Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina Reviews in Raleigh-Durham, NC Area

Pros

Excellent benefits
Competitive Salary
Opportunity for growth

Cons

Current senior management has abandoned any commitment to supporting North Carolina based employees and business and has begun to outsource highly committed and loyal employees.
Most of the IT Workforce is in a panic as outsourcing continues... the 'business' side of the company will soon feel the impact of this outsourcing... doubt it will be able to adapt to the impact.
Huge number of Prima Donna's throughout the company
Bloated upper management (VPs, SVPs & C levels). Normal workforce shrinks while management essentially remains the same.
High stress in it current 'transformation'.

Advice to Senior Management

Remember your roots (NC) and take a lesson from the past CEO showing loyalty to your home state employees and surrounding businesses.
Become less concerned about controlling the perception of the company and do things that will speak for themselves and make a real difference.

Pros

They are competitive with benefits and pay. They provide flexible work schedules, and work from home options for most employees. They recognize they employ many talented and creative people and have made an effort to open dialog throughout the company.

Cons

Lacking leadership, direction, and foresight starting at the top. Recent changes within the organization have caused many good employees to leave, and for moral to decline. Many silos, and areas of cliques.

Pros

Good health benefits and work life balance. 401K matching. Gym facilities in multiple buildings. Flexible work options such as telecommuting. Onsite backup child care. Promotion of healthy lifestyle.

Cons

Middle management is mostly a political game and ends up becoming more of a roadblock to progress. Fragmented organization that seems to have different agendas at times.

Advice to Senior Management

Thin out the middle management layer - (managers and directors). Continue to focus on the customer and not so much on the bottom line.

Pros

Many opportunities; employee development; great benefits; work-life balance; focus on healthy lifestyle = one of the best companies in Raleigh.

Cons

Organizational change can be slow.

Advice to Senior Management

The company does a pretty good job at communicating with the employees; but, let them feel like their voices matter.

Pros

Pay and benefits are good. The facilities are good, great cafeteria, fitness center, etc.

Cons

Political and filled with favoritism & secrecy from the mgr level on up. Communication is often poor, and the leadership/vision lacking. Lots of double-talk, and frustrating levels of red tape and beaurocracy.

They seem to have higher turnover and increased paranoia recently now with 'Outsourcing' being 'something we're looking at'

Advice to Senior Management

I understand it's difficult to manage a bunch of highly compensated engineers at an insurance company and outsourcing may be necessary, but manage/publish the information wisely and treat individuals respectfully. This is their livelihood you're sending to India.

It's difficult to have a positive work environment during this, so get it over with ASAP...no need to announce that you're starting a study about outsourcing that you may have some results about it 6 months.

Pros

BCBSNC offers great flexibility in some parts of the organization (not all). Benefits are fantastic, salaries are OK. Nice bonus (usually). Lots of nice people.

Cons

BCBSNC has really well-meaning management and nice people, but in some ways they are too nice. They allow sub-par employees to remain in positions (many in management) for WAY too long. The performance management system is a joke. They do not manage people out of the organization fast enough. Talented people are overworked because they carry the load of the slackers. It's a great organization, but they need to get tougher with rating and managing their people.

Advice to Senior Management

Don't promote people just because they are great individual contributors. Realize that being a leader is a SKILL. It takes time to lead and develop people. Stop turning a blind eye to slackers in the organization. They are choking out your good talent.

Pros

It's fairly low stress. People are nice. Compensation is OK. People like the work/life balance. The exercise facilities are very nice. Cafeteria is good, too.

Cons

Benefits are OK, not great. Middle management is way overwhelmed. Top management is invisible, lacks leadership. Work place facilities are in disrepair.

Advice to Senior Management

Learn how to lead. Appearing in a corporate video isn't the same as leadership. Show employees you care. This is a heavily female-oriented company with 3/4 of the employees being women. More balance is needed.

Pros

Some great people
Interesting work most of the time
Good benefits
Paid time off
Good mentoring program and strong focus on diversity

Cons

Too much expected with too few resources
Uncertainty of health reform makes job security difficult
Not all management is competent or engaged

Advice to Senior Management

Spend time with employees to understand their challenges and their jobs. Don't just talk about changing the culture, behave like you mean it.

Pros

The benefits are very nice. 401K match plus bonus. Cheap health insurance, free for an individual. Workout facilities are nice.

Cons

Fire drills everyday. Others receive credit for your work. Some departments promote people often, while others never promote anybody. New CEO, new way of thinking.

Advice to Senior Management

Working 60 to 80 hours a week is not worth the benefits. Management sends mixed messages. A lot of good people have left the company.

Pros

- Great benefits (e.g. gym, on-site emergency day care, vacation time, work-from-home)
- Some great people who strive to make a difference
- Stable

Cons

- Managment
- Unable to embrace new methodologies no matter how hard they try
- Constant reorgs
- Too much red tape