Kaiser Permanente Reviews

Pros

Great pay. Benefits. Overall great to their staff. Free lunches, traininge, and contests. Company is involved in making employees happy.

Cons

Difficult part is seeing how some patients are treated. Not all patients are receiving the care and preventative screening that they deserve.

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to figure out a way around the union. Job hours,pay and time off should be awarded to good employees- not you seniority.

Pros

There is ample opportunity to maintain a healthy life/work balance. Their benefits are some of the best in the business.

Cons

Management positions seem to attract some of the less competent people available for those positions (and they're often hired). The value placed on advanced degrees, rather than real-world experience, leads to poor promotion and hiring choices.

Advice to Senior Management

Realize that book-smarts don't necessarily translate into being a capable, good employee. Be more uniform about decisions to promote from within.

Pros

- Somewhat remote life/balance schedule
- Managers in certain departments were intelligent and able to help when needed
- Activities to keep employees remotely engaged with the organization

Cons

- Lack of knowledge or direction from senior management on special projects
- Unprofessional-ism from managers in certain departments that does not represent KP correctly
- Long lagtime of IT assistance in systems that should be in place
- Lack of accountability from personnel on special projects

Advice to Senior Management

Management on any level needs to be screened for knowledge/background of position and should have prior management/supervisor experience.

Pros

Kaiser's compensation and benefit package are excellent. Leaders stand by their employees and generally strive to do the right thing. Telecommuting is accepted and even promoted. I like that we are a non-profit organization.

Cons

Culture of consensus makes it difficult to quickly advance initiatives. There is periodic conflict between long-term vs. newer employees (i.e., those that are not "Kaiserized").

Pros

There is a lot of opportunity to learn and grow. You could move from the clinical side to the the administrative side and back if you have the credentials to do so.

Cons

There are some silo's that can make communication between groups and departments a little more difficult than they should be. With that said, the vast majority of employees are awesome and can get you what you need regardless.

Advice to Senior Management

The leadership has been great. My only advice would be to drop off the things we no longer need to improve upon and rather check back on those things periodically.

Pros

Great benefits
Good working environment (in a more classical, non-creative sense)
Decent salaries
Work can be exciting and cutting-edge (medically speaking)
Your employment experience depends on your manager

Cons

Sometimes feel that salaries are decided subjectively
Not progressive: no bringing dogs to work, no breakfast served, no on-site exercise classes, etc.
Backward feeling technology and software available can be frustrating

Advice to Senior Management

Allow a more progressive, less corporate working environment

Pros

KP offers fantastic Benefits PTO and a decent salary. It stresses balance in life and allows employee to stay healthy and promote a strong environmentally healthy work place.

Cons

The salary offered is typically lowered than industry competitions. For a programmer, the typical offer is around mid seventies, however KP offers lower than that. But if you factor in benefits, it comes out to a competitive value

Pros

Longevity is a plus in a large organization like this. Many employees transfer from one facility to another creating a network region wide of people who interact to resolve issues.

Cons

The union can sometimes provide protection of problem employees. Some actions or behaviors warrant a much more harsh action instead of second third and forth chances for the same infraction.

Advice to Senior Management

Practice what you preach.

Pros

Benefits are great; they have a pension. Pay is somewhat aligned with the industry as a whole. Department i am in has a superior training department.

Cons

Department Reorganizations and layoffs seem to be a yearly occurrence. A lot of regular employees are on two year contracts. seems to be hard to move from a two year contact position to a regular full time position. A lot of Departments would rather hire outside the organization than promote from within.

Advice to Senior Management

Give more opportunities to the employees you have.

Pros

Great benefits and salaries
Many people want to do the "right" thing vs being driving solely by financial reasons
Strong name recognition and respect in the industry
Good opportunities for internal training and career advancement
Lots of opportunities in job roles
Diverse workforce

Cons

Large, bureaucratic organization - lots of patience required
Consensus driven environment makes decision making process even slower
Lots of internal politics and small 'fiefdoms'
Difficult to let go of low performing employees