BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Reviews

Pros

Pay rate, health benefits packaged, 401k, health and wellness and so many others.

Cons

There are some contracted positions that may end and you won't be able to find a replacement within the timeframe allocated to you before your time runs out.

Advice to Senior Management

Management is great, for the most part there is no micromanaging, just do your work. If you're terminated its your fault.

Pros

Tremendous IT infrastructure
Opportunity to learn from intelligent talent sourced worldwide
Family and work / life balance friendly
Great contract rates

Cons

No concept of usability / user experience
Management is dismissive to strong talent pool
Contract-to-salary offers are poor
Project overhead stalls progress
Absence of meaningful, relevant leadership

Pros

Staff-there are some really educated, nice, respectful and dedicated employees that truly just want to do a good job. Some member of middle management are fair and treat people like they should be treated.

Cons

Senior management runs employees into the ground and when they no longer can provide a benefit for them then the employees are pushed aside and replaced.
Lack of tools to complete your required tasks and the blame is put on the employees.

Advice to Senior Management

They should listen to their staff because they are the ones performing the daily tasks and do have good ideas from time to time.

Pros

salary and benefits in this period of slow job growth
Nice landscaping of buildings and kept clean
onsight cafeterias in buildings

Cons

Ridiculous workloads due in ridiculous time frames
Management supports yes men and golden boys
hiring of cheep foreign labor
HR department is only helpful when interrogating employees about "ethical" concerns
HR only helpful if you are a "popular" employee
promotions and pay raises based on popularity of employee and his manager
To much red tape and all processes are ever-changing and undocumented
Managers fight with each other like children

Advice to Senior Management

The best advice for management is to resign so that they can be replaced with new and capable managers. Current management should look for work in the telemarketing business or in the fast-food industry. They may want to look into police work or convenience store positions

Pros

The people are the best people to work with!

Cons

Company thinks its a technolgy company but it is still using Microsoft Software 2003

Pros

1. Opportunities for work-at-home positions.
2. Business-casual dress.
3. One of the best places of employment for working mothers.
4. Managers (depending on the department) have a high level of compassion for their employees.

Cons

1. Too many people are overworked and underpaid. Some of the employees are taking on dual job titles but are only getting paid one salary. It's not fair for someone with several years of experience and a college degree to make same amount of money as someone who is coming out of high school.
2. There are too many positions created for "cost containment" purposes. Those positions are created for friends of higher-ranking employees, and their roles and responsibilities do not serve a purpose for the company's bottom line. Customer Service has to endure the endless ranting about various "cost containment" procedures (such as PA requirements for prescriptions) because it is so aggravating.
3. This company is management heavy. Why do we have so many project managers? What projects are they managing? What do they do all day...go from office to office and socialize all day like this is the country club?
4. There is way too much policing, particularly in my building. Why do you need an Enterprise-rent-a-cop to stand in the cafeteria and check to see if the employees are wearing their badges? Go find something else to do. On a company-sponsored jeans day, why do you need people to check for your jeans day sticker. That's why work can't get done and this company moves like molasses. 5. The testing requirements suck. Why do you have to take a test just to operate a machine, only to make slightly above minimum wage?
6. Some managers treat employees like children. This company has a hodgepodge of talent, natural overachievers in their respective fields and they talk to them like school children but expect professionalism to the highest degree.
7. Upper management does not accept feedback from those at the bottom. The customer service areas are the ones dealing with the customers and some of them who desire to contribute to the betterment of this company actually go above and beyond to do that are shot down because "they're supposed to do the work; the managers make the decisions".
8. Some areas don't have incentive plans. How do they keep current employees who consistently go above and beyond and attract new employees? Not having an incentive plan in place is the same as not having goals and a sense of direction.
9. Stop spending money on "company picnics" if you can't afford to give a decent pay raise to all employees.
10. Performance reviews are a huge waste of time. I stil have yet to understand why we have them.
11. Too much red-tape. Long and convoluted process for everything we do. Managers expect us to operate at 80 miles an hour, but we operate at 35.
12. People are territorial.

Advice to Senior Management

A lot of your "million dollar, money-saving" ideas are going to come from your front line employees. Swallow your ego and listen to us. We may be the least important employees, but we are the ones making you look good everytime. We can retain our existing customers and attract new customers by providing top notch service. You can reduce turnover by listening to the needs of the employees and eliminating crappy managers who can dress and act the part but cannot be productive with respect to the overall mission and goals of the company. You never the kind of impact an employee has made with the company until they're no longer here.

Pros

employer works with time off in crisis

Cons

It can be difficult to advance

Pros

BlueCross IS offers excellent pay and a nice office location in columbia.
FTE benefits are good.

Cons

IS Management lack of leadership skills. Lots of money is put into technical training while soft skill training is inadequate and disjointed.

Many managers lead by intimidation and they treat their employees terribly. Career development is a buzz word vs. a reality and the annual performance review program is a waste of time.

It is a very political environment where there is emphasis on being there 24x7 vs. work/life balance. No matter how excellent your performance, a person with a family life, particularly single parents, should avoid this workplace.

Contractors are used widely in IS to buffer the workforce. About 40% of all the positions are contractor based. NOTE: contractor employers are treated like low-lifes and quickly walked out the door for any reason they want to create.

Advice to Senior Management

Closely re-evaluate your management team. Many of those that have been promoted are not management material.

In addition, learn to treat your employees and contractors with compassion and care.

Pros

The health benefits are some of the best in the state. They do offer incentive and discretionary bonuses, and the time off is relatively generous.

Cons

Management can be disrespectful, demanding, and demeaning. Many manage by intimidation and belittling. If you can figure out how to work with them, it can be a decent place to work.

Advice to Senior Management

Management should be required to attend training classes that teach them how to encourage and support their staff.

Pros

BCBS-SC makes a lot of money and pay their people well. Large employer with many areas to choose for a career path.

Cons

Way too top heavy, they could operate with 40% of the staff they have and make much better numbers. Management is typically chosen from whomever has been there the longest and plays the political games. Performance reviews are quantitative according to HR and managers, but not in reality.

Advice to Senior Management

Begin to manage the company as if it were going public and you'll have a much smoother, leaner running ship.