First Niagara Financial Reviews

Current Employee – been working at First Niagara Financial

Pros – Good people to work with. Lunch is often provided at no cost. Recently acquired HSBC branches throughout north east. Cool logo.

Cons – Difficult to move up or even laterally. Some lazy people have found their way to the top. May be expanding to quickly.

Advice to Senior Management – Look to some of the youner employees during expansion. Some of the old guard still can't scan and e-mail a document in less than 5 minutes.

Current Employee – been working at First Niagara Financial

Pros – medical/dental coverage costs life insurance great 401k plan, immediate vesting for the 401k plan

Cons – distance between employment and home is long

Advice to Senior Management – no advice

Current Employee – been working at First Niagara Financial

Pros – The best reason for me to work at First Niagara Bank is the fact that I have 5 weeks vacation

Cons – The management has a major problem with letting the employees know that they are appreciated.
Except for a Chosen few.

Advice to Senior Management – Think of everybody when there are reviews, everyone needs more money not just a small percentage.

Current Employee – been working at First Niagara Financial full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – Co-workers
OK Salary for WNY
OK Benefits
Flexible time/shifts

Cons – Zero advancement in IT unless you come from outside the company.
Lack of focus/too many projects in flight.
Heavy effort to out source all services they can.
Sr. IT Leadership are all talk/no action.
More project mangers then they know what to do with.

Advice to Senior Management – Start at the top and work down quick. The relationship between IT and business units is horrible and only getting worse. Pick a handful of projects and work on those to completion. Listen to the people in the trenches instead of high priced/low yield consultants.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at First Niagara Financial part-time for more than a year

Pros – Benefits are good ....that's about it

Cons – Turnover is high...company is constantly changing staff!

Advice to Senior Management – Practice what you preach!

Former Employee – worked at First Niagara Financial full-time for more than a year

Pros – you receive a paycheck every 2 weeks

Cons – -no opportunity for advancement even if you are more than qualified for the job openings
-everything operates on favoritism, even if you have the best numbers you are not promoted

Advice to Senior Management – Get to know all employees and utilize the talent that you have, instead of promoting off of favoritism

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at First Niagara Financial full-time for more than 7 years

Pros – great logo colors; decent PTO; community involvement

Cons – Weak Leadership; Weak Organizational Development and HR departments; extremely political environment; little accountability; no infrastructure (although they are spending some major $$ just to catch up to competitive market) poor stability and portfolio ratings, ESOP plan decreased by>60% during 2012, stock price is pitiful.

Advice to Senior Management – Recognize that the organization can only progress to the level of the leader--the organization has been set up to become a case study for learning by neglecting to properly assess talent and culture before executing M&A activity--listen to your employees before pulling the trigger, they are your greatest assets and have the ability to fill the gaps and blindspots of management. Also, competence levels of execs needs to be evaluated--many are in way over their heads.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at First Niagara Financial full-time for more than a year

Pros – Great Benefits. 100% coverage. Decent vacation package.

Cons – Management plays favorites from top down.
Fired some people for "policy violations" but not others for same "violations".
Cutthroat environment.
"Diversity" value prevents the company from firing under-performing employees"

Advice to Senior Management – Get your act together or I wouldn't be surprised to see reverse discrimination lawsuits on the horizon.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at First Niagara Financial full-time for more than a year

Pros – Great people to work with

Cons – Upper management should be more organized with processes

Advice to Senior Management – Better organization and communication to all levels of company

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at First Niagara Financial full-time for more than a year

Pros – Great coworkers. At one time, our department had their own corporate culture, and it was fantastic. Advancement within your own area is extremely possible, despite what others say here.

Cons – Sigh... well, having lived through the HSBC conversion and coming out (mostly) intact: the micromanagement of employees, the fact that we were outright told to LIE to customers, the policies that are broken one minute and enforced the next... all very horrible.

Additionally, the bank has begun using a temp agency to fill certain positions, leading to training groups of twenty that have no idea what to do, and that can easily dispose of half themselves within a months time.

Also? The pay is not nearly enough.

Advice to Senior Management – Try actually evaluating the quality of the people you hire instead of just mass hiring. It might help. Also, before promoting people, see how they do with employee engagement.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm not optimistic about the outlook for this company