American Express Reviews in Phoenix, AZ Area

Pros

People seem to be fully engaged

Cons

Health Benefits are poor - bonus structure is unfair

Pros

Prestige of working for a well respected company. The benefits were very good and since they are a travel company, if you ever get stuck in a foreign country, they will get you out (I have seen this happen).

Cons

bureaucracy. many areas doing the same job and no one knows the other is doing what they are doing.

Pros

Brand reputation and senior level leadership is strong

Cons

Culture can be very politial and not encouraging of innovation.

Advice to Senior Management

N/A

Pros

Being part of a large corporation provides the employee with a lot of opportunity, but also a lot of competition. Depending on the department, you can get reimbursed for tuition. American Express is very involved in the community and really preaches work life balance. American Express really stands out on a resume. Also the business leaders are very very approachable and I have personally met all of the Senior Leadership or my organization and Ken Chenault.

Cons

The economy has really hits the perks of the job hard. The health care used to be really good and made up for the low salary, but American Express has recently moved to a Health Savings Account and cut the health care benefits drastically to cut costs. They've tried to offset this by giving the employee $500 to use towards health care costs, but it's nothing compared to what it was. The Corporate Card division has a very low salary compared to the competition and the organizational behaviors are more centered on promotion based on who you know and not what you know or what you acheived. Promotions are very political and very nepotistic.

Advice to Senior Management

American Express has created a brand centered on customer loyalty and customer service, but American Express has lost sight of the brand in the last decade or so. It is paramount for the senior leadership to see that the customer comes first and not the stock holder.

Pros

Work life balance. Flexible hours. Telecommute once in a week. Nice facilities. diverse population.
different locations within phoenix to chose from

Cons

Career growth is limited and too many people

Advice to Senior Management

nothing much

Pros

started on the phones, hard work pays off, moved up and have moved around to several different departments. making over 50k with no degree. the majority of the leadership and peers are great and work hard.

Cons

if you have a bad leader then you are miserable. some business partners are awful and refuse to work as a team, specifically the training department. if you have a bad leader then they can stop you from posting out or up. they need to be more flexable with working from home.

Advice to Senior Management

hire the training department to write training. bring OJT and classroom training back to each department, get rid of the outside trainers who don't understand how to prepare their learners.

Pros

Great company and job securiity.

Cons

hard to work way from bottom to top in phoenix office

Advice to Senior Management

better leadership development plan

Pros

Ability to telecommute, Pay is in line with other companies, Bonus is good and profit sharing. FMAL and management working to support you. Nice environment. Ability to pick your own holidays. Good amount of PTO. Good medical & dental.

Cons

Managements lack of competency. Favoritism. Spineless leaders. Too many meetings. Decisions take to long to make. No flexibility to work at campus nearest to you. No process to rate your leaders. Performance process SUCKS, it's how well your leader like you, not to mention a bell curve.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't promote someone just because they have time in the company. Make sure they have the people skills before they get the job not after.

Pros

Flexible work schedule, opportunities to work virtual.

Cons

Constant change without sharing the vision for the change. Some work is moved around only to change back a short time later after a leadership change, seems like a waste of time and resources just to adjust to the preference of the leader of the moment.

Advice to Senior Management

Change is often good, but communicating a vision for that change and understanding the benefits would make it a lot easier to support.

Pros

Prestige, JD Powers Award, Understanding of external customer service. CCP's have the best compensation and treatment as the front line.

Cons

The disparity between areas. If you are in the wrong place, it can be like a roach motel, you can get in but you can't get out.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire some competent people in management at AELN.