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.