TIAA CREF Reviews

Pros

Relationships with co-workers and Business Partners

Cons

Wrong people in management
No room for growth

Advice to Senior Management

-Management should be forced to take management classes; everyone can not lead.
-Managers should understand what their employees actual do before they make decisions.
-It should be mandatory that employees rate their managers and the evaluation should be tied to their bonuses and raises.

Pros

Salaries- Very Good compared with competing firms
Benefits - best in the business
Vacation Days Allowance outstanding
Work Remotely

Cons

no Team work
too much kindom conquering going on
lots of finger pointing
too much miscommunication between support teams

Advice to Senior Management

Time to move on from a reworked environment project that has been going on for over 6 months.
Get rid of non-performers who do not fit the mold of what you envision for TC
Hire Middle-Level Managers who can divide the work equally among support teams.
Be more open to other employees to share their ideas..

Pros

The environment is one in which it is very relaxed!

Cons

To relaxed and not focused at times.

Advice to Senior Management

Bring in managers that are focused and understand the business.

Pros

smart people who enjoyed work, mission driven company, great benefits, good career development opportunities, family friendly, transparent leadership. I had ability to show initiative and create a new role where I saw a need, but this may be unusual. Management in my area was terrific about day-to-day recognition.

Cons

reorgs are poorly handled with lack of communication and respect for employees. silo culture that sometimes can be very competitive for recognition or credit. some business areas were kept in the dark about overall strategy. in 5 years time, there were significant rebrandings of internal culture which made employees cynical because there wasn't any follow-through from year to year.

Advice to Senior Management

Play nicer in the sandbox and you will win more respect from employees. Inform teams about what happens at management meetings and what key challenges are week to week rather than having them learn through grapevine.

Pros

Great compensation package and raises.

Cons

-No career opportunities
-No flexibility with current management (no work from home)
-All about facetime

Pros

Avg to better than avg benefits. Vacation allowance is good but management does not like when you use all of it.

Cons

Unrealistic goals that are unachieveble unless you put client needs second. Middle management just takes their matching orders from upper management and are not empowered nor encouraged to provide solutions to helping the company forward. Very big disconnect between management and employees.

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees more. Every year it seems the goals change. No clear direction as to where tiaa will be in the future.

Pros

The people and lower/mid-level management were great.
The benefits, pay and time off were great.

Cons

Even though you have tons of time off, whether you can schedule it is a constant worry. Time off is basically a round-robin system that favors no one and ultimately benefits no one.
Constant required overtime and half hour lunches.
Internal job prospects are few and far between.
Lack of recognition for top performers.
The fact that they won't sponser a series 7 for every client facing employee is a disservice and major flaw.
Management says that the call centers are the best place to hire internally from, yet they seldom do.

Advice to Senior Management

Get everyone a series 7 license. Work people in the call centers LESS, not more. (Am I the only person who thinks MORE call center employees with a lighter workload is a bad idea?) Provide call center employees with distinct career tracks. Don't just leave it up in the air. Management says that the call centers are the best place to hire from, yet they seldom do.

Pros

Good work/life balance at times

Cons

no room for advancement. Management hires upper levels from the outside. Management totally incompetent. lousy pay. non-existent bonus/raises

Advice to Senior Management

you're not always smarter than the people you manage. learn to use current employees more efficiently and show more respect

Pros

The mission of the comapny and the retirement benefits

Cons

Favoritism, lack of accoubntability and nepotist culture.

Advice to Senior Management

Promoting from within is great. Promoting within the same team/territory may not be the best idea.

Pros

Company has very generous paid time off for employees. They also have a generous retirement package with match and non-contributory company contribution.

Cons

The goals set by management are all over the place and can be drastically different from year to year. They claim to reward for performance, however it is usually the fear of losing your job that motivates.