Genworth Financial Reviews

Pros

Genworth offers decent pay and fairly good benefits. It also has a respected name behind it and is HQed in Richmond, VA which is a fairly inexpensive and low stress environment in which to live.

Cons

There are major issues with upper and middle management at this company. The upper management makes many unrealistic requests and middle management very rarely has the backbone to stand up for the employees. Employees time isn't valued and working late nights and weekends is common. However, unlike a law firm or IB there are not large bonuses to follow or anything such as the route to make "partner" as this is a public corporation. I was flat out told that vacations of more than one work week were "innapropriate," so if you have family overseas be prepared not to see them.

I was irritated by the fact that all of the work was run the engine and when I asked about how to differentiate myself, I was given a response roughly akin to "now is not the time to worry about that." The mentality was always that the sky was falling and no one in middle management would ever help to facilitate a few working days to actually improve a process or a forecasting model.

Overall it was a very depressing place to be and while working there I felt there was no upward mobility and real ability for lateral moves to other groups where opportunities would be more fruitful.

End of the day, a large portion of my group was laid off and of the 5 remaining, 3 left the company for greener pastures. I have no ill will towards the individuals, I just hope the company has changed and that all of that acts as a wake up call.

Advice to Senior Management

Strive for innovation and process improvements. Listen to the people who actually do the work. It is very easy for a VP or Director to make a lot promises when it isn't him/her actually building the models and providing the outputs.

Several iterations of a plan is reasonable. 25 iterations is ridiculous, especially when the processing time is several days including all work-streams.

Pros

Generous time off.
Ability to work from a remote location (home).

Cons

The Mortgage Insurance business in Raleigh is on life-support and the Senior Leadership is in panic mode to save their jobs. The infighting and betrayal is rampant right now. This used to be a very good place to work, but unfortunately the financial pressures are bringing down the quality of life at USMI. Promotions are based upon on a "who you know" good 'ole boy network with classic "Peter Principal" leadership.

The place has lost its heart...

Advice to Senior Management

Get back to your core principals and focus on generating revenue from writing good business and not cutting jobs of the best and brightest who saved you from runoff. You are in reactionary panic mode right now and cannot see 5 feet in front of you.

Pros

Leader in using tech. to get job done.

Cons

No set rules, which lead to confusion and workers getting screwed over when they are not aware of changes

Advice to Senior Management

Stand up more for the front line employee

Pros

Great Benefits and good starting compensation and they offer programs and classes for development. They also with sponsor employees to get their licenses.

Cons

Difficult to grow and develop career if you don't know the right people. Communication is very poor and people to not listen which hinders the progress of projects and work in general.

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to listen to their employees since the majority of upper management does not understand their employees' roles and will impliment changes that hinder the progess of work.

Pros

The best reason to work at Genworth is the people. They are truly professional, nice, supportive and management is very open and communicative.

Cons

Disappointed I was laid off - not too many negatives at Genworth!

Pros

Good management that believes in ideas flowing from line leaders. Lot of new managers in the past few years helping change the old GE culture. Overall good place to work compared to CapOne or other local companies.

Cons

Lot of new managers in the past few years helping change the old GE culture. Overall good place to work compared to CapOne or other local companies.

Advice to Senior Management

You are no linger GE, work with your employees and customers to ensure a good company that is focused on selling right insurance products in the market place.

Pros

Benefits and community involvement are excellent. They have a great volunteer support environment and high community interaction.

Cons

Overtime is an unstated expectation and work/life balance are not well supported. Recent change in management attitudes toward stricter rules and less personal autonomy.

Advice to Senior Management

Do more than say you want happy employees. Business needs are necessary but more personal consideration of employee impact and transparency would help with employee morale.

Pros

Decent Pay, time off policy was good too.

Cons

Unless you're located in HQ there is a very disjointed feeling about the firm

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the good work of creating more open communication.

Pros

- Good Pay for Intermediate Level Employees (2-5 years experience)
- Great Benefits - 401k, Low Premiums, Tuition Reimbursement
- Great People - You'll learn a lot - Lots of Passion About Business & Industry
- 20 Days of CTO!!!
- Fortune 500 Name on Your Resume
- Gym, Cafeteria, Covered Parking
- Good Location in Richmond - Convenient

Cons

- High Stress on Employees, Sometimes Management Focuses on Wrong Things
- Stone Cold Faces in Meetings - People Biting their Tongues, Afraid to Speak Up and Express
- Management has Big Hand to Slap You Down if You have Ideas or Propose Change
- Management will Squeeze You Out if You Don't Fit - High Favoritism
- Hard Workers Don't Get Noticed - Lots of Sucking Up, Talking Golf and Politics
- Minorities have to work Twice as Hard to Make Themselves Look Good in This Environment
- Lots of Brooks Brother Wearing Stiff People - Combination of UofR and Insurance Conservatism
- People Obsessed with Work and Their Familes - No Hobbies - Boring People

Advice to Senior Management

Stop letting people get stuck in Band 4. Finding a Band 3 position is almost impossible. There's not a lot of opportunities - Work 1 position for 1-2 years, Move To Another Lateral Position, Get a 2-3% raise - Rinse and Repeat. We need clearer goals and need to define the company more. Our big loss on MI was surprising to everyone. Overall, I like the CEO and most of management. Layoffs are common though - Hopefully they don't have another - I have friends who still work there.

Pros

great training, strong culture, still has GE managers

Cons

Pay at entry level is low versus market.

Advice to Senior Management

better communication of goals and strategy