UnitedHealth Group Reviews

Pros

Vacation purchase plan
stock benefits
flexibility
good co-workers

Cons

Favoritism towards employees with strong technical skills but no people skills

Pros

High standards for quality of work.
Diversity.
Big on education.
Employee Feedback.
Corporate Values that are people focused where they were formerly production focused.

Cons

Changes is direct reporting happen quite often and due to restructuring of the business as opposed to career progression.
Not all management walks the walk- setting the example in regard to company values and culture as it is presented.
Vital Signs surveys are not taken as seriously in all departments.
Not the greatest in customer service.

Advice to Senior Management

Get to know your people. I don't even know what Helmsly looks like and I have never been to a meeting/ town hall with anyone over my bosses boss. I work in a fairly large office in Frederick, Md.

Pros

telecommuter, flexible scheduling, good use of technology, great growth opportunities and feedback, travel

Cons

long hours, stressful job, raises could be better

Pros

Good Health Benefits.
Decent Human Resource Team.
Structured processes.
Good Training opportunities(when available).
Smooth Hiring and Clearance process.

Cons

Double speak from managers across functions.
Reluctance to implement new technologies.
Nepotism and Favoritism.
No clear career growth path, at-least in my department

Advice to Senior Management

Cut down on double speak from managers across functions.
Implement new technologies and frameworks
Prevent Nepotism and Favoritism.
Provide clear career growth paths

Pros

Good benefits and location. The company keeps you informed of changes in procedures, you bid on shifts to work depending on performance.

Cons

This is a call center environment where calls are monitored and graded. You are on a strict break and lunch schedule and attendence is very important.

Pros

Ok benefits, work from home opportunities depending on departments, and opportunities to move around after 1u year of tenure in current department.

Cons

Lack of caring upper management, more personal communication needed from senior management, only PTO and no separate sick time, and better compensation needed.

Advice to Senior Management

Please start caring about your lower level employees. Remember that we do have families to take care of as well.

Pros

Work from home oppprtunities
International opportunities

Cons

Everything is about self service ; there is little to no direction provided

Advice to Senior Management

Get your heads out of the clouds and develop staff

Pros

Competitive benefits, facility I work at is good though not what it used to be due to facility maintenance staff reductions. The company does try to continuously improve and simply processes, which is important given the large size of the company.

Cons

Remote offices often mean almost no opportunities for advancement. Strong emphasis on efficiency is sometimes overdone, use of time is very regulated.

Advice to Senior Management

Management is generally doing a very good joy making the company successful, but the squeeze on the front line employees who make a lot of this profitability possible is sometimes unreasonable, i.e. some employees are made to work on their own time to make up for down time without pay when their computers are down. This is against policies but is sometimes done due to high pressures to produce the numbers. The ever widening gap between management pay and line employee pay is also an issue.

Pros

You have to quickly learn how to navigate through the organization's processes, and not to rely solely on your manager to set you up when you get on board (e.g. log in access to certain accounts, etc). So far my on-boarding has been better compared to my previous employers, where sometimes it takes a couple weeks just to get your workstation set-up and you have to pretty much stare into space during your first week of work because you don't have a computer. In my experience with UHG, my hiring manager pretty much had my basic workstation ready for use right on my first day.

On-boarding process is pretty easy, as you simply get access to a new hire website and it outlines what you need to do within the 1st week, month, and 90 days from your start date. I am pretty particular with that because it's the first few days of work that you typically have to do piles of paperwork and it's easy to miss something, plus I am not a fan of spending time faxing stuff out to HR. Most of the HR stuff is done online.

As far as being a new hire, it has been great, but you really should be able to hit the ground running, as they pretty much throw you in the middle of a project with little or no information at all, and you have to be proactive with a lot of things to keep up. I'm lucky I got a grasp on things when I got pulled into a project. There's still management engagement, and they provide whatever support they can give you (no micromanagement).

Dress codes range from business attire (suit & tie) to somewhat lower (collar, sleeves, slacks). Since I wasn't oriented with that I typically just assess what other people are wearing in the building and decide which is too casual. Definitely not a shirt-and-jeans environment. This is just for their main building, I guess because the executives reside there. It seems that for the other buildings, it's pretty laid-back. They don't have dress code marshals running around, though, so as far as I know as long as you look presentable, you're not going to be in trouble.

The have a high variety of the age range of the employees, which I like. And they are willing to hang out. I have had jobs where it's pretty much go-to-work-and-go-home type, as most of my teammates just up and leave when it hits end of workday for the most part. Here they have times where you either go for a happy hour with the team someplace nearby, or have lunch in a conference room just to chat - even for just an hour. And that's even when they're extremely busy. I appreciate that in the workplace - it makes me feel like I'm part of the team even if I am a newbie. And that motivates me to go to work everyday. They are pretty good at considering your time at work - they don't just throw meeting schedules on your calendar over lunch hours without checking with you.

It's too early yet to determine how the promotion/performance ratings are being done, so I'll leave that out for the next update.

Cons

Cons are pretty superficial but I'm putting them here anyway...

Their buildings are pretty scattered - I came in a period where hundreds of constructions are going on in the area, so it is crazy trying to navigate between buildings when you have to (they do have an inter-office shuttle service, but still). Hopefully they'll start consolidating their departments into one building so it's easier. Plus, the main building's cafeteria is so much better.

It's not totally a Con, but it's pretty interesting that they don't really orient you firsthand on the dress-code policy, and other house-rules. I don't really care much for having these but I typically had to undergo some orientation about the dress-codes and stuff on my first day. The only orientation they have is more on the employee benefits, important company websites, information management/security policies, sexual harrassment, and insider trading.

I know UHG is driving for "being green", but they need paper plates in their break rooms. Also, they need to work on stocking office supplies. I can't find even the humble push-pin in their stock bin - all I see are folders and printing paper. :)

Their websites need a bit more work because it was a tad confusing for a new hire to navigate through, but once you get used to it it's OK.

Advice to Senior Management

None so far - just keep it up!

Pros

Work / Life balance
Growth
Environment
People

Cons

Benefits
Compensation
Sr. Leadership
Lack of Communication
Hiring Practices

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your employees.