Blue Shield Of California Reviews in Sacramento, CA Area

Pros

They offer a decent amount of paid days of and holidays, and have competitive pay.

Cons

There is a complete lack of communication between business units and they are horrible at documenting business processes. They also have no problem working you to the bone without much recognition.

Pros

Not-for-profit status.
Company mission...in theory
The common folk
401k and pension
Wellvolution
Tuition reimbursement after a year
Stable company

Cons

Senior management
Lack of communication from the top down. They say they are trying to fix this but its been 5 years and its not getting any better.

Inappropriate communication from upper management. When is it ever appropriate to call people out without warning in front of a room full of their peers? Or write nasty emails to reprimand people with out having all the information.

Antiquated computer systems....EDS when Ross P owned it... Access databases
The IT department. For a company that is in halfway decent financial shape couldn't they spring for better servers?? When your department is completely paperless, and the servers go down and there is complete work stoppage, shouldn't this be a priority??

Incompetence is rewarded. Current upper management does not think it is appropriate to promote people who know the process and have some leadership skills and could be mentored. Better bring in someone from the outside who knows nothing and will take at minimum a year to figure out the process while driving out the people who know.

The current staffing is so top heavy. Managers upon Sr. managers...seems like every other day someone is being promoted.

Raise and compensation structure. Pretty much everyone gets the same rating no matter how much effort you put into working. You must walk on water to get the highest level.

No follow through. Everyone has great ideas and they start a project and it gets implemented but NO ONE follows up to see if it worked out, does it do what it was supposed to, do we like how it functions?

NO GOALS until last month. How can you be evaluated on goals for a year that you didn't get until August?

Advice to Senior Management

Don't disregard in house talent. Make the effort to develop your employees. Upper management needs to set their goals and communicate them to to their direct reports. Walk the walk if you talk the talk. One team in motion is great if everyone is on board. When your senior management can't behave themselves out of meeting room, how do you expect any of the staff to buy into the one team in motion theory. I don't think the issue lies with Bruce. It's the constant turnover of upper management and then the paradigm shifts after every new Director. Know your people and your people's people. Actually do this!!

Pros

Company commitment to providing affordable healthcare for all Californians.
Company generosity and a genuine concern for the community.
Medical, Vision, and dental benefits are decent.

Cons

Poor work life balance for exempt employees
Conflicting and unrealistic expectations from Management (may be unique to my department)
Unnecessary duplication of work due to poor or non-existent communication.
Poor use of available technology
Unprofessional behavior at the director level
Do as I say not as I do mentality (management sets a poor example for employees to follow)
Too much bureaucracy makes accomplishing anything slow and difficult.
Fear of speaking up for yourself or about anyone due to the possibility of retaliation. (I have actually observed my director retaliating against someone for speaking up)
Hostile work environment (my unit has lost 25% of its staff since Jan 2011.)

Advice to Senior Management

The numbers do not lie, if a director has lost 25% of their staff in a short period of time. The issue is with the director not with the staff.

Pros

The only thing blue shield has going for it is the fact that it is still one of the companies that actually has a pension plan with a 401k matching

Cons

If you merely want to come to work and do your job without any input you will be fine. However management at blue shield will not listen to new ideas

Advice to Senior Management

At least within IT there are a lot of people hired from outside of the company into management. If you worked at Delta Dental and failed you are now a director at Blue Shield.

Pros

Good benefits. Good 401k and retirement plan.

Cons

Promotions are slow. Antiquated systems. Managers out of touch with their employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to the grunt workers at the bottom of the totem pole.

Pros

Great benefits package and good communication from the top

Cons

My experience is that when a manager /supervisoris not right for the job they don't manage them out very effectively.

Advice to Senior Management

when people work hard reward them because working hard everyday when you are not rewarded is awful. Thats all. I like working for blue shield other than that.

Pros

Health benefits are good
PTO accrual is good (20 days per year)
Retirement as well as good matching 401K
It is possible to move around within the company and gain exposure to various departments

Cons

In EDH, a lot of the managers have been around forever and many have came out of the customer service/claims ranks, or have never worked anywhere else. The systems are also extremely antiquated. Professionals are often treated like hourly employees, and depending on who your manager is, you may/may not have flexibility. Generally, managers who have come from outside the company will be more open-minded, flexible and encourage out of the box thinking, but the good ones always seem to leave after awhile. It's a place where, if you're not in the right department, or working for the right person, you can become discouraged and/or stagnant pretty quick. You're not going to be using or learning the latest or greatest tools/technology.

Advice to Senior Management

- Take a look at your leadership and make sure you really have the right people running the show. Are they there because they've been around forever, or do they really have the vision to move the company forward? Bring in people who have had experience working outside of Blue Shield and take their advice.
- Please give employees the opportunity to do 360 reviews and then read them. Take employee complaints seriously--don't always take the side of the manager. That might help with your employee turnaround.
- Train your managers on how to motivate their staff. Insulting, intimidating or harrassing people--while not necessarily illegal--isn't the best tactic if you want to get the most out of your team. Maybe it was 30 years ago, but not these days.
-Apply work from home policies consistently. I've been told that Bruce doesn't support it, when in fact there some are employed as permanent telecommuters. It just depends on your manager. In fact, establish a formal work from home policy to back up your "blue is going green" slogan. Taking away all the paper cups from the lunch rooms doesn't do much for the environment if you're still requiring employees to drive in every day.

Pros

Not many IT jobs in Sacramento that is non-state. This one of them. They also use many of the newest technology. Work-Life balance is quite flexible.

Cons

Not a culture of execution. A lot of people who don't have current skills. Poor commitment to excellence and building the best solution.

Advice to Senior Management

You need to hire a different set of people into position. People who can execute and support the people who know what they're doing. Loyalty isn't everything.

Pros

First - I feel that in comparison to other companies, Blue Shield of CA has the best work life balance. I have a very flexible schedule, the ability to work from home and the ability to travel to other offices as needed. Having a creative position, the company allows me to work when I am at my peak, not the standard 8-5. This is not true for all position, as usual it depends on the manager you have.

BSC is working hard towards its goal of health care for all Californians. The company is also involved in many projects that will modernize the way they do business now, including internal tools to aid communications between employees. It’s still very behind the times in some aspects, but the path towards a “cooler” company is very engaging.

The company also has very nice offices, with gyms, cafeterias, good security, nice cubicles and landscaping. BSC also promotes community service and social networking. Many of the executives are very involved in the community and are just very good people in general. The company also has a wellness program that will greatly benefit their employees. Finally, the reason myself and many others are there for the long haul is the retirement package. The company offers a generous pension, 401(k) and retiree health benefits.

Cons

In my opinion, the company does not pay as well as the going rate, salaries should be much higher. The review process is a not top notch, and there is no 360 for managers. You have to "walk on water" to get a high mark in certain departments.

There are many issues with IT, mainly due to the leader of that function. The groups in our IT departments that are there to help you if you have trouble, or are in charge of our infrastructure (servers, etc) - are in many aspects are very unhelpful, backwards thinking, slow and frankly lazy at times. I think they should be required to take classes on current technology, and then use it.

Advice to Senior Management

Cut the dead-weight. Praise people who think outside the box. Allow more visibility into your departments, what they are doing. Share, we are all in this together, not in competition with ourselves. If there is a social event, show up. Support your employees, they deserve it!

Pros

Opportunities for professional growth and education, salary plus bonus plus time off is really good, company is supportive of telecommuting (however, not all managers support telecommuting). Buildings are well maintained and clean, and most locations offer a gym or discounted local gym membership. Company allows flex-time. Employees are updated regularly on projects and legislative changes via intranet and email.

Cons

Work-Life balance is not always possible, resources are not always available to support work load, commuting to San Francisco office when necessary can be challenging, promotions are not always justified for those who receive them (some managers are able to promote "favorites" instead of basing decision on merit).

Advice to Senior Management

Know what your upper management team is doing. It amazes me how many managers have no idea what is going on with their team right under their noses, and if the manager knows, they don't always deal with it, even when it is clearly promoting animosity amongst the team members or even other teams.