CIGNA Reviews

Pros

Great smart competitive ethical peers

Cons

Very hard work...no resting on your laurels

Advice to Senior Management

Better pay raises would retain the best performers. Real pay for performance not limited to a certain percent per rating.

Pros

Intelligent people, committed to doing good clinical work, develop new solutions,

Cons

Individual political agendas are always in play.

Advice to Senior Management

Drive a separate funding mechanism for innovation and new ideas.

Pros

The products and people are good. I like making a difference in other peoples lives. It is rewarding for me.

Cons

The benefits plan is subpar. Our healthcare benefits cost too much and assume that you will never get hurt or sick.

Advice to Senior Management

Lets spend some money and upgrade our systems to better serve our customers. Lets work on upgrading our benefits plan.

Pros

-The great majority of your co-workers are kind and helpful
-The corporate headquarters has a doctor on-site which is very helpful if you do not want to take time off work for an easy visit
-Opportunities to move around and try different positions within the same department

Cons

-Inefficient (pretty standard in such a large company but seems to be much worse within the insurance companies in CT)
-Horrible health insurance
-Employee reviews are set up in a very destructive way (the company requires management to give a specific grade of A - F and tells them the percent of people who need to be within each of those grades which obviously forces the department to rank people in a way that is not realistic to performance)
-Many people need to be let go and a lot of others need to be promoted - this is what causes a stone age type of environment and a high turn-over rate of the younger crowd

Advice to Senior Management

1. Get back to basics with your employee reviews - stop trying to make the process so complicated
2. Find a better way to appropriately insure your full time employees (I would NEVER go back to Cigna for this reason - which is crazy because they're an insurance company)
3. Become more efficient! Eliminate the waste and promote the ones who are making a difference.
4. Invest more heavily in your technology groups - I recognize that all insurance companies are "behind the times" with technology but you're never going to be profitable if you continue with your current path. It's just a matter of time before hospitals and companies eliminate the middle man (insurance companies) because they realize it's cheaper.

Pros

very professional atmosphere with updated meetings

Cons

the pay was not competitive with national average salaries

Pros

they will hire people with no insurance experience
benefits start day one of hire
they allow time off when you need or want it
the computers are good, with decent tech support
the training program is lengthy, and good; by the 6 month mark, you have a good knowledge base
coworkers are nice

Cons

high workloads, with pressure to perform, resulting in high turnover, and brain drain
different locations have different work environments
people are promoted based on who they know, not necessarily merit
bad managers are not removed
disruptive behaviors are tolerated
there is no ability to move to a different department without your manager's approval, so the choice is to stay in a bad environment, or leave the company
benefits are mediocre

Advice to Senior Management

implement policies to make work environments the same across the company
reward top performers, remove disruptive employees, demote or remove bad managers
implement an alternative to requiring that the immediate manager authorize a transfer to a different position in the company

Pros

Training and career development is encouraged.

My direct manager is very knowledgable of her role and supportive.

Work at home is a plus.

Cons

Performance reviews are very awkward and a constance source of criticism by the employees because they are not really relevant. Your raises (supposedly based on performance) are given based on a 3 tier Bell Curve of high,medium and low and the management is told exactly how many employees can be "graded" in the high performance area no matter what the individual achievement.

Work/Life balance is just a catch phrase.

The expectation is that you work > 40 hours a week with constant vacation/sick coverage

Advice to Senior Management

Reward your employees in the trenches like you award your sales and upper management staff and change the review process to reflect true pay for performance

Pros

-Good work life balance
-Job stability
-Work at home option for some employees
-They promote from within frequently
-Some very nice people work there
-CEO is positive and dynamic
-Generous PTO package

Cons

-Oftentimes, certain employees are earmarked for promotions. They are given the promotion on a temporary basis so that when the job is officially posted, they are almost sure to get the position.
-The medical benefits are very, very poor, especially given it is a healthcare company. Employees pay a lot out of pocket for med expenses (high deductible plan) and I am not sure how people in lower level positions than I can even afford their medical expenses. Most people I know at other companies have much better benefits.
- If you have an issue with a manager that needs to be investigated by HR, they will do a cursory review, but nothing to help. They are mostly concerned about protecting management.
-They say they pay for performance, but they do not. They force managers to rate one or two people on the team as "needs improvement", even if all employees are solid to exceptional performers. You're better to be on a team of low performers so that you stand out. Also, when you reach a certain salary level, it is nearly impossible to get a raise.

Advice to Senior Management

-Actually pay for performance. Yes, you can actually have a team of solid to exceptional people, so have a little faith in your own employees.
-Give your employees decent medical benefits. There is widespread dissatisfaction regarding the benefits and it's very stressful not knowing if you can afford that test, treatment, or prescription that your doctor recommended.

Pros

Team environment/team dynamic
Work life balance
Work from home available
Corporate discounts on many items
CEO is engaged with the company
passion for health and wellness

Cons

Salary is a little low compared to other places I've worked but they offer work from and it's hard to put a price on that.
Benefits could be a bit better.

Advice to Senior Management

Adjust the review process. There shouldn't be a limit to the number of employees you can rate as exceptional. Then it isn't true pay for performance.

Pros

many great people and the ability to learn leading industry products

Cons

My salary is not close to my median after 12 years of service

Advice to Senior Management

reward for performance and mean it