Kaiser Permanente Reviews

Pros

Great benefits, competitive pay, great work life balance hands down.

Cons

Way too much politics within every nook and cranny of the organization. From the smallest level within departments all the way up to how the entire company is complexly structured. Everyone doesn't want to have accountability and additional responsibility. Compensation schemes skewed and no performance based rewards.

Advice to Senior Management

Strongly need to restructure the compensation scheme. Performance metrics for individuals (not regional areas or departments) need to be part of year-end reviews as incentives to drive individual performance and promote star employees. Tying bonuses and raises to departments and areas where individuals and even entire departments have no relation to does not make sense. You lose out on ability to attract top talent, and if you do have them, they are not incentivized to stay long nor perform at their best.

Pros

good benefits for full-time staff only
good and fair ETO earned time off for full-time staff only
great place to work if you have kids ( you can take off when needed for school functions)
the workers are plesant and easy to work with
if you need to leave early typically not a problem

Cons

thoughfull plesant leadership is lacking.
creative talent can not be utilized to their full potential.
templeted designs, so very little room for creative exploration.
do not project a thought on how it can be improved or done better; keep opinions to yourself this will ensure process and keeping management at a distance - play the game.
year end goals put everyone in a bad mood.
very limited holiday time off, expect to work the day after Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years unless it falls on a weekend. leadership and seniority staff take off every holiday period so you will be working with a few other temps or lower seniority full time staff.
must befriend a manager if you want to get ahead.
allot of favoritism exist, it will take you forever to make friends in this place no matter how hard you try everyone is out for themselves no matter what you do for people.
decision is not a word that is used or understood, you will spend allot of time re-doing things over and over for no apparent reason or understanding, if you ask then your questioning authority or have an attitude, someone with an open mind or thinks rationally this is the worst possible scenario to work in.
it is a us ( management ) vs. them ( employee) mentality.
managemnt does not respect employees and make comments about the ones they don't like with other employees in meetings.
everyone speaks in Kaiser"isms" and the acronyms will take you months to learn, its another language spoken fluentley everyday.

Pros

Good long-term benefits and room to move into other positions.

Cons

Salary may be a bit lower than in private industry and raises are small. The commute may be long if you live outside of the San Francisco.

Pros

Opportunity for advancement
Company with excellent values

Cons

The expected workload always ended in more hours than were possible if you wanted to get your work completed.

Advice to Senior Management

Communicate and share more information

Pros

Good industry to work in under the current economic situation, although possible government cutbacks to Medicare will have a large impact to Kaiser's bottom line.

Excellent benefits, decent pay scale on the higher end of competition. Very profitable company (although it's considered non-profit), has deep pockets.

Cons

Clear difference between union and non-union employees.

Union employees are "lifers" - they do not leave until they retire. Conversely, the non-union professional staff seem to have a high turnover, at least the groups I've been working with. This may be due to the fact that many of them are contract-based employees.

Pros

Benefits are great, although not as good as they used to be, however if you work long enough to retire with benefits, it is excellent, including pension! Strong stable company with a great community drive. I felt the company valued diversity and had a great incentive on-line walking program. Entry level jobs can find growth opportunity, but at a certain level it seems to flatten out, making it more difficult to move ahead.

Cons

Bureaucratic and difficult to evoke positive change. Getting a "promotion" is challenging at times as you have to apply internally, interview and go thru many hoops to sit and wait for a while.

Pros

Relatively good benefits, good co-workers

Cons

Sr. management is horrible, it takes too long to get anything done

Pros

Great resume builder, learn a lot.

Cons

Boring, same exact thing every single day.

Advice to Senior Management

Do not be afraid to address problems that the organization has. Sometimes management must be the bad guy for the overall success of the organization long term.

Pros

The benefita are unbelieveable, the people are great in the team and the work is not too tough when you are told what needs to be done.

Cons

Some of the Management does not seem to understand what they are asking for is not possible and are not willing to listen.

Advice to Senior Management

MORE TRAINING, MORE NOTICE, MORE ATTENTION TO NEW EMPLOYEES AND NOT LET PEOPLE GO BEFORE FULLY TRAINED!

Pros

Pay for social workers is among the top 2 or 3. Health insurance is included. Possibility to transfer around state and US. Union is active and interested in restoring Union representation of emplyees rights.

Cons

management and above are incredibly powerful and connected to Federal Government and SEIU. NUHW broke from SEIU to represent Clinical and patient Care employees overlooked and overworked by Kaiser and SIEU in bed together. Managers are incompetent. Training is terrible. Benefits and Pay is being cut while Kaiser makes record profits with health Care Reforms.

Advice to Senior Management

Respect Labor Management Original unity and honor and nurture this in practice.
Hire managers based on labor input and cooperation. Train employees and offer better training to Kaiser system. Computer and IT advances are rapid and need be utilized by staff to be worth the investment. Better training and social skills for MD's and providers.