Blue Cross Reviews

Current Employee – been working at Blue Cross

Pros – the line level employees are good people they care about one another
the benefits are good
the pay is above average
not much more to say about the pros

Cons – IT Senior management is inept
They secretly have layoffs; I saw 5 people get laid off earlier this month, where at least 3 of them were excellent employees that the company could have found other places for them
Employees are just “not here” the next day without any communication.
Executive decision making on the IT side is non-existent, the decisions that are made do not make sense and are poorly communicated.
You work in a “no fun” zone, occasional laughing with fellow employees is frowned upon

Advice to Senior Management – Lighten up.
Make wiser decisions
Keep good employees
Communicate with all staff
Don’t just sit in your office, manage by walking around, and meet the employees
Encourage the staff to have a little fun while they work

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Blue Cross

Pros – Fairly isolated from outside economic pressures due to lack of bottom line accountability makes job reductions infrequent

Cons – Cross division infighting, extreme amounts of review, limited decision making authority at any level

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Blue Cross

Pros – Stable and laid back, good

Cons – no chance for professional growth

Advice to Senior Management – improve employee relationshi[

Current Employee – been working at Blue Cross

Pros – Pay is good.
Stable. People dont leave, are not fired.
Good, lively location.

Cons – Environment sucks in terms of quality of colleagues, facilities/amenities.
Very bureaucratic and old world processes
Very ugly looking/behaving IT products

Advice to Senior Management – Adopt newer technologies and processes on projects.
Bring in better talent.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Blue Cross

Pros – Good benefits, salary, and work-life balance; Start out with 20 days of PTO per year and a great insurance package, plus ten annual company holidays

Cons – Incompetent senior management, resistant to change, full of soon-to-be-retirees, even when research and recommendations point one way, senior management will do whatever they want and will try to retroactively change research results to confirm their desired direction

Advice to Senior Management – It's 2010, not 1993, get with the program! Leadership would be well-served to listen to younger employees and embrace technology.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Blue Cross

Pros – Salary very good. Not one complaint since I got here.
Health insurance good (don't pick the company choice though; go PPO)
PTO comparable to other places
Flex time fine
Telecommuting fine
I like what I do and for the most part, my coworkers

Cons – Majority of sr. management has been here over 20 years and they are deaf to change. The company needs an overhaul of anyone who is a VP and been here over 10 years.
We are so far behind in technology, thinking, output.
Huge waste of money always happening. Most national programs fail.
Too much red tape to get things approved.
More politics than Washington. If you're a favorite, then you're in. If you're good but unrecognized, forget it. You'll never move up. We have mid level people here for over 13 years and they've never been promoted to sr. level.
High turnover in our division. Gee, I wonder why.
They promote the wrong people as managers.

Advice to Senior Management – For those who've been there over 15 years, especially sr. management, please leave. You're ruining the company.

Current Employee – been working at Blue Cross

Pros – Work/life balance, benefits and ability to work on multiple projects

Cons – Politics, performance reviews, environment, pay

Advice to Senior Management – Recognize the employees who make your job easier

Current Employee – been working at Blue Cross

Pros – The best benefit to working at BCBSA is overall work/life balance. Depending on starting pay grade you receive 20 or 25 paid time off (PTO) days plus 10+ paid holidays. The official work day is 7.5 hours. Insurance and other benefits are very good. My experience is that management is very undersanding and willing to provide work life balance including flex time, generous work from home arrangements, and overall treatment of employees as people with lives outside of work.

After work life balance, there's a sense of pride working for a brand that insures 100 million lives (1/3 of the country). There are a lot of very bright and talented people employed there.

Cons – The average employee age is 55+ and a lot of employees have been with the company a long time. As a result change is slow. Many managers seem more interested in making their time to retirement as comfortable for them than improving the organization.

Politics often get in the way of work and recognition. Otherwise excellent performance can be discredited due to personal agendas and power struggles.

Policies are unevenly applied. The plusses listed above are because of the strengths of my management. Employees in different departments are not as lucky.

Pay is average. The company's compensation policy is benchmarked at the median for similar jobs in similar industries. They sometimes ahve trouble attracting the needed talent because of compensation policies.

Talented and aggressive employees can quickly become frustrated. Less talented and complacent employees are challenged. If you're looking to quickly advance or cash is more important than benefits look elsewhere.

At times it feels like working for a government agency.

Advice to Senior Management – Improve day to day operations. There's a lot of inconsistency and waste so tighten financial controls..

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Blue Cross

Pros – National exposure and access to other healthcare/insurance companies.
Variety of assignments.
Ability to make a national impact on healthcare policies.
Very diverse staff.

Cons – Significant politics and hidden history goes into all senior-level decisions, sometimes at the expense of the current facts.
Flex time programs are inconsistent from division to division.
Recognition programs are non-existent or counter-productive
Pace of change is very slow, then speed of light, then very slow then speed of light
Rework is the norm.
Many of the HR programs look great on paper, but are tough to actually access or are just smoke and mirrors at times.

Advice to Senior Management – Trust the staff more-with information and expectations.
Let go of all the minute details of the past and be willing to make a few mistakes.
Join the 21st century with virtual staffing.

Current Employee – been working at Blue Cross full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Weekends off, holidays off, the latest I have to work is 6pm but I am usually able to leave around 3:30 pm.

Cons – Pay raises suck. Some of their production goals are unrealistic.

Advice to Senior Management – When you change the way things are done (ie production goals) and employees start having issues, please listen to our comments and concerns. There is a difference between a few people not being able to keep up and over half of the company not being able to.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend