Premera Blue Cross Reviews

Pros

Keeps you on your toes as it's constantly changing. The "company" really does care about the customers and the product.

Cons

A little old-fashioned sometimes, siloes of information.

Advice to Senior Management

Walk the floor and talk to real people.

Pros

We have great people working at Premera; We focus on staying on top of the industry as it changes and being proactive vs reactive; We focus on being a Green company; We provide good benefits; There is generally a good work life balance, compared to working at for profit companies, or publicly traded companies (but that makes sense as we do not have the wages and perks of those companies); integrity is a true value and a lack of it is not tolerated here.

Cons

Wages are slightly below market, but the overall workweek is smaller than at a publicly traded company which makes the equation work out. There is a lot of company pride for past accomplishments (coming out of a near bankruptcy) that stalls the ability to speak honestly and openly about current problems at the department, division or even the company level. I really question whether the current leadership has the skill set to move the company in the direction it purports to want to go. There is enormous division in perception of the company from the top and from the bottom. No one wants to acknowledge this, and middle management just dances between the two instead of being able to really impact the organization. Not a good place to be in middle management if you truly want to have an impact. Some divisions in the organization are not nearly as progressive as they are in other companies, such as IT and HR.

Advice to Senior Management

Honestly assess yourself: Are you capable of being the new, progressive leader that Premera needs? Is it possible for you to not micromanage? Is it possible for you to not double check? Is it possible for you to hire someone on your team that is more skilled than you and not be threatened? If not, perhaps it is time for you to move on.

Pros

Great commute and free parking. Good medical and dental benefits as well as solid 401K plan, etc.

Cons

You will have absolutely no opportunity to give feedback regarding the performance of management. If you are lucky to wind up with a good manager, yay for you! If you wind up with a crappy one (and there are a LOT of them) you are screwed. This is a company that cares little about th opinions of it's associates other than associate surveys that are so shamelessly slanted they guarantee a positive assessment. Also, your fellow employees will have access to your private healthcare information. For instance, that claim for your "rash" gets denied? You'll be chatting with your co-worker about it when you fight the denial. So much for HIPPA!

Advice to Senior Management

Gubby, give your associates the opportunity to assess their managers. You will be shocked at what you'll hear. STOP hiring the unethical folks from WAMU. They will destroy PBC.

Pros

Supportive management for all employees

Cons

low pay for all employees

Advice to Senior Management

pay more to all employees

Pros

There are many challenges to be had at Premera. Plenty of opportunity for improvements and ability to have your voice heard.

Cons

A lot of tribal knowledge. It's challenging to identify who needs to be involved, when they need to be nvolved, and what they know.

Pros

Super stable work environment, very rarely asked to work more than 40 hrs. Not a lot of personal commitment expected. Not hard or challenging. Some GREAT people to work with, very friendly and interesting.

Cons

Processes that never change, zero autonomy, no one seems to be empowered to make a decision w/out a dozen committee meetings. Almost total lock down on access to any social media.

Advice to Senior Management

Wake up and smell the 21st century. Yes, you are a company that works in a heavily regulated industry, but showing trust in you employees to innovate and improve violates no regulation. Please empower people to make decisions and to really change the world. I now understand why "boringly good" is your latest slogan. Step up or you will never employ anyone younger than 30 for longer than 2 years. Look at your turnover stats for the truth of that already.

Pros

• Good benefits with a focus on employee wellness and health.

• Strong charitable contribution to the community.

• Free parking and easy commute.

• Lots of Admins everywhere, mostly you won’t have to handle your own calendar.

• The company is trying to do the right thing to change how healthcare is utilized, making moves to control what costs they can.

Cons

• Stagnant company in an industry under fire. Before joining Premera ask yourself what will happen to the company when healthcare reform is completely implemented in 2014?

• Old fashioned corporate culture. Limited new technology, most outside ideas die, rigid dress code, flexible schedules and working at home are discouraged, corporate values are used as meaningless slogans.

• Heavily hierarchical and patriarchal organization with strict command and control.

• Ability of management to think strategically varies widely by group, you will be micromanaged.

• Many employees have never worked anywhere else. That should be healthy but somehow it isn’t. “Us versus them” is the name of the game with the lifers.

• Endless staff meetings, work group meetings, subgroup meetings. 6+ hours of meetings a day is normal.

• Collaborative culture run amok. Employees are not empowered to make decisions. If you like waiting for management or an entire group to decide every small point then this is the place.

• Upper management talks about promoting internal changes while line level employees meet actual change with anger, fear, and sabotage.

Advice to Senior Management

Get out of the Executive and Senior Management Group Meetings and see what is happening on the floor, the culture of fear and distrust is driving talent out the door at a rapid rate. Talking about a shiny new idea every quarter isn’t a plan. Walk the walk on your corporate values, wordsmithing them once again isn’t real progress.

Pros

- work life balance, flexible work schedule
- retirement benefit is competitive
- no need to pay for parking like downtown Seattle

Cons

- over emphasis its consensus culture, use it almost as an excuse for inaction
- too many management layer, thus breed bureaucracy and incompetence

Advice to Senior Management

- trim management layer to make it more flat
- put more emphasis on result vs. activity
- revisit the "consensus" driven culture

Pros

* Great people to work with
* If you do a job well & apply yourself there are growth opportunities
* Depending on the department there is good work/life balance
* Cafeteria/food service on site
* Good benefits
* Easy commute
* Free parking
* Depending on the department, emplolyee & management some flexible schedules granted

Cons

* Senior managment mismanages projects (e.g. the quanity & volume that can be achieved with resoures & time alloted) causing chaos which spans multi departments
* Company set's their values & vision and then goes against it when the next bright idea comes along
* Some workers go above & beyond while others slack big time and get away with it
* Wasteful team, department & organizational mandatory meetings
* Not up with the times by enforcing Business Casual attire

Advice to Senior Management

Create the vision & stick with it for longer than a few months.
Hire the volume of staff needed to support the volume of work to be done
Learn to say no if you can't stick to the two items above

Pros

Associates have high integrity and are committed to doing the right thing for the customer. Ability to work cross-functionally on solving problems. Lots of associates who are highly knowledgeable about the industry.

Cons

Excessive focus on prioritizing things on lists so that leadership feels they are being addressed, only to be told that there are no resources and the work never gets done. Leadership ability at the director level varies widely. Senior management can sometimes micromanage which is demoralizing if you are a competent professional prepared to come to the table with recommendations and actions. Can be too hierarchical and patriarchical - not a lot of innovation and very conservative.