USAA Employee Reviews about "upper management"

Pros

Very education centric, pays for advanced degrees and certifications for employees excellent Medical and Retirement Benefits Long standing membership base, innovative in IT

Cons

Not having a previous Military career makes it hard to advance into upper levels of management.

Pros

Supportive, flexible management. Lots of time off. Managers that are great coaches and really prioritize developing their employees and making them better advisors. Upper management is very open and easy to speak to. They always ask for feedback and take action on it as soon as possible. You also get to advise members on a wide range of financial products, such as life insurance, mutual funds, managed portfolios, annuities, etc.

Cons

No commissions. You only receive a base salary, which can be a pro if times are somewhat leaner. You're also being fed warm leads by other departments. Sometimes they're good leads, often they're...bizarre. E.g. People trying to pay their bill on an auto policy will sometimes get transferred to you even though they're not interested in talking about retirement or investments.

Pros

Good benefits overall. 401k, dental, vision, health

Cons

Call center environment. No file ownership. Doesn’t feel like an actual claims office- more like phone operators. Upper management refuses to staff up all departments in claims and throws extra duties on the casualty adjusters consistently. So more work - no extra pay.

Pros

The Benefits, On site Facilities, 401k Match, Education Advancement paid up to 10k per year, Most Co-workers, and Members that we serve.

Cons

-Low Pay vs Competition -Extreme Micro Management -Upper Management is always unavailable for members and Monday-morning quarterback everything you do -Led to believe doing the right thing is all that matters but in reality only hard #'s do. -Adherence pushed to insane levels where next call is all that matters. Are told not to follow up on tasks and to make members wait for things that we do not need them to. -0 Accountability from Some Employees. Members transferred to extreme level for no reason at all just to get a referral tick mark. -Ancient systems that don't work 50% of the time. -Almost non-existent Documentation of events for member. -Given almost no power to do anything except simplest transactions. Everything else is just sent as a request to a contractor that almost never responds to member and looks for slightest things to reject your work items. -Expected to Up sell on every call even in 'Service' roles. -Career advancement goes at a extreme glacier pace and outside experience is not considered for promotion possibilities. -While Edd-assist program is good, if you want to be able to get Management Level Security licenses (ie: Series 24, Series 9/10, ect) they will only allow you to take them if you are in a managers role. This is another great Catch-22 because they are require to have to get said Manager roles -Vacations and time off have to be planed a year in Advance.

Pros

Nice benefits. Nice amenities if you're at the home office. Move up fast (if you can BS / kiss up / present other peoples work as your own / your boss is your friend/ you know how to use contractors as stepping stones)

Cons

Politics and more Politics New ideas are not readily accepted Contractors are not treated fairly. Pay-increase/raises are hard to come by. Upper management has the correct idea and strategy however the lower management struggles to implement People getting promoted who shouldn't I could go on all day You can come up with an innovative idea that saves/generates millions of dollars and you can walk away with just a pat on a back ..if you're really good maybe a couple of thousand dollars after conversion.

Pros

The benefits, pay and culture are remarkable especially with how people and companies are run these days - they literally stand by their word, they trust their members and their employees - I was amazed at how they mean what they say no play on words, no fine print.....and that went from employees as well as members. They live by a standard, they make decisions based on this standard across ALL companies - I really admired and appreciated that b/c I never felt like I was being forced to 'trick' a member - I really felt like I was helping member and living the mission statement which we all lived by every day on every call. I don't know any other company like that so that was HUGE for me!

Cons

As a call center representative; what is required as far as how you are rated on each and EVERY call exhausts you after your third call - the volume of calls is astounding it feels like San Antonio is the ONLY call center for USAA and it isn't which is mind boggling.The depth in which we were to speak with the member was crazy because we were still required to take a certain amount of calls each day. I was a top performer I had EE's (exceeds expectations) on all my reviews as a first year employee - I was recognized several times by upper management as well as directors above my entire department - I was chosen to be apart of a special project in just my first year which was unheard of AND I was hand-picked by my manager and my director to be apart of another special group that meant with even higher management and influential persons monthly (this position wasn't to be offered to first year employees...I had been employed for three months and had been on the floor for 3 weeks!) I went above and beyond for my members and the company - I did not like the 35 minute lunches rather than have an hour and 15 min for lunch call reps receive 2 20 minute breaks and a 35 minute lunch b/c we need to 'get away' throughout the day vs all at once - and last it is very true that people 'crack' have melt downs etc - I know several awesome employees that I later learned were being medicated for anxiety, depression, mood disorders etc all due to the stress of the job, wanting to keep their job but not be on the phones, etc - the call center is too big and everyone in the call center is looking for a way out - for a non-member contact position - I posted out for a processing job in the bank when I became fed up with hitting my ceiling and learned that 636 other employees JUST IN MY DEPARTMENT ALONE, had applied for the same job - and this was bottom of the barrel, nothing special, type of position BUT it was off the phones - the goal of EVERY phone representative at USAA. And last....quitting time is in February after the bonus - several hundred employees call in and quit immediately after their bonus hits the bank I saw it with my own eyes - those of us that stay are hammered...but by then you're used to it and you either deal with the call volume and stressors.....or you too eventually quit.