Pros
- Great coworkers (while they're there) - Relatively decent work-life balance - Excellent stepping stone for building a career If you're starting out, this place is great if you go in with the right mindset. Look at Relias as a way to sharpen your skills and increase your brand but no more than that. At the end of the day, they should just be viewed as a block in the road that will help you get to the next best thing. As long as you remember that, you'll be golden. There are some genuinely down to earth people at the company. You can tell they actually believe what they're doing is helping improve the livelihood of those who need it, and the company would benefit from putting them in senior management roles over the individuals currently on the executive leadership team. That will never happen though. Depending on your role, the work-life balance can be good. You just have to stand your ground and not bend under pressure.
Cons
- Obscenely high turnover rate - Inexperienced management - Lagging benefits - Pay 20% below the average market value - Low morale - Lack of upward mobility They say their mission is to "measurably improve the lives of the most vulnerable members of society and those who care for them," but you would be hard-pressed to validate that statement if you worked there for more than two months. What they care about is profit - which I can't fault them for, they are a business; however, claiming to care about patient populations while operating behind a guise of capitalist chicanery creates an unsettling division. It's the sort of self-aggrandizement that creates a sinking feeling in your stomach when you realize you're not helping at-risk populations, you're helping a borderline unscrupulous organization take advantage of them and the unorganized healthcare system that got them there. The turnover rate is a huge problem. During my tenure, I saw well over 40% of employees leave. This includes individuals that were both employed before and after I started. A large part of this stems from inefficient management. Those who play the game and get in the good graces of their superiors are often selected for promotions. Upward mobility is beneficial, but in the case of Relias, the individuals are just not suited to lead a team. This resulted in disgruntled employees and poor results in every department. Speaking to morale, I have never been in a workplace with people as despondent as those within the confines of Relias. A few were legitimately depressed about their day-to-day work and struggled with finding fulfillment in their roles. Requests for a title bump or a raise were swiftly shot down. The best one could get was usually just a lateral transfer. Make sure you're aware of this when you sign up. If you're not a yes man, then you won't get the chance to make a difference. I've found that Relias' perfect employee is someone too happy to realize how poor their working situation is or an individual they can easily roll over with little to no push-back (a part of the reason they hire young). My biggest problem is the lack of trust. You can't really hold them accountable for anything because they're so surface-level. Anything, from reports - to people leaving the company, you always know some detail or number is getting tweaked.