Hcsc Reviews

Pros

Benefits were good, gorgeous location

Cons

People promoted and given opportunities for growth based on who you know, not capabilities. It's the place of mediocrity. Management is without strategic vision, decisions are political and fear-based. Fearful of health care reform and challenges, focus is on maintaining the status quo. Very republican, conservative mindset. Most of management is with minimal education, certifications. Emphasis is on years there.

Advice to Senior Management

Embrace the 21st century! Use technology to cut costs, not just hitting the payroll.

Pros

Great benefits package. 10% annual bonuses are almost guaranteed (exempt) even during the recession. If you are part of management it is 20% or more. If you are patient and are willing to settle or take crap, you can make enough money for a good living (buy a house, live downtown, get time shares).

Cons

Don't be fooled by the modern exterior, everything else is archaic and most people have become complacent. There are only a handful of people with any real independent thoughts of their own, while the others are there simply for the paycheck with no care about the job they do. And why should they? In a few years, those same people apply for another position, leaving behind the mess they created for the poor sap who gets hired to replace them. Good luck trying to bring about change, your peers will often give you a puzzled look and tell you that it is not worth it and just come in for 8 and a half hours then go home. Your management will ignore you because knowledge is frowned upon and you are expected to do what you are told inspite of management saying that they "encourage" the staff to bring ideas.

Advice to Senior Management

Reevaluate the organization. Invest in the long term, not for a quick fix. I have never been at a company where there are so many tiers in a title or job function which is due to accommodating people who have been there forever. Reward people who bring VALUE. Right now, only the people who are playing the system are being rewarded - I have known people who have gotten their Masters or Bachelors degree while employeed at HCSC and they discover they can't get a job outside HCSC for the same salary. You are left with a company where people leave because their skills are undervalued while people with less skill are retained and overpaid.

Pros

Great place to work, good benefits, great work life balance

Cons

Promotion are mostly based on who you know and notalway what

Pros

Good benefits package, Health, Dental, 401k pension.
Good atmosphere and environment
If you are on the right teams promotion and development can be achieved quickly

Cons

HSCS red tape and bureaucratic red tape.
Outdated and inflexible systems
The business and IT are very siloed and do not communicate well.
Planning is really lacking, we end up in crisis management most of the time

Advice to Senior Management

Take a wholistic view of our infrastructure and business processes. Understand that going from a small life insurer focusing on five to fifty life groups to a ancillary benefits company that focuses on national accounts does not come easy or cheap

Pros

Benefits package is good overall. Some facilities have fitness centers and cafeterias with decent food. The building facilities and grounds are very well kept and maintained.

Cons

I see a lot of promotions given to people who do very little work. I know several supervisors with only a high school diploma managing technicians with bachelor or master's degrees. Say the right words and you can bluff your way with management into believing you deserve a promotion and then just sit back while the rest of your team does most of the work. HCSC is technologically behind and they know it. With the new health care law, they are playing catch-up. They are making demands with IT to install new technologies in a short time frame. IT is extremely overworked due to poor planning on the part of management. They preach work/life, but the stress is more on the work part due to poor decisions and planning.

The IT department has team members spread out between the major remote sites. i.e. Chicago, Waukegan, Richardson, Tulsa. It is quite apparent the people who work in the Waukegan data center do double or triple the work then their other team members in the other offices.

HCSC has a Compliance department to prevent retaliation, but retaliation is alive and well in this company.

Advice to Senior Management

I see a lot of good people leaving this company. You preach SDM and don't follow it at all. People are overworked due to demanding time lines you specify on projects.

Pros

Very good benefits, medical plan, dental, vacation, pension. Stability. Work-life balance.

Cons

Lack of real "open door" policy regarding communication with management.
Some corporate policies misguided.
Lack of consensus.

Advice to Senior Management

Get on the same page when making policy. Enable employees to voice concerns openly.

Pros

Benefits are good. Being the insurance company, you get great insurance coverage for practically nothing. Being a large company there is plenty of opportunity to make relationships and move around. The people are awesome. Lots of diversity. I believed in the people here.

Cons

As I worked in ITG (my comments are based on my experiences within this department)

Office politics are the name of the game here... You do not have to actually perform here. You only need to TELL people you do. If you know how to "kiss up" or happen to be related to someone in power...you will have to do little besides show up and smile. The other members of your team will have to pick up the slack.

Very poorly managed silo groups (they call them teams, but carry no characteristics of a team)
The structure of the environment is not designed for success. If you are one of those people what actually love what you do and come to work to actually make an impact and not just collect a paycheck...this is NOT the place for you.

Truly talented and motivated employees will be discouraged. Talented staff shoulder most of the workload. Management does not seem to care about their employees as individuals nor do they rely on their expertise. Little effort is made to gather the collective strengths of the employees (which are plentiful) and work together to find and work toward a solution. (which btw is by definition a characteristic of a Team)

Management at ITG is highly unqualified. The TRU is run by a relative of the Dept. Manager and no effort is made to hide their inappropriate relationship. Others feel threatened and moral suffers greatly. This department is filled with Nepotism and retaliation practices.

Senior managers are more worried about how to "sell" themselves to their boss than properly managing the people below them. I have never witnessed such insubordination in such high level positions! It was surreal!

It is not enough that you have a highly technical job and lots of work to do, but you will have to spend mountains of time documenting/recording/presenting your daily activities- all for the soul purpose of convincing your boss's boss that he/she is valuable.

Ethics, and Compliance awareness shoved down your throat and drilled into your head but these values are only preached, not practiced. I did not feel "safe" to speak my mind on serious issues.
Everyone on my team agreed that any criticism (even constructive and politically correct) would not be well received. Upper Management surrounded themselves with "yes men". Just agree. Even if you know it will cost the company money and even if you are fully aware there are better options. Just keep your 'expert opinion' to yourself!

this is really only the tip of an iceberg of problems... I tried for years to avoid or understand/come to terms with some of these issues but eventually realized that it was a losing battle.

Advice to Senior Management

Really need to find out who is actually working and who has plenty of time to "tell you" what they are doing. Stop simply reacting to issues that could have been avoided by simply taking the time needed to find out what the real problems are, and the real offenders, and deal with that specifically.

The structure of the environment is not designed for success. Too much importance put on structure and policies. There needs to be room for management to make changes as necessary to certain policies or create room for special circumstances. (ie. projects that go above and beyond the normal scope of the job should not go above and beyond a normal 8 hour work day)

Job Descriptions should match the actual duties of the position. This should be a no-brainer.
This practice allows management to dictate any amount of workload/responsibilities on their employees and not have to compensate them accordingly. If monetary value cannot be awarded, offer other incentives that cost the company nothing but add value to the employee, such as work from home, comp time, flex hours, ect..
Understand that some managers have personal problems with these 'new-age policies' (such as WFH) and have absolutely NO business related basis for denying it to their team. Either change the policies so it is not up to individual managers discretion or REQUIRE solid evidence/reason for the denial. The benefits you receive should not be based upon the year your manager graduated high school or their personal beliefs.
BOTTOM LINE- all employees in the same level should enjoy the SAME benefits approved by the company.

Understand that the 'A Game Players' that are talented, motivated and know it, will be the first to go if they are under appreciated or under utilized. These are the people that can really help a company succeed thru hard times with their innovating and can-do attitude. These employees should be recognized, protected and given room to flourish.

Pros

HCSC makes a lot of money, so they can pay competitive compensation. As a health insurer, they also offer great health insurance. If you are an IT professional, HCSC is THE place to be. IT runs the company. Being in IT is almost like being the CEO of the company.

Cons

I worked in the Financial area. HCSC is extremely unsophisticated and not interested in improving systems or employee life. Since HCSC is not publicly traded (it's a private company), it doesn't need to produce financial statements. The only statements it needs to produce are quarterly reports (for state compliance). These statements are, in reality, pretty much an afterthought. States are mainly concerned about liquidity - is the company likely to fold and dump a ton of uninsured people on the state. At HCSC, however, because of a government billing scandal around 1995 or so, finance is presented to be very important. What this leads to is basically lots of pressure and urgency and last second changes, but you are basically rubbing 2 sticks together to make fire. They are using the same billing systems, communication channels, accounting systems, etc since they incorporated. Want report X? You have to call person Y, because it uses system Z and you don't have access to that. They are out and your boss wants it in 2 hours? Well you are screwed. Repeat this about 100 times and you have the life of the average finance employee @ HCSC.

Advice to Senior Management

The company makes between $700mm and $1bb a year - and that's AFTER IT gets done wasting a zillion dollars customizing, buying other software, and re-customizing software only to, in the end, scrap it all and buy something else. Do something to make finance a better place to work, and you might actually have some talented people stay for a few years. If you are going to have a finance department, you might as well have a good one, even though no one genuinely cares about the financial reports.

Pros

Flexible work hours and friendly people that work here. Good benefits are given to employees. Good environment to meet and network with other people

Cons

Not much room for advancement.

Pros

Great benefits, but they should its a health care insurance company

Cons

They talk change but don't want it. Managers think they are your parents. 1st line management needs serious training. I never want to walk on the street where this building is located.

Advice to Senior Management

Shake things up! Restructure those who been there for a blissfully 25 years need new assignments or just leave. Employees are unhappy!