Q&A With UnitedHealth Group Employees

Immediate acknowledgement of application.

Too long

I wish I had known about working for them sooner.

HR rhetoric (on culture) vs reality (looking good to a higher up in Minnepolis) vs. supporting your team.

Welcome to independent learning

Ask a lot of questions, and if it's genuine, take an interest in the people you're working with. Optum is big and complicated and not always logical, so you're going to be puzzled a lot, especially early on. Be humble, don't assume the weird stuff you see is a result of incompetence on behalf of your new colleagues; they might be able to give you some context. Also, take a lot of time to go over your benefits, because if your better half gets insurance through work it's almost certainly better than what you're considering signing up for here.

Jobs keep going to India because they have cheep education to outpace is there and will work for less.

Badly. Frequently. No apparent rhyme or reason behind them, other than reducing numbers, sending them offshore.

working at home

Telecommuting, working from home full time

first interview with hr rep, second interview was video tape, 3rd interview was with panel associate directors, managers decision in 7-14 days

A Recruiter (1 week) then a hiring Manager (also 1 week). This Manager only interviews. The Manager does not have employees report to them. This is part of the failure of the interview process.

6 out of 10

UHC believes their innovative but several of us have submitted ideas and suggestions to move along with the internet, social climates but our ideas are either ignored or we realize a 'thank you for your feedback on this great suggestion' is received with no further compensation (even thought millions of dollars are saved) to only find out a year or so later our idea was implemented - again, with zero recognition. Disappointment, loss of trust.

Highly talented, young, no sleep required, and willing to be led by a ring through the nose.

Someone that can be flexible with timelines and projects as healthcare and technology is always changing.

Pay is good. This should be a stepping stone, not a career. The talent they demand is more valuable elsewhere.

Because employees are treated as an investments and not replaceable items.

Depends on your boss and the area. Senior people receive emails 24/7

None. Operations was forced into 12 hour shifts with at least one weekend day every week.

I love being able to work from home! It allows a more work life balance!

Generally work from home has been good, however recently the direction from the aging management is directives for onsite.

Reply for the request asap back to us.

HR is a mess. Your only connections will be a phone line call-back or an envelope during annual terminations.

Provider owned businesses

Customer focused areas are growing well. IT is not. IT faces daily challenges with integrating merger and acquisition entities, often leaving complex infrastructure in place. Support for this is nearly impossible.

As long as they aren't at legal risk, fine. Watch your back.

Not well, they cover themselves and pass things off. Two submissions this year and not resolved to my satisfaction and I didn't ask for much.

positive

Semi positive. As time goes on, it's looking to be all about the shareholders and now everyone is called 'constituents', which I don't like at all, and they tout they care about the employees but there are no actions to prove that (this is from myself, my peers in current unit as well as peers in my prior units - we all stay in touch)

Poor

It was a positive experience with the interviewer providing complete information of the expectations of the position.

Great - one of the few positives at UHC. Keep in mind, years ago UHC was awesome in all areas but as they have been getting too big for their britches and unfortunate greed that is no longer the case. The company proves employees are all just numbers.

From my understanding it does become an option after training is completed and an employee has a proven track record of excellence and efficiency.

Pose questions to the interviewer as their questions are not satisfactory.

Be prepared to answer situational questions providing examples of your past experience.

In IT? What's a social life?

Depends on the role and time of year. If your role does not require significant travel, then there is not a problem maintaining balance. If travel is more than 60% of the time there may be some struggle to finding balance.

Some are great, most are not

my same level of colleagues are wonderful to work with.

yes

yes lots

Very challenged but mainly because there are not defined ways to do our work, many peers have 'their own way' and our Standard Operating Procedure documents are horrible. Makes no sense for an employer our size with billions in revenues.

not very

too fast - we're only human

sporadic as am a project manager

VERY - they require TOO MUCH business required overtime (BROT). Last position was a minimum of 15 hours, per week, for over 10 years. You get used to that many when it's required for so long. Doesn't make sense that they don't hire more people to give us all a break. Then when you move positions you have an awful salary decrease, simply due to working all those BROT hours, and now you're not yet your bills, debt stays the same. HORRIBLE they put us in this position.

very easy