USAA Reviews

Pros

mission minded company
salary based comp. model
holistic financial planning
customer focus always

Cons

the compensation model doesn't reflect retention of assets
unrealistic bonus opportunities

Advice to Senior Management

improve the incentive system to reflect advice and planning with revenue based comp. model

Pros

USAA was a really good place to work when the four day work week was an option. The salaries were depressed, but were made up with bonuses.

Cons

Again...the salaries were somewhat depressed at USAA. It was also difficult to move into different segments once you were hired into one.

Pros

Great benefits - Especially the health/dental insurance.
Great company if you are the member
Financially Strong
Bonuses are provided each year.

Cons

USAA has evolved into just another call center. The employees are treated like cattle with little regard for their well-being.
Once you have reached a certain tenure it seems they do anything in their power to get you out. An employee cannot access their own performance metrics and must "trust" the manager is doing the right thing.
Time-off work is hard to receive.
No time between calls.
No recognition for seeking and completing degrees/INS certifications/etc... and definately no increase in pay or ability to promote or move to another area based on salary.
If USAA management no l onger wants you employed they will do everything in their power to have you terminated. I have seen it happen to many people who were caught completely by surprise.

Advice to Senior Management

Remember that we are people just like the membership. We have families, activities, and interests outside of USAA. All employees love who we stand for as an organization and what we do for the membership. Treat your employees as you do the members. We are all educated, intelligent, caring people. I don't think the CEO knows what is happening at the representative level and I think it needs to be looked into. Management is no longer a part of USAA that can be trusted.

Pros

Great mission, some great people, great benefits.

Cons

Promotional opportunities, support, management feedback and respect. I was asked to implement a process, did so with success, then asked to take a pay decrease. After over 10 years of working at USAA, decided to pursue other opportunities outside of USAA. It was a great decision.

Advice to Senior Management

Have a backbone, be straight forward, say what you mean, and do the right thing.

Pros

Coworkers
Benefits
Large company with room to advance your career

Cons

Large company where the executives make very large salaries and bonuses while operational employees are "redlined" and paid below market value. They increase profit by getting the same amount of employees to do more and more work. Then operational managers nitpick at review time, never taking into consideration other factors that may have played a role . They micro manage to the degree that it just boils down to whether or not your manager likes you. One manager could take the same employee and give an exceeds expectations review while another could take the very same employee and give a failed to meet expectations review just based on what factors they decide to highlight. It simply is a matter of how they want to look at it. An employee can produce great results with a manageable workload but as the workload increases one would assume that quality may decrease. But at USAA they don't care about that. Its as if everything they analyze happens in a vacuum. Unless of course you brown nose, then you can do no wrong...even if you are horrible at your job and all your coworkers know it.

Advice to Senior Management

Look at more than just the yearly evaluation to judge the value of an employee. Look at outside accomplishments like community service and education. This is a sign of an employee that really does care to give more than expected. Too many employees find ways to manipulate the system to make themselves look better than they are. Outside development shows commitment over manipulation. Give more positive feedback to employees. Figure out a way to get rid of managers that play the "brown nose" game and manipulate the system to benefit thier 'friend' employees.

Pros

The benefits can not be over looked, they match up to 8% of your 401k and have great dental and medical insurance. The pay as an intern was very high as well.

Cons

As an intern they put me on a team who didn't value me and saw me not as an equal. They put me on a job that has already been implemented so i had no real use work to do. The people on my team were not very friendly.

Advice to Senior Management

Make sure the new employee that is coming on to a team is welcomed and actually have work to do.

Pros

Great benefits.
Amazing mission.
Perfect level of feedback from managers.
O.K. pay.

Cons

Back-to-back calls all day. (That's all you'll ever do.)
Management expects you to do complete certain tasks but continuously take call.
Completely numbers driven. (Even though they won't outwardly admit it.)
Understaffed. ALL THE TIME. (Haven't seen additional staffing in my department even though we've added 8 million members this year.)
Pay is not that great even with a degree.
No work/life balance.

Advice to Senior Management

Staff to fit the membership. We are so stretched thin and members constantly express their disappointment of the slowly decreasing level of customer service.

Pros

Competitive pay and bonuses.
If you have a familiy and kids usaa offers top benefits hands down.
Great family/work balance.

Cons

You're in a call center environment, so you're tied to the phone most of the day. Good news is it is primarily inbound calls and no cold calling!

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to look for talent and use your internal human resources. The biggest reason for turnover is employees in the wrong line of work and not utilizing their talent.

Pros

Annual bonus
Great benefits
Good salary
Management treats employees with respect

Cons

High expectations to preform at top level all the time.

Pros

Great perks and benefits to everyone. The company is very good to the employees and our members, the military. Usaa will forego profits to ensure our members are taken care of.

Cons

Can be a good old boys network. Also the company can be very beaurcratic and not very nimble to make change. Recruiting and staffing continually hire peope over qualified in low jobs or I der qualified for executive jobs.

Advice to Senior Management

Follow the fantastic example of General Robles