USAA Employee Reviews about "leadership"

Pros

Money is very good, two bonuses per year, Holiday bonus and year end. Potential to make good money and growth if your willing to give up your entire life and drink the cool aid. Good corporate structure and highly competitive in the industry.

Cons

Company tries way too hard and spends way too much time in trying to make themselves better than the industry, causes frequent changes in daily job duties and tension among staff to try and take on more than is needed and possible to accomplish in a single days work. Management in the field and office are painful to deal with, they all act like mechanical drones working for a world ruler. No-one can make suggestions to do things better although they say you can. When suggestions are made leadership is very cocky and seems to enjoy putting down ideas and employee's. Immediate supervisors are too busy with trying to impress upper management in order to assist in anything including complaints from members. I have been told on numerous occasions from my immediate supervisor to not ask any questions as this is seen as adding too much to a managers already hectic work load Yearly questionnaire sent out to employee's to see how management rates, however we are told directly from our managers that any negative responses will lead to action plans!

Pros

Hybrid schedule, PTO, campus amenities

Cons

Leadership is not transparent; they ask for truth and accountability but will only listen if you are a “yes” person. They have shifted from employee focused to doing whatever it takes to keep the scorecard green, encouraging bully behavior and unethical practices. Your direct supervisor can be great but if those above are stuck in their ways, you will not get anywhere. People with less business acumen and experience get promoted and recognized, and HR will blame it on the “business” when there is proof of favoritism.

Pros

Flexible leadership that's able to respond to the needs of employees and demands of the industry. Very work, family and life-oriented. Never had a job where I was often excited to go back to work after the weekend. Definitely a strange idea.

Cons

Being military-oriented, there's a tendency for leaders to be prior military officers which subsequently means there's favoritism toward officers. Not to say that's always wrong or a bad thing. Overall, it doesn't really hamper progression within the company. Definitely wouldn't let it deter anyone from taking a job there.

Pros

USAA is a great place to work. The company as a whole cares about employee development, protecting their company culture, generally ethically-focused and professional. Compensation is generally competitive, benefits are world-class. Work/Life balance in terms of time off is good. Risk / Compliance senior leadership is relatively transparent and sets out a clear vision for the department.

Cons

If you start here early in your career, be prepared to watch external talent with comparable experience / education come in with much higher compensation ($10k, $15k, sometimes even $20k above you). If you work here for the long haul, you may be spending your career fixing compliance mistakes from former employees, and for smaller bonuses than they received while screwing everything up. Moving up can be incredibly stagnant, and moving around can be largely based on your supervisor. The company as a whole will boast career development opportunities, but if you're stuck with a bad boss they can lock you in with no choice but to leave USAA entirely in order to move up or switch jobs. Work / life balance is a mix bag. At the enterprise level, you are given a generous amount of time off. But as a department, risk/compliance is not quick to do an early release before a holiday weekend and such. Unusually frequent meetings can make it hard to take time off, or manage life outside of work. Burn out is pretty common in the department, despite employees voicing their concerns about such.

Pros

The company's mission of serving military personnel and their families is admirable and carried out very well by the senior leadership team. The company really cares about their employees and provides great benefits to maintain a low employee turnover. Annual Bonus, Christmas Bonus, far more paid vacation days than almost any Fortune 500 company; 8% 401K match, gyms at work, events for employees...the list goes on and on. Providing you work in a support role (IT, Compliance, Mgmt) the compensation is pretty darn good. Also, they are becoming stronger advocates for working from home and believe in work/life balance.

Cons

The amazing benefits and perks is a double edge sword as management can be very tenured at USAA and thus might not have outside experience in their particular industry/field to bring new/fresh ideas to their area; i.e. "We have always done it this way, so why change things". It can be difficult to instill change in a department if your not already a manager or at a senior level because mgmt might not listen to you. .