ING Reviews

Pros

The location of the office in Atlanta. Also, they have the best caferia in any state that I have ever worked in. The guard and cafeteria staff are the brightest points of working at ING. They are nice, happy and positive and do not allow the rude and dysfunctional people who work there affect their attitudes!

Cons

During my time at ING, 99% of management was extremely unprofessional. Sometimes, they did not know what they were doing and quite frankly, we flew by the seat of our pants 90% of the time. Also, camaraderie does not exist at ING. IING has the absolute rudest employees. Managers go out of their way it ignore their favorites and you rarely get a smile or a nod from your fellow employees. Someone needs to put an attitude adjustment in the water filtration system there.

Pros

Competetive benefit package-401k, Life, Heath, Vision, Insurance, 160 hours of PTO per year, shopping discounts.

Cons

Inadequate training-If you want to have a chance at succeeding at this job, you'd better make sure that your IQ is above 140 becuase you will be rebuked for asking questions. Furthermore, if you have questions, very often nobody will be available to answer your questions anyway and the resources that are provided to you will not have the information either, so, if you need to ask a question, sorry, you're on your own. Also, the ING Field Agents that we speak to on the phone are very often poorly trained and just as clueless about company policies and procedures and IRS Rules regarding retirement plans as the customer. Which brings me to:

Poor Communication amongst all the parties of ING's retirment plans: Very often the plan managers that make the agreements with the Sponsors don't communicate to the Sponsors, the local Field Agents, or the Home Office about how to instruct the customer on how to go about making a desired transaction. For example, we receive instrutions that we need to refer the customer to the employer for a given transaction and the employer doesn't know what to do, so they refer them to the local Agent who in turn refers them to the Home Office, where, consequently, many of our phone calls are from customers who are clueless about what to do and feel they are "getting the runaround" because nobody knows what's going on. I've never run a business (yet), but I do know that you can't run a business this way.

Technology-This company hasn't joined the 21st Century. If you are a participant in a retirment plan with ING, you can't do a lot online. Want to change your address or phone number? Take money out? Sorry, you can't do that online. You have to call and do it over the phone or for most "money out" transactions you have to fill out paperwork and then obtain you employer's (or former employer's) signature. And once you submit the paperwork (again, only fax and snail mail availlable) you had better not forget to sign the paperwork, otherwise you'll have to go through the whole paperwork process again. When I told the carrier of a 401k I had through a previous employer tha't I wanted to roll it over, they said, 'OK, give us the address over the phone and we'll mail the check" They didn't make me fill out paperwork or get my former employer's signature and from what I've heard, neither do ING's major competitors, which brings me to the next problem...

Malicious and Mafia-like Management. You managers evaluate you according to your numbers, so be prepared to be treated like one-In light of all the unnecessarily complicated procedures, you'd better make sure that you make no mistakes, because they they will have no patience with you. Even if you are doing a good job in the majority of areas, if you have even just one metric that isn't in line with their arbitrary numbers and measurments that they choose, your meetings with your manager will be more like meetings with The Godfather. This ties in with what I said about training-they expect you have it all in your head when you start the job and if you hang in there for 4 months they will expect you to do your job as good as someone who has been doing it for 4 years.

Advice to Senior Management

Give as much focus to your customers and employees as you do to your procedures. Invest more in technology to make the customer service experience better. Encourage managers not just to be managers, but to be leaders-if you let a bunch of numbers tell you how well an emplyee is doing his/her job, you don't need a human for a manager. I am a human being, not a number.

Pros

- Uncapped earning potential
-Freedom (essentially your own boss)
-Little experience needed to apply/accell for(in) this position
-Networking opportunities

Cons

-Long, exhausting hours (9am-8pm)
-UNFAIR compensation
-MISLEADING job description
-FALSE (AND NONEXISTENT) Salary (Say it is a base salary - but there is absolutely NO salary)
-NO benefits

Advice to Senior Management

First of all you are not really an employee of ING - you work for some other financial group usually listed as the principal of the company. Secondly, they advertise this position to young recent college grads because they can take advantage of you. It is all about how many rich and powerful people you know. They make you target your friends and family but if they are not willing to fork over $100k or have an extensive retirement package they want to roll over to you, to manage fresh out of college with no experience then forget it, this job is not for you. They take all advantage by making you work 11 hour days until you make enough money not to. ALSO, you have to PAY to work there office fees such as rent and supplies on a monthly basis. Thirdly, the "competitive base salary"they advertise as an attractive incentive for this job is completely false. You do not start making ANY money until you've reached at least 32k, once you hit that they start releasing your earnings on a bi-weekly basis. Lastly, if you decide that this isn't for you or find a job that will actually pay you within a year of obtaining your licenses and quit before the first year - YOU HAVE TO PAY ING for your license fees, $3,700. So before you get suckered into this unbeatable offer where you can make more than any of your friends, PLEASE please consider these things as they are not told to anyone before they sign their lives away at ING.

Pros

great people to work with. unlimited growth, my boss was very cheap, it also not exactly ING, it was independent company

Cons

it wasnt the greatest place, long work hours, low pay, it was tough to start a business there because the growth was limited

Advice to Senior Management

try to pay yiour employees more and treat them better without throwing them no money out on the steets okay

Pros

There were free bagels and donuts on Fridays. Discounted Yoga was offered to employees once a week during office hours.

Cons

Lack of communication between staff and management. Management was very quick to point the finger under any questionable circumstance. The training program is non-existent. Lack of guidance for new employees.

Advice to Senior Management

I would expect management to take a higher interest in their new employes to ensure they get the proper training for continued success. There were many processes that were not explained the with the logic behind it. Some of the training consisted of copy/paste this, click here, drag that and save. When questions were asked about logic, they weren't always well received.

Pros

Competetive 401k match and health benefit package. Training readily available for product knowledge and growth. Respect from collegues over job performance.

Cons

During the downside of the market there were many organizational changes that had an adverse effect on employees and customers.

Advice to Senior Management

Communication is such a valuable asset between management and those that are being managed. The feedback should certainly be used in decision making.

Pros

The prior organization was purchased by ING so it was not by choice to have worked there. ING appeared to be a good organization.

Cons

Communication about our division and future job opportunites was not good.

Pros

The best thing about ING is its benefits. They start from Day One. That is honestly the best thing about the company.

Cons

They offer Incentives but it depends on how the company performs. My incentive after my first year was $230. They also have an incentive that pays each quarter but it depends on how customers rate the service you provide to them from 1-5. 1 being good, 5 being horrible. If the client presses a 5 by accident the company doesnt take that into consideration so it messes up your chances of getting the incentive. Also there is favoritism. I find it very a co-worker is dating and living with their direct supervisor. That is a confict of interest. Also, they never close for snow storms and if you choose your life over work, they count it against your attendance adherence which could in turn cost you your job.

Advice to Senior Management

Be more considerate towards employees// stop showing favoritism//give better incentives and pay.

Pros

College tuition, promote work/life balance, courteous colleagues, opportunity for advancement depending on location. The feedback is honest and helpful. Some good educational and mentoring tools available.

Cons

Work/life balance works for some not others. Sometimes it feels like a competition who can put in the most hours. Can be more organized across funtioncal teams to eliminate late nights. Technology in some areas is lacking but it is improving. Management surveys lack any meaningful review and action items to follow on.

Advice to Senior Management

Provide employees with the proper tool set to get the done. Don't feed employees propaganda or blow smoke. Let's try to avoid a round of layoffs before the holiday season. The past couple years has been frustrating with layoffs then a month or two later the hiring is back. Move employees to other areas of the business /team instead of layoffs.

Pros

Strong brand
Socially conscious
Seem to care about employees

Cons

A lot of focus on impending change; lack of clear direction

Advice to Senior Management

Look forward rather than backwards