Alliant Energy Reviews

Pros

-Pay for being a customer service rep in Cedar Rapids is better than other places in town
-Co-workers (non-management) are great people

Cons

-Horrific scheduling by a scheduler who doesn't know what he is doing half the time. Nobody likes their schedule changing weekly with one day being 30 minute lunch, next 60 minute lunch, the next you forgot to even schedule...etc
-Management doesn't communicate well to reps, thats when and if you can find them at their desk even, or their usually in one of their hundred meetings to plan more meetings.
-We DON'T need air conditioning in the winter, seriously.
-Management announces change to make rep life easier, drag out implementation of change for at least a year to make it as painful as possible.
-Management announces that a change that can negatively effect a rep's ranking will get a one month announcement before it goes into effect, then try to slide it under the radar and have it be two months retroactive against your stats.
-No growth in the company from a position in customer service. All the job postings are always looking for people with 3-5+ years in a ultra specific field that instantly cuts out any possibility of growth out of the call center.
-No bonuses for 2 years running

Advice to Senior Management

Learn to communicate with your employees better, get a better scheduler than you have, make it better to grow with the company

Pros

Family atmosphere, solid leadership and ability to participate in special projects

Cons

Low pay
Not much ability to move at management level
HR still figuring out their strategic plan

Advice to Senior Management

Keep employees in the loop and don't "sugar-coat"

Pros

Good work environment but nothing special. Pays well. Mature IT environment. Expected to work around 50 hours. Lots of good tech to work with.

Cons

Stagnant at the management and team leader level. At some point everyone gets prompted to senior with nowhere to go.

Advice to Senior Management

Makes some real changes in management. Create some real career paths. Stop laying people off every two years. This makes for a fearful environment.

Pros

The people are, by and large, very good to work with. Management allowed employees enough authority to do their jobs without being a hinderance.

Cons

The benefits are definitely not great. Also, even though it is a public utility it is not immune to the economic down turn, since the closure of the Janesville GM plant and ancillary support companies has had a major negative impact.

Advice to Senior Management

To recruit and retain great employees requires that they stay abreast of job descriptions and salaries. Managers should be able to do the work of their staff if the need arises, not just manage people. Having a manager who does not understand what their staff does and why is not particularly beneficial and can cause road blocks.

Pros

There are numerous opportunities for advancement. Benefits would seem to be hard to beat. I live in rural area and have an opportunity to work in my community. Numerous departments to choose from for opportunities so it never gets dull. Most people in the organization are very good to assist you with questions you might have (and you'll have many if you don't have utility experience).

Cons

expected to be on call 24/7...never an opportunity to "leave your work at work" when you're off. Like many places people who have moved into management positions seem to be the brown-nosers, not necessarily the deserving ones. Don't take that wrong...I'm not one who wants to move into one of these positions...I just want to do my job.

Advice to Senior Management

Lay off the meetings and let us do our jobs

Pros

Professional, conservative culture
Welcome diversity
Lots of learning opportunities

Cons

Too conservative, Often political
Takes a long time to climb career ladder

Advice to Senior Management

Need to be more aggressive in retaining talent and removing less mediocre people.