Allianz Life Reviews

Pros

4 weeks vacation from day 1
full health, dental and vision from day 1
401(k) up to 7.5% match

Cons

50-55 hours a week
On the phone and sitting down from 8:30-6 everyday
Not much time for other activities

Pros

- Decent facilities
- Fair level of compensation for given level and experience
- Good cafeteria and healthy food choices
- Good and pleasant co-workers, although this is of course due to luck rather than any company action

Cons

- Gigantic lack of leadership. Have never encountered such a large leadership vacuum. Managers get promoted for reasons that are completely unrelated to their ability to manage, and as a result entire departments end up being led by people who personify incompetence. I am amazed that some of the leaders ever managed to be employed at all, let alone be promoted to their level
- Whether there is any work/life balance really depends on your department. I don't have much of a work/life balance at all, as I consistently work nights and weekends. What's frustrating about this is that it is in large part due to mismanagement (i.e. "Oh, guess what, we gave you the wrong information for this project and even though you worked all weekend on it you're going to just have to do it over"). It's also due to not wanting to hire more people to replace those that leave the company
- Total lack of opportunities for advancement within the company.
- Benefits get worse every year

Advice to Senior Management

You really need to focus on hiring good managers. You're consistently losing talented people because they get tired of being mismanaged.

Pros

401K match and bonus potential is very good compared to other companies in the Twin Cities.

Cons

Some departments have good managers. The department that I was in was not led by a positive leader. Many of the employees in my old dept were not committed to excellence. If you are debating whether or not to join Allianz Life make sure you do not end up joining this negative and dysfunctional team.

Advice to Senior Management

You have managers/leaders who are focused primarily on their own careers and have little interest or time for their employees.

Pros

Good pay, average benefits, mostly good people, Upper management is very transparent and communication to employees is above average. Excellent celebration of individual and team accomplishments.

Cons

Work/Life balance is suspect, Lack of performance standards across areas within the same department.

Advice to Senior Management

Make sure requests from parent company add value and are not merely a request for additional information to play with.

Pros

Time off is very generous

Cons

Pay is not very competitive

Pros

Great Building and location
Good food options
Fitness Facility
Good benefits, nice vacation available in first year

Cons

Management
Egos
Management
Good Ol Boys
Egos
Management
Micro Managing

A couple reviews in here are spot on. I, like others on here, am not a part of the "Good Ol Boy" network at Allianz. "Good Ol Boy" network: if you are from a certain college in the area or even better, an basktetball player from that college, APPLY HERE TODAY!!!!! You will find yourself in a very good spot, getting recognition for absolutely nothing you did and being offered unwarranted opportunity galore. Life in Internal Sales at Allianz is difficult if you are not loud and I hate to say it, obnoxious . You will never be heard. The management is clearly only in it for themselves and their numbers. I never hear or see them unless it's about quotas/numbers.

As an employee you are told that there are lots of opportunities/etc stemming from the internal sales desk. Then you realize there are people who have worked there, without promotion, for 5 plus years....come to find out, these opportunities are only for the Good Ol Boys! ie: those who know the senior management or come from a certain collage in the area.

Allianz is a wolf in sheep's clothing. I feel like I was tricked! I regret ever accepting their offer, honestly.

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of all managers on the 10th floor! They make Allianz look really, really bad

Pros

Pay was decent, benefits good. Working in the building was a good, clean environment, nice cafeteria. Had some good co-workers I really enjoyed working with and miss interacting with on a daily basis

Cons

Does not embrace diversity, hires management and high paying positions on word of mouth basis from senior management's good ole boy network, little chance for advancement within the company unless you are a part of this network. Uses metrics systems for evaluating your performance that are confusing and when you ask about the evaluation criteria the managers can't explain.

Advice to Senior Management

Embrace diversity, and get rid of your good ole boy network mentality.

Pros

good company to work for. Good life and work balance.

Cons

Very less opportunities to grow in the company

Advice to Senior Management

Need to believe in own internal resources

Pros

It was close to home and had flexible start times. Nice facility with several stores on campus and two cafeterias. Nice gym also, but I didn't pay to use it.

Cons

In the sales organization the culture is terrible. Huge, unwarranted, egos, blatant favoritism, limited opportunities for minorities or any kind. This is 1950's management style. Intimidation, retaliation, etc. The pay structure is changing constantly. If you don't play politics, they will manage you out the door with their ever changing metrics. Very little to respect here. Management is all out for themselves.

Advice to Senior Management

Try to reintroduce some humanity into your company. Call center employees are treated like garbage. There is a lot of room for growth in the areas of honesty and integrity.

Pros

Nice work/life balance, 401K is a great match, ESPP (but costing more each year). Self managed. Open to ideas. Worked with smart people.

Cons

Communication could have been better. One side of the building was definitely treated better than the other side. Thats' it.