within the company.

Cons

Top down communication isn't always the best.

Pros

Hard working people & benefits. Many people have worked with this company for a number of years, meaning that they know exaclty what it takes to get the job done. There are wonderful resources at this company. Some people are very well rounded and would do anything to ensure the work is done proplerly.

Cons

Too many re-orgs, company is unstable. In the re-orgs, people get put into management positions they dont deserve and are unqualified to perform. Bonus structures are unfair because people at same levels dont get bonus based on what site they are at. Teams that do the same thing are not under the same manager, doesnt make sense. No one can tell you what to do to get a promotion or something other than a 3% increase. You get rated a "3 satisfactory" no matter what you do and a standard 3% or less salary increase is all youre ever going to get. Many managers dont come to work on a regular basis ~ working from home and sick all the time. Some managers dont follow ethical standards. The recent re-org between ADMS and AFP is a disaster. AFP to ADMS is like a child playing patty cake to a college graduate specializing in work efficiency. Weak and inexperienced management structure made it demotivating.

Advice to Senior Management

Do something about the people who have been put into management positions! So many have no training that the entire management structure is WEAK! Once it is apparent that a manager is ineffective, they should be put in charge of something else. Its so apparent to the worker bees which managers are inefficient, and that brings into question the higher ups decision making ability. All of the people under weak management are looking for the day that something changes and they dont need to answer stupid questions anymore. How can a weak manager provide instuction to his direct reports? He cant!

Pros

Interesting and challenging work, opportunities to learn new things, great colleagues, nice work environment, convenient location. Benefits are nice (some could be more competitive), bonus determination process should be simplified, it's too complicated and geared towards giving everyone a "fair" share, regardless of the level of effort that was put it.

Cons

As in any big company, lots of office politics and power wrangling, especially in the higher echelons. The recent and less recent downsizings have left many employees rattled and disinclined to trust new announcements from AEGON's leadership.

Advice to Senior Management

Be honest. Mean what you say and do it. Don't play games with your employees, communicate the bad news earlier rather than later.

Pros

Commitment to lifestyle is clear, as people are allowed to come and go as long as they get the job done. A professional setting, and wonderful park-like campus with onsite gyms, tennis courts, daycare and ponds. Pay is adequate to live a solid upper middle-class existence in Iowa. A very middle-America culture, which most experience positively.

Cons

Senior executives are geographically focused, and global initiatives break down quickly. Turf wars are common, and survival requires getting into the right group, under the appropriately powerful senior manager. Uncommon to move from business unit to business unit, pay increases are meager, but turnover is low as there are few places else to work in Iowa. Advancement is slow and professional growth stagnates after a few years.

Advice to Senior Management

Management does a wonderful job creating a culture of teamwork. There is little chance to grow, and middle ranks feel that acutely as senior people coast toward retirement. Rotation programs hurt one's career, whether formal or self-guided, despite adding breadth. This leads to stagnant, but stable, departments.

Pros

Great company culture. Very relaxed environment.

Cons

Difficult advancement and limited career opportunities in Cedar Rapids.

Advice to Senior Management

Great management.

Pros

there are a lot of opportunities to move within the company.

Cons

My manager was not onsite

Pros

Flexible work schedule and great sense of family made Irgun to work at Aegon. I loved the management and the line of business in general.

Cons

Aegon was notorious for the horrible downtown traffic. It was horrible. Then, there was the convention center that was a complete joke. Too much traffic.

Advice to Senior Management

I would think twice the next time I would be hauling an entire operation to Iowa...of all places. I wishe they could have stayed local.

Pros

nice,warm people , culture is very nice.

Cons

things moves very slowly here ..people are late back .

Pros

It's a big company, there are chances to move up the chain if you know the right people, salary is not fantastic but not horrible either, clean and safe environment, opportunity to learn the insurance industry from an operations perspecitive

Cons

In the department that I worked the manager didn't truly understand the day-to-day processes and therefore made poor decisions on a regular basis, the individual goals were sky-high and there was constant pressure to get to 'at meets' on the score card, very numbers driven, lot's of backstabbing going on due to the unnecessary pressure and poor leadership

Advice to Senior Management

Put pressure on front-line management to truly understand the positions that they manage, keep goals and metrics reasonable and attainable, if a team has a lot of turn-over look deep to see if it's a management problem

Pros

Lived our motto: respect people, make money, have fun. Everyone was helpful to one another. Management doors were typically open.

Cons

Short-sighted Dutch executives more concerned about being a Dutch company than being a successful, global company, and once AEGON USA CEO Pat Baird retired, they walked all over AEGON USA management. Cut more profitable, higher ROI U.S. operations to send capital back to the weaker performing Dutch operations. That, ultimately, made the downside of working for AEGON USA the fact that so many of its jobs disappeared.

Advice to Senior Management

You had your chance to sack up to your Dutch overlords, and you curled up in the fetal position. Several of you cut your teeth in a certain, highly profitable Louisville operation, and you were nowhere to be found when it came to presenting a case for it during the credit crisis.