Healthfirst (New York) Reviews

Cons

Depends the department the leadership is questionable.

Cons

More work needed in communicating company’s strategic initiatives

Cons

culture identity crisis
poor leadership
politics run decision making
internal diversity issues that get silenced

Cons

Underpaid for amount of work being done for role and title. Here for 5 years it was very hard to gain promotion. Supervisor can give bad reviews that can affect promotions even if it's not facts. Gossip.. Supervisor bullying for her director uses profanity. Training can be better. Management places you in a role you never choose or direction you never applied for.

Cons

lots of change happening within the company, employees are not always up to speed

Cons

Management is very honest about the amount of work. However, Management micromanages, and does not know how to prioritize based on the workload. The expectations is the team works long hours with little to no appreciation. If you work a 50-60 hr work week & ask to leave 1 hr early it is an issue. If you are 5 mins late it is an issue. Although management can be late, leave early & work from home at any time. Healthfirst will send out weather warnings stating to use your judgement and work from home. Management team will send the same email stating the expectation is to be in the office. If there’s an early closing they expect you to log on to finish out your day.
If management does not like you they will hold your requirements or resources until the last minute causing you to work late nights (this is a salary position) to complete your deadline.
This team is cliquish and at times petty. A team member yelled & used profanity in Spanish to other team members about a pen. Someone complained about her unprofessionalism over a pen. Management asked questions everyone confirmed the story. The woman who reported the outburst was written up with no HR representative. She was also denied the write up slip. The manager told her, she did not have give her a copy.
The Senior Management are more friendlier to the staff then the immediate management. The director doesn’t speak to the staff at all. No good morning or good evening but expects the staff to attend team functions. They pretend to offer help & mentoring. However, it is a ploy to put you down and exploited your weakness. The employee satisfaction on the team is 0! No exaggeration, chief complaint is communications & mentoring. The team is 5 years old, the most seasoned member is 1 yr! They lose 5 people a year. Their turn over is higher than customer service.

Cons

Pretty hard to list all what's wrong with this organization, would have rated a zero but have to select at least 1 star.

Cutthroat, toxic, micro-management, reverse discrimination

Strategy and Vision

Past COO was fired because it failed to launch the commercial product, the new COO is still figuring out how to go with the commercial product. Overall a series of wrong strategic choices and lack of execution. HF revenue model is based on generating a margin on top of the medical expenditures submitted to CMS for medicare/aid membership. Clearly the company should choose a cost leadership strategy with it resource management instead has offices in FiDi and a series of other high expenses that clearly demonstrate a willingness to be a fancy corporate while screaming to all the management team to generate margin.

Leadership

The management team is pretty much a group of micromanagers. You’re constantly watched how many times you go at the restroom, what applications are open in your screen and a lot of times managers come over and read your emails behind your back. No culture of ownership. High level of department segregation encouraged by the department manager that behave like little barons who own the department.

Performance Management

Gosh, this is the weirdest and most Machiavellian performance and talent management system I have ever experienced. You are rated by people that your manager choses (hypothetically you are supposed to chose but the manager ends up overriding it and deciding what he/she wants). All is reviewed behind closed doors where you are not able to hear/see what is being discussed about you and no constructive feedback on what you should improve. Your manager need to justify why you should not get fired, unbelievable. Good luck if you’re applying with client facing roles, because there is no way to include your external partners feedback in your performance review.

The real corporate values

This is a physician led organization. As such, there are commonalities if you have worked in a similar organization.
Risk aversion: understandable given the highly regulated environment it operates, but you should know where you’re getting in.
Highly hierarchical: If you talk with other departments, will be reported to your manager.
Show up: given the lack of objective performance management the only way to get exposure with management is by showing up and some serious licking.
Everyone is expendable: Turnover is a corporate policy, expect it.
Bottom line is the problem: Very senior leaders have said in internal meetings the problem in organization is the bottom line.

Talent Management/Career Growth

There is no way to grow in this organization if your manager doesn’t want to. He/she is your gatekeeper for everything you do and unfortunately don’t try to apply internally because HR will get involved and your manager will be informed that you are interested in other internal roles.

Red flags to watch for: If you are being "promoted" and you’re told you’re getting more responsibilities but no role change or salary increase. Make sure this extra work has a defined timeline and that there is a balance with the other roles/hat's your wearing. If not, choose not to get the promotion, it will just mean more work for you, period. If you complain, you will get pushed out for not wanting to do the work you've done for the past year...very sneaky tricks. This is pretty diffused practice the management team leverages.

Good Luck with the cutthroat culture.

Cons

Textbook example of toxic environment. I received zero support or acknowledgement for any of the work that I did and all of the accomplishments went unnoticed. I do not miss the lack of Sr manager level support, the long hours (for what???), others taking credit for my work, being blamed for things that were not my fault or problem, a lying and unethical VP, etc. Since leaving the company my health has improved dramatically. I now work for a company who not only respects and trusts me and my knowledge and experience, they recognize me often for a job well done. Teamwork (rather than backstabbing) is encouraged and supported. Staff at my new employer are accountable, professional and management believes in their employees.

Cons

Management doesnt care about employees they just want work

Cons

Constant monitoring with very little opportunity for job advancement or promotions