Pros

CIGNA was very supportive of a work/life balance. There are a lot of people (men and women) who work from home several times a week. It is not looked down upon in anyway and motivates people to work harder while they are at work. Even senior leadership sometimes work from home on Fridays and have conference calls with subordinates over the phone. I have never seen a company that actually backs up claim of a work/life balance as much as CIGNA does.

It is also relatively easy to move within the different divisions of the company. It is rare that a person who was looking to move internally was ever blocked or discouraged from doing so. There are so many different internal opportunities available that you truly never have to leave the company unless you are just completely unsatisfied.

Cons

The forced bell curve for performance review really stifles the feedback process and can sometimes demotivate people. This can be great if you are working with peers in your group but can difficult if the range of talent is broad. For example, if you are in a group with several senior members and you are the only junior member, by default your performance review will almost always be on the low. Your performance is never just graded by itself but rather compared to others.

Like most companies, there are a lot of politics involved in getting a promotion or moving ahead. This isn't just special to CIGNA.

When there were layoffs, CIGNA could have been more transparent with the process. It led to a lot of rumors and fears among the employees. Again, I don't think this is specific to CIGNA in this economy where layoffs have been occuring at many companies.

Advice to Senior Management

Find a way to restructure performance reviews. The current system doesn't work and actually makes employees feel resentful and bitter. Raises are tied to performance reviews and yet the systems doesn't really represent how people are working. There are a lot of politics involved in performance reviews.

Also consider 360 feedback for managers. A lot of managers would be surprised to find out what their employees REALLY think about them.

Pros

Good Pay.
Big high concept projects and large scale of databases.

Cons

Long decision cycle leaves business users dissatisfied. Too many layers of management and control. Six Sigma is a manufacturing stratagem, not suited to financial services.

Advice to Senior Management

Streamline the financial decision processes and review capital projects twice a year instead of just once. Business users are disgruntled before the jobs even commence.
Once the justifications are accepted, put project staff in charge.
Give project managers more room to move.

Pros

Advancement Opportunities
Relocation Opportunities
Competitive Salary
Great Client Exposure

Cons

No Such Thing as A 40 Hour Work Week
Dedication is not a 2-way street
High Stress

Advice to Senior Management

Give client facing employees the straight truth - not a version of what you think clients want to hear.

Pros

Seemingly a lot of sharp people in the industry find their way here. There are plenty of geographic and work-from-home options.

Cons

Terrible p.r. given the industry they operate in. Sr. mgmt keeps a very close watch on expenses (can also be construed as a positive).

Advice to Senior Management

Improve your image. Find ways to engage the employees as part of a grander organization. Make the local strategy more well-known to employees.

Pros

Opportunity to take on other roles
Good Work and Home balance, you can have a life outside Cigna as there is no more overtime

Cons

Performance review are not fair, even if everyone was an excellent performer only a few will get an excellent eval.
Management will give you additonal work also know as development opportunties to make you think you are working towards getting promoted but its just a way to get you to do more work without additional pay. Howver, if you kiss butt you may have a chance or if t you worked at Unum then you have an even better chance as Cigna is countryclub an if your not in your a peasant that will stay in the same role

Advice to Senior Management

Stop making people think they will get promoted when you already know who you want to promote. Showing people Market Value and paying less than market value makes people feel that they are not worth anything . Tell management to stop talking about there affairs

Pros

Very pleasant and content work experience. Enjoyed the surrounding communities and the amount of help they gave you in networking.

Cons

Huge office in CT, feel a little lost within the thousands working at that site. Could be a little better in limiting the bureaucracy.

Advice to Senior Management

Let change happen, streamline the process of getting things approved and completed. Work with everyone to get things strarted quickly.

Pros

Decent benefits. Managers are incompetent so you can get away with doing the bare minimum. Great Center City Location. Nice office

Cons

Pay, pay, pay, having to deal with annoying sales people.

Advice to Senior Management

Pay your good employees better.

Pros

CIGNA enjoys a solid reputation among large nationals in the Group benefits. As a sales rep the name gets you in the door but Underwriting is very finicky about the deals they get competitive on.

Cons

Many of the young or new reps are washed out rather quick. Bottom line is a small number of senior reps get to work with the choice brokers and the company isn't very committed to expanding downstream to help out the junior reps.

Advice to Senior Management

There seems to be a consistent reviews from junior employees that there is a disconnect with management. Value the input of those who are in the trenches and it will serve you well.

Pros

Cigna has a very diverse work environment, and will work to provide time off for it's employees when they require it. Management and co-workers have at least the appearance of respectfulness

Cons

Will not factor experience or seniority when determining position placement. Have tendancy to promise one thing and deliver another. Require strict metrics that penalize the amount of time shared with the customer but then advise the customer is first. (Yeah I know makes no sense) Failure to recognize their employees for excellent performance citing "business needs". Refuse to spend money to correct technical issues.

Advice to Senior Management

Fix the interactive response unit, that our customers have complained about for 6+ years. Reward your customer service associates, instead of replacing them with new inexperienced ones. Reward your experienced and tenured representatives that provide quality customer satisfaction daily. Provide advancement opportunities for people that are experts in their field, instead of hiring outside from inexperienced graduates.

Pros

Most people there truly hope their work makes people's lives better. The culture is very supportive of work/life balance. Many people are genuinely nice human beings.

Cons

Highly political environment. Company lacks strong leadership. The corporate culture is very feudal and there are many kingdoms within the company. Regretably strategies change constantly and leaders are constantly changing direction. This causes work to often go unused. Career growth is very limited within the company in both learning and opportunities in higher roles.

Advice to Senior Management

Clean house and force all manager and leaders into the same shared vision of the company's future. Senior leadership is too disengaged. Carefully look at people in key positions. Ensure they truly know what they're doing and aran't in the position solely via their relationships.