Pros

Opportunity to sell new ideas. Easy to stand out if you're sharp and/or have a pedigree. Good work/life balance.

Cons

Old stale lethargic culture. Lots of inertia that resists change. Not the brightest people. Politics.

Advice to Senior Management

Forget your nest egg and join the new millennium.

Pros

Great products, great client satisfaction, great public image. Happy providers. Health benefits could have been better, but overall benefit package was very comprehensive with reasonable employee compensation.

Cons

The public image of Humana and what went on inside the company were in conflict. I became tired of hearing how well the financials and profits looked, yet the expectations regarding work and home life balance were in many cases exploitive to the point of being unconscionable. The proper staffing was lacking, and the sacrifices were made by the employees and not Humana's bottom line. In many cases management did little or nothing to improve processes to save money, and laid out their "expectations" without solid basis (arbitrary) and with a very autocratic management style. Asking for feedback or listening to feedback was not an option. I felt the management in general were not good stewards of the premiums they collected except for how it looked to the shareholders. Many in management lack college educations and management training, and many came from jobs outside of the industry. There is a widespread air among management that they are a class apart from other employees. Unprofessionalism on the part of management is common in the way they communicate with and pressure employees. Employees in some cases were unreasonably withheld opportunities for time off that they had earned.

Advice to Senior Management

Hire qualified, educated management; hire from within the industry for management. Make cultural change in management philosophy and treatment of employees. Implement quality improvement programs utilizing employees to become better stewards of premiums and spending; solicit open and honest feedback from employees and act upon it. When there are abuses of power, act swiftly to investigate and correct the problem. Realize that in many cases Humana is successful in spite of its management, not because of it. Employees are your customers and are of incredible value, but that is something that needs to be felt, not just window dressing. I originally thought these were just regional issues, but now believe that there are management issues that go to the top level in some divisions. Whether this goes all the way to Mike McCallister is not known to me. It will take a major effort and conviction at the Sr. Mgmt level to change it's style of management. I would recommend bringing in experts and following their advice.

Pros

Solid, financially sound
Nice work environment
Good management team
Healthy work/ life balance
Promotes cross-team collaboration
Company works hard to keep good employees
Employee recognition is a priority
Employee longevity milestones are honored
Generous vacation policy

Cons

Need work in setting and communicating company standards
No overtime compensation
Difficult to learn point of contacts in various departments
Very departmentalized
Lots of red tape involved in getting purchase requests approved

Advice to Senior Management

Listen more to employees concerns.

Pros

It is a challenging place to work -- with interesting assignments and and cutting edge leadership.

Cons

Culturally, it is trapped in the 80s. The dress code needs to change to business casual for all campuses.

Advice to Senior Management

I would change the dress code to business casual. Most employers made this change years ago, but for some reason Humana continues to lag behind.

Pros

Humana pays very competitively compared to other insurance companies or even other customer service jobs. The training was adequate and the work environment was suitable. Generally team members were fun to be around. Humana was very up-front with its expectations from employees.

Cons

The benefits, while cheap, were not what I expect from an insurance company. The only options are high deductible plans, which do not work well with some people. Advancement is mostly lateral, and favors time invested with the company over actual skill/production. I was there two years and found it extremely challenging to move up. Communication from leadership about changes in procedures is often counter-intuitive and it is difficult to get questions about it answered. Sometimes they "forget" to tell you very important things about changes in the company. Managerial quality varies greatly within departments. The sick policy is draconian, forcing you to be written up regardless of if you have a valid doctor's excuse or not. I saw one representative who was written up for having an emergency surgery.

Advice to Senior Management

You need to start offering much better feedback on suggestions from employees. Nothing discourages people more then them making a suggestion and hearing nothing back. There needs to be a better means of reviewing managers to determine who is productive and who is not, and those who are not productive need additional training or to be restructured into a different position. Refresher courses for employees should be available upon request after approval from supervision.

Pros

I like Case Management Work, I can either work from home or in the office. I like my co-wprkers. Three weeks vacation upon hire.

Cons

If you are looking for a good Health Insurance Plan, you will not receive at Humana. I have been with the company a little while. We use to have good Health Insurance beneifts. We had a traditional PPO. Now we are forced to select 3 options of High Deductible. If you are carrying your family as I am, the cost is HORRIBLE! I am Case Managing Employer Groups with the old traditional PPO and it pisses me off, we are no longer able to have that same plan. I use to give 150%, to see that things got done on time and put in efforts far beyond the normal. NO LONGER! If Humana thinks so little of employees that we have to now take the CRAP Plan, then, I am going home at 5pm and NOT starting untill the normal start time. Before it was a a Great commitment on my part to Humana. NOW it's just a J-O-B. The other thing is you go to two Summits a year, For me it's o big deal, I live near the summit site. But Humana spends Hugh amounts of money, flying, and paying for rental cars and rooms carting thousands of employees around vaious parts of the country. Nothing is gained from an employee persepctive, except falling behind on work. It usually is a bunch of people running around Drunk playing stuipd bonding games. Really, Humana should save the money.

Advice to Senior Management

GO BACK to the traditional PPO Plan. STOP the STUPID SUMMITS

Pros

Co-workers are dedicated and work hard. Occasional perks in lieu of monies as an incentive for working hard toward goals.

Cons

Disregard for employees demonstrated by Senior Leadership-withholding monetary compensation as a rule, Dickensian rigor rules when sharing profits. The messages that are trumpeted as "Vision" die on the vine due to unwillingness to provide necessary resources to actually accomplish said vision. Morale is mainly due to sharing of work among too few employees. During hiring process employees are told occasional overtime is required, then a slick lowball offer (salary) is made and reality steps in-overtime is constant and needed on a daily, if not weekly basis.

Advice to Senior Management

Take eyes off of yourselves and consider those who actually do the work-be fair. If you actually value people, then let your actions offer a congruence to the words that are so easily spoken.

Pros

For the most mart the co-worker in your area are like family.

Cons

Beyond your direct co-workers everyone is your enemy and people walk around paranoid never knowing who is goin to stab them in the back. After years of service they look for a reason to remove you like the governments of some countries. People just disapear and know one nows why are what happend. They ask for your opinion then write you up for giving a suggestion.

Advice to Senior Management

You are part of the World economy. Stop complaining that you only made 815 million in profit last year and give your employees a "thank you" for not draging you into chapter 11. Stop being so greedy ! We employees are stock holders too.

Pros

Some of the sections are GREAT places to work. Excellent relationships with your coworkers and your boss. Humana is pretty much the big dog in Louisville and it seems like everyone wants to work here. Humana does try to do things right, but sometimes they might not be the right things. Can be committed to change, just have a hard time following through, etc. Pay can be great, if you can get it.

Cons

Seniority is definitely favored over competence. Too many managers have been here too long and just are not up to the task of leading a Fortune 100 company. What aggravates the problem is that many of the directors and VP’s are unable or unwilling to move or remove their ineffectual leadership. VERY little training given to new managers and again, most are out of their league (Peter Principle). They are on their own once they get promoted and as such most do not have the tools, much less actual experience to help them.

There is a big divide between the Manager-class (who can get yearly bonuses) and the associates (who don’t). There is no standard of performance across the roles. Your promotion potential is more dependant upon the interest and qualities of your manager, than your own capabilities/education/competence/experience, etc. Some sections promote often and early and others only once in a blue moon.

Advice to Senior Management

Making manager should not be the pinnacle of your career. You need to define a path for promotion - whether or not it is acted upon is the key. Some folks are quite happy where they are and others want more, but you will lose your deep bench if you maintain the status quo with your Managers and Director leadership teams. These folks MUST have the opportunity to excel in other areas and validate that they truly are manager material.

Pros

For the most part this is an okay place to work. Reasonable opportunity to advance if you wish, good training resources available online and in the workplace. Pay and benefits are fair compared to the market.

Cons

Business needs take precedent over holidays, so be prepared to not have certain holidays off. You are compensated extra for having to work though. There can be quick changes in management and since Humana hires based on leadership potential sometimes rather then experience, you may end up with a manager that doesn't know much about how a certain department works.

Advice to Senior Management

There are many good managers and frontline leaders at Humana. There are, of course, some bad ones. It would be nice to have a better way to give feedback on how managers are doing to their manager. Specifically, in one case I'd have like the opportunity to suggest where a manager could improve their leadership skills, and in another case, I'd like the opportunity to tell the manager's manager that they're doing a great job.