Pros
Very good at selling the company and trying to close the deal with prospective Associates
Cons
Where to begin: - When everyone is referred to as an Associate and they are saying it with a straight-face and don't get the comparison to Walmart - it is a company lost in its ability to relate to the real-world and holds too-high its "culture" to know that culture is not built on catchy phrases and negative-connotation ones at that. I really thought I would find insight to the company culture in the Winning with Culture book given to new hires but realized this was just a glossy paperweight photo album with "one liners" and quotes from Shawn - like a high school yearbook without dedicated sections! - No clear orientation plan (everyone brought on was just kind of thrown together for ad-hoc training sessions). Even after we finished orientation, the real orientation was to begin - want a meeting to learn process/engagement X? YOU figure it out who could help you and don't expect much from that person because you could be taking their job in 6 months. - After 3 months of discussions/interviews and an agreement that I would be reporting to a local regional manager, my manager tells me on my first day (via a new manager) that I am reporting to this manager in Charleston who I had only spoken to in a phone screen (you could hear my expectations/hopes deflate for my role like a wet balloon on this news)! - A very cliq'y environment - saw it with another Associate in particular, it was as if her manager didn't want to acknowledge it and felt hurt/ashamed to even talk about what that Associate was going to be doing in the new team (yet we were having a birthday party celebration hosted by this manager for the Associate)? - A very "young" bench in terms of experienced managers and Associates (felt like Freshman orientation at college) during the first week. I spent several weeks before accepting my offer, discussing who was supposed to be my manager telling me about the need to build a team with a manager in my regional office and the day I start I found out there would be no local manager and I would be reporting to someone in Charleston? This was the exact reason why the previous attempt at building a team in that office failed - you had people reporting to and relying on resources in Charleston (3 hours time difference and too busy to help) so they got fed up with the long hours and no support from the home base! - Information Security policy: Here is the kicker folks, I understand (and any potential candidate should too) that as Associates, we will be dealing with very sensitive benefits information from clients. Ok, so if it is so critical, why during orientation with "Fire Walker" your IT desktop admin. was the only overview/explanation given as to what can/can't be done on company-provided systems - "just let us know" and "read the information security policy we sent you in an email" ?? BenefitsFocus is setting itself up for lawsuits (internal or from clients) if it leaves such unclear paths to educate Associates who don't have experience working in such a regulated environment and having to figure things out as they went along because the training/orientation is so weak and unstructured. It only reconfirms you have a bunch of cert-swinging InfoSec/IT guys throwing their position/authority around arbitrarily (regardless if there was an actual "breach") to show how invaluable they are to upper management in the hopes of keeping their positions until the inevitable next round of layoffs come through for their cost-center roles. I spoke and confirmed with other employees (current and former) that this "policy" is representative of the company's maturity - it runs like a Mom and Pop shop (read disjointed and arbitrary application of its policies) with the bureaucracy - top-down managemnt of a large publicly traded company = a bad company to work at and grow your career.