HMS Holdings Reviews

Pros

Great company, good pay and opportunities

Cons

More opportunity for advancements, faster promotions

Advice to Senior Management

I really do not have any advice to management

Pros

Good Work Life Balance
Effective communication from Leadership

Cons

Poor Pay compared to others for similar roles

Advice to Senior Management

The compensation structure should be revised to retain talent

Pros

HMS offers decent non-monetary benefits, such as vacation time and insurance options. There has been a recent trend over the last few years to contribute to charities and the local community.

Cons

Management at HMS likes to make random, ill-thought-out changes without informing anyone affected by those changes until the last possible moment. They still operate like a company of 800 employees, rather than a rapidly growing company with over 2,000 employees around the country - for example, to hire a salaried employee, a manager will have to get approval from every level up to the CEO. Promotions are given or denied on a whim, and when they are denied, both HR and the hiring manager just stop communicating with the candidate - no explanation, no response, nothing. There is no clear path to advancement at HMS, as a worker can far exceed whatever goals are placed in front of him or her and still be passed over in favor of an employee who has been w/ the company for 6 months with no proven results.

Advice to Senior Management

HMS has done all it can to expend whatever good will it might have had with its employees. In my experience, workers are riding out the recession here, and when unemployment goes back down, you're going to see a serious exodus of talent if you don't start showing some appreciation to the people who make your $250K Aston Martin possible.

Pros

The pros at HMS are:
-The benefits package (excluding salary)
-You might luck out and get a decent boss
-Your lateral colleagues can be great to work with
-The chance of getting fired or laid off are small since they would rather you quit
-Financially stable company

Cons

At this company, it is not about how smart you are, how much you know about the core business, or any such logical approach - it is all about who you know and how you look. You can be a complete moron and not even understand the basics, but know the right person and you will be promoted or rewarded over better candidates, especially if you dress in the style of corporate-drab. Also, the more initials you have after your name, the better. You can have an MBA from Junkyard University and will be perceived as more qualified than the person with a BA or MA from an elite liberal arts college who has demonstrated competence and ability through years of real-world experience.

Beware of offered promotions. I accepted one years back thinking "good career move" and ended up inheriting a disastrous project with an irate client. The person who left the project a disaster with an irate client? Promoted.

I have seen employees at this company receive average ratings at review time and receive healthy merit increases and bonuses while other employees receive the highest ratings at review time and receive so little in monetary recognition that a zero bonus and zero merit increase would have been kinder. Throughout my years at this company, I have yet to see bonus amounts or merit increases be even remotely tied to performance reviews; such items are all about how the higher-ups "feel" about the employee in question.

If you do want to work here, I offer the following advice. Do not smoke (if you do, quit, as they are becoming extremely anti-smoking), dress corporate drab (if you are told business casual, go for one step below suit), identify someone for daily brown-nosing, be prepared to steal your co-workers' good ideas to WOW the executives, throw out any desire for work/life balance, make sure to put in a minimum of 50 hours per week (60 hours is better!), and make sure to spend too much time making pretty reports (for some reason, pretty reports are highly regarded by the executives, even when they are useless or duplicative of a report already in use). Get in as much face time with your boss's boss's boss. And negotiate as high a salary/wage as you can to start because the "merit increases" are not going to cover any cost of living increase.

Advice to Senior Management

-The entire company needs more transparency - internal information should not be lost in the black hole that is the Irving office
-More integration of the various units - the current company is choppy
-Promotions should be reserved for people who deserve them or are at least competent
-You should be willing to get rid of the middle-managers and above who are liabilities
-You should listen to the employees on the ground since they know what is really happening with clients

Pros

future oriented, cost-effective and good for patients

Cons

complex, there is no end if you start trying to make things running easier.

Advice to Senior Management

more transparency

Pros

HMS is the 800 lb gorilla on the block when it comes to health care recovery for state Medicaid agencies. This company is "recession proof" to a certain extent. Your job is stable as long as you don't become redundant or do something stupid.

Cons

Limited career growth through promotions. Pay is below industry standard for IT people. Lots and lots of politics with the different departments - you must have a thick skin and be prepared for lots of finger pointing. Pay increases are COLA but they call it a performance increase. Actual performance increase have never occurred in my time at the company. Company will spend lots of money on systems that don't go anywhere and eventually get scrapped. Systems are adhoc systems - nothing works well together. Be prepared to have alot of system problems when on-call. Lack of direction by senior management on how systems should support the business. Senior management talks a good talk about employee integrity and improving staff moral. In the end Senior management is paid very well with restricted stock options. Communication between department is very secretive - every thing is silo'ed.

Advice to Senior Management

Walk the talk and stop paying lip service. Have a better grip on internal strategic initiatives that will succeed instead of failing. leadership pay should include internal successes and meeting sales goals. Stop being so secretive - be open to honest communication up and down the chain of command.

Pros

Most managers are accomodating of personal issues, benefits are OK

Cons

"Leadership" is not a valued quality at HMS. Nepotism is the name of the game - all the way up to Bill Lucia, promotions are determined by relationship with management and not by quality of work.

Advice to Senior Management

Train individuals before they are promoted to leadership positions! Leadership is a learned quality, and few of your leaders are taught it.

Pros

Learn ,gain experience,no worry of layoff

Cons

Salaries are less tha industry standards.lot of offcie politics

Pros

The best thing for me are the people with whom I work with.
They are awesome and if your lucky you will work with some very cool people.
I love the PTO time that I recieved, however it has been cut back in the previous two years for new hires. The work depending on the department you are in can be very boring or very challenging (as in any job)

Cons

Sometimes you can get stuck in a rut and not have the chance to move up within the company.
I also have noticed more butt kissing as a way to move up the ranks. it that is your thing you will probably do well.

Advice to Senior Management

I would advise them to not over promise t o your employees when you can't deliver the goods.
It only creates a bad environment and makes you come off bad.

Pros

HMS has experienced double digit growth and the market fo rthis company appears to be strong for years to come.

Cons

Some HMS divisions do not have a consistent business strategy, infrastructure, or adequate leadership to support the services they offer.

Advice to Senior Management

Do not try and save money utilizing unseasoned, inexperienced regional managers to provide LOB leadership and strategy.