Pros
The pay, bonuses and benefits are either at market or a bit better. The people definitely have a good midwestern friendliness and work ethic. Because of size, good amount of internal opportunities. Having been to two of four locations - the two have workout facilities and cafeterias. Headquarters in Madison, WI, has free underground parking! Depending on manager and area, flexibility to work from home on a limited basis. Many managers, outside time-sensitive areas like call centers, are flexible with work schedules - as long as you get the work done. Madison building has open atrium with lots of natural lighting and glass elevators - almost 'hotel-like' in ambiance, allowing people to meet and collaborate out in the open.
Cons
A 'safe'/conservative organization stems from it's roots in financial services/insurance leads to group think when it comes to decision making. Not wanting to make a mistake or take too much risk affects timeliness of decisions and ability to act efficiently. Many topics or questions need to be run by many people in different areas. Getting people to feel empowered is a cultural hurdle. Change is a challenge and "we've always done it this way" is brought up in discussions, though there has been improvement with this as new hires try to sway the tenured staff to consider different options to solving problems. Information Technology group needs to be more forward thinking. Some organizations have the business preventing changes in technology, but in this org it can be IT that hold things back. In IT area it can difficult to figure out who to contact for what need with all their forms and processes for things that should be simple, they can get complex and over complicated. With the hiring of a new CIO, this too may be addressed in the near future. Finding documents and resources via Sharepoint or Intranet can be more than a challenge.