Flagstar Bancorp Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Flagstar Bancorp part-time for more than a year

Pros – Opportunity to make decent and above average income, great subordinate culture, independence in sales attainment, somewhat supportive management (every manager is different; some great some not so great)

Cons – Commission pay two months out, opportunities for promotion beyond personal banker is difficult and unlikely, positions are available as they are available, no succession planning, very quota/sales driven, new ideas and creativity looked down upon

Advice to Senior Management – Be realistic in employee expectations, get insight from the bottom line, inform before implementation

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Flagstar Bancorp full-time for less than a year

Pros – Exposure to C-level executives, talented managers, focused on professional development, good strategic goals by management, good benefits, responsive facilities team.

Cons – Lack of scheduling to to coordinate meetings, lack of available conference rooms, cubical environment located in high traffic areas and printers are located within cubical area can be very noisy/too much traffic, short on employee parking, no option to work remotely for non-meeting days.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Flagstar Bancorp

Pros – Good physical work environment, coworkers, ease of hiring process.

Cons – Goals and processes change rapidly, communication regarding changes lags behind, and the company and employees seem to operate from the perspective of trying to keep the business they have and gain more, while employees seem to operate from the perspective of trying to attain ever changing and varied/vague goals and keep their jobs.

Advice to Senior Management – Clarify goals, require managers to have regular meetings or reviews with their employees. It has been over a year without any positive and constructive performance review of any type.

Former Employee – worked at Flagstar Bancorp full-time for more than a year

Pros – Actually a good company overall. Michigan based company ran and operated by people who actually live in Michigan. I was promoted twice in two years. The opportunity for growth was present, there were always employees transfering departments. Great cafeteria with staff chefs and cooks, flat screen tv's, barbeque cookouts in the summer. Overtime. Really a lot of nice perks.

Cons – While the opportunity for growth was there....the pay for performance was severely lacking. While I was promoted twice in a short period of time, I was kept at the same pay grade. Most people within the company were unhappy with their job. Upper Management puts unnecessary pressure on its lower management and that just trickles down to the common employees. Smoke breaks given to people to smoke, but if you do not smoke, do not expect a break other than your lunch. If you called in sick, your manager would call you back and ask what was wrong, why you were taking the day off. Very little respect for work/life balance.

Advice to Senior Management – Actually listen to the empolyees, if you give them more freedom, they will perform better.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Current Employee – been working at Flagstar Bancorp

Pros – New hires are generally well paid and given opportunities to establish themselves. Support for training and professional development is also generally high. The bank is also frequently investigating or implementing new systems to bolster it's mortgage and lending platforms.

Cons – At times management and it's actions completely disconnect from reality in the IT department. IT makes solving problems long term very difficult. I can't speak for banking. The new management seems to be aligning the banking and lending arms with the needs of small businesses and mortgage consumers well.

Advice to Senior Management – This company used to have a very "Family Owned" feel to it. There were minor social events which brought the various people and areas of the bank together, if only briefly. I know the more sarcastic employees scoffed at these gestures, but they did have an impact on overall morale and the familiarity of people within various business groups.

Former Employee – worked at Flagstar Bancorp

Pros – Nice employees.lots of locations. Great products

Cons – lack of advancement opportunity for employees

Advice to Senior Management – keep it up

Former Employee – worked at Flagstar Bancorp

Pros – Flexibility to work from home. Good benefits.

Cons – Lack of career path. Goal planning and performance reviews are not taken seriously by employees.

Advice to Senior Management – Quit playing favorites and make the organizational changes to distribute duties to the right teams.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Flagstar Bancorp

Pros – The company has some really skilled programmers and architects that allows a junior to grow.

Cons – However due to all kinds of management changes, you may get luck and get your promotion just by being there the right time and right spot, or you may be given the lip service forever.

Former Employee – worked at Flagstar Bancorp

Pros – - Used to have a pretty good management trainee rotation program, but I heard it has since been discountinued.
- Generally friendly people to work with
- There was not a strong expectation to work more than 40 hours in my area

Cons – - The banking industry can be depressing to work in especially when I was there in 2008 and watched an entire department get cut
- Some significant silos were in certain departments (from the top down)
- Pay didn't seem that competitive, although the economy was partially at fault because I worked there 2006-2009 and salaries were frozen

Advice to Senior Management – I was there during the worst crisis in 70 years and unfortunately Flagstar did not get through it well. The capital infusions from both TARP and Matlin Patterson diluted the shares significantly and when I left the company was in shambles. Mark Hammond is a very smart guy and appeared to be a great economist, but he really didn't see this crisis coming.

It appears the current CEO is trying to make things better by diversifying, but I think he is going about it in the wrong way. Just because the CEO has contacts in the Northeast does not make it a good strategy since Flagstar had no existing footprint there. Taking one failed strategy at Soverign and making it a strategy at Flagstar while continuing to bleed cash seems like a very bad short term outcome for all of your shareholders. I wish FBC the best, but I have extreme doubts that any shareholder will get even half of their initial investment (MP included).

One last point to the current CEO, stop blaming "legacy" on everything in your conference calls. You have been there for over 2 years, it is now your responsibility.

Former Employee – worked at Flagstar Bancorp

Pros – Co-workers, interesting coding challenges. Flexible work time if required

Cons – Work overload. So many cutbacks and takeaways. Lower management helpless when it come to giving raises.