Ameriprise Reviews in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN Area

Pros

Opportunities, benefits, work life balance

Cons

Old technology, limited access to managers

Pros

Great communication, very empowering atmosphere

Cons

There was nothing analytical in the daily responsibilities of a call center analyst. It was essentially a customer service representative position. Unfortunately, they have severely handicapped their ability to validate the accuracy of their workforce adherence projections, as all the call center analysts do is answer phone calls from call center representatives who need their break and work segments adjusted, by as little as three minutes. Call center adherence metrics should be built with a certain percentage of "shrinkage" built in, as we all know that, due to the nature of call volume, no one can adhere to their schedule 100%. Forcing the representatives to have to have their segments adjusted places undue stress on them and is a waste of everyone's time. There was no challenge in this position.

Advice to Senior Management

Title your jobs correctly. A better title for this position may have been "Real-time specialist." There was nothing analytical in the base responsibilities, and the sheer volume of calls from representatives made it extremely difficult to concentrate enough to try to work on projects requiring more than a modicum of thought.

Pros

My work is challenging and I enjoy how much self-direction I have. The compensation is fair though employee satisfaction has declined b/c the company continues to ramp down benefits and has started charging employees for certain things that used to be free.

Cons

Company is generally not supportive of work-life balance. There are really no opportunities for alternate work arrangements in my area, resulting in employee burn-out and reduced loyalty.

Advice to Senior Management

The company has been nickel and diming the employee base but compensation and perks for upper management are egregiously high.

Pros

Ameriprise is very "well-run". Focus on quality work and the customer are more than just lip service

Cons

Compensation structure is bad. Zero transparency to wages when almost all professional "individual-contributors" are in the same job band.

Too much work and little reward

Advice to Senior Management

It is time to start adding back more staff and improving compensation. Stop hiding behind market reference zones than nobody can see.

Pros

Competitive pay
A lot of overtime
Leads provided

Cons

Sleazy coworkers
Limited opportunities
No room for creativity or being individualistic

Advice to Senior Management

Take a deeper look at the current practices and ask yourself is it realy helping the customer

Pros

Interesting work. Committed to the community.

Cons

Promotions and salary increases may not be based on merit but the importance of the role.

Advice to Senior Management

Grading employees on a curve looks very much like the rank and yank structure of consulting firms. That may not be the image the firm wants.

Pros

Work life balance
Good pay
Employee development

Cons

Many reorgs and layoffs
Executive Team llives in NY

Pros

Massive hiring. If you are looking for a job, it is a good place to find work. They are willing to train too, which is nice, and the licensing is at their cost.

Cons

Low pay, new program, very haphazard, and technological challenges are expected on a daily basis. If you ever get tech issues, dont bother to tell anyone - they already know, and no plans to fix (no $$$)

Advice to Senior Management

Have courtesy to treat your employees as your most valuable assets. The corporate culture sucks. Someone dies, everyone gets notified on email, and no pause for people to grieve. Business as usual. Fake emotions during meetings... sad. It is important that if a tragedy hits, everyone pauses at the same time. Top execs and management come to talk/grieve/discuss/cry with employees - at least for a couple of minutes. Dont wait for the next day to call a grief counselor, and in the meantime, everyone go on as if nothing has happened. Sad, very sad culture.

Pros

Unlimited income potential, brand reputation, good benefits, eventual flexibility in the hours you work, rewarding career if you make it!

Cons

It's a very tough business to get started in. You will put in 60 hours a week and not make much money. Most people fail out of the business in the first two years.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to improve your training of new financial advisors. If they can get their business up and running faster everyone will win.

Pros

Nice, new, clean Building
Good Benefit plan
Great Cafeteria and food.
Opportunity for advancement if you are friends with the management.

Cons

Poor technology, systems crash daily.
Only 20 seconds between calls, which burns out the employees
No recognition for when you are doing a good job, only noticed if you make a mistake.
Lack of work/life balance. Just about impossible to get any time off.
Inexperienced Team Leaders.

Advice to Senior Management

Please make an effort to treat your employees better. Those in the call center work very hard with little recognition. Schedule some time for people to get off the phones occasionally to prevent job burn out. I left Ameriprise, only because of the way I was treated by Leadership.