Optum reviews

3.4

56% would recommend to a friend

(15,516 total reviews)

Patrick Conway

46% approve of CEO

46% positive business outlook

Optum has an employee rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 15,516 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Optum employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Healthcare industry (3.4 stars).

Reviews by job title

16K reviews
1.0
Jan 15, 2020

Company in Transformation

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* Solid Company Values - Offers all levels the opportunity to be culture ambassadors. * Enticing and engaging roles - if one finds the right one, they can leave each day feeling they delivered value. * Great resources/partners at the front line both on and off shore - dedicated, committed and ready to help.

Cons

* Monthly layoffs - keep the resume tuned and do not expect longevity. * Minimal work/life balance - while some opportunity has been given to work from home, much of the downsizing appears to target remote and mature workers * Open seating - while anticipated to improve collaboration, appears to reduce communication and productivity. * Site/Department aligned HR partners - unresponsive and candidly, incompetent * Transformation - ongoing for more than 4 years - some employees have seen 7 or more manager changes - fear of downsizing is a performance and morale barrier. * Communication - While several attempts have been made to keep websites updated, to get distribution lists updated, what one hears from above appears to be related to 'who you know' versus any consistent communication tool or forum. * Metrics tracking/analytics/financial reporting - way too many tools for tracking with no or limited data validation. * HR quotas during performance review time - no matter how many have been downsized throughout the year, it is still expected that each department will meet the guidance on numbers of 2's, 3's, 4's and 5's for performance ratings, and are still expected to only recommend bonuses for up to 80% of team members.

1.0
Sep 23, 2019

DO NOT WORK HERE - Guide to avoiding working for Optum

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

It is a paycheck It is a job

Cons

The paycheck is smaller than industry standard. The job will most likely get outsourced or you laid off. Optum steps over dollars to pick up nickels. Guide to avoiding working for Optum: PAY: The reviews on Glassdoor regarding pay at Optum are totally correct. The pay is well below industry standard for doing the same work. If you have a family. If you have a tight income. If you have bills or personal responsibilities of any kind, this is one employer you cannot trust to pay you well. Even if you ignore this warning and work for Optum anyways, uoi will see 1-2% annual merit increates (yet benefits and cost of living are +8% each year). You will also most likely not receive a good bonus or a bonus at all. The huge bonuses you read about in the papers are reserved fpr pay grade 30 and above (director and up). DO NOT BANK or plan on receiving a bonus very year, regardless of how hard you work and what you deliver for Optum/UHG. BENEFITS: Benefits are horrible ($2700 deductible?; Really...from the largest healthcare provider, THIS is the bets Optum/UHG can do for their employees?). Also there are all of these supplemental insurances you can but that really are over prices and amount to nothing. No pension! Fortune 6 company, made $270 billion last year (yes, with a “b”), yet no pension for you…yet GREAT bonuses for the execs. Do not work here if you have any sort of retirement planning in mind. CAREER: It is a great mystery how maneuverability works within Optum/UHG. You will hear how to come in, get your foot in the door and then you can move around. FALSE! Please read the reviews on here. If you do decide to ignore this guide and take a job at Optum/UHG, prepare for annual layoffs and jobs being moved to India. If you survive that, after taking on the jobs of people who left the company (since there has been zero growth positions at Optum, and they do not backfill), you are now doing 2 or 3 people’s jobs, for the same lower than industry pay, with terrible benefits and no maneuverability. If you manage to live through all of this, be prepared to keep exactly the same job you came into the company with…with no promotional opportunities. LEADERSHIP: Optum enjoys a “bottoms-up” leadership style. Leadership is completely non-existent, leaning on the employee to define their job duties and role son their own, and hope the teams they interact with share the same view. If you ask your leadership to, well, actually lead and make a real decision they will make YOU feel like you do not know how to do or handle your job. It was the oddest leadership style and structure I have ever experienced. The phrase I heard from leadership many times was “We are successful despite ourselves”. Wow, if that doesn’t inspire you to do great work, I do not know what will. CULTURE: Ignore all of the cultural talk. No one walks the walk or talks the talk. Optum remains a white male patriarchal driven institution. Women are NOT paid equally. Minorities are NOT treated equally. Sexism, racism, and nepotism are rampant at Optum. Optum, there should be NO ‘isms” in the workplace AT ALL. The only constant is that senior leadership continue to receive large bonuses while the culture around them crumbles to all time low levels of morale and super high levels of attrition. Again, read the other reviews on here and take employment at Optum at your own risk. You were warned!

3.0
Feb 21, 2019

Getting more stressful with less reward

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Getting to work from home is a HUGE part of the pro. Great coworkers, really have a team atmosphere. Everyone pulls together to meet targets and help each other. The work itself is rewarding. Direct supervisor is awesome. Flexible schedule when needed which is nice for parents and students.

Cons

Benefits are not good for a company that is health care. They definitely make money off their employees with the plans they offer. Compensation is very disheartening. Optum (at least in my department) has made bonuses unattainable by raising standards way above anything we can reach. Aside from that yearly raises have been less and less which is disappointing considering they tell us quarterly how much MORE money they are making. Knowing how much Our department has contributed a substantial amount towards that final number and getting peanuts back is a bit of a slap in the face.

Viewing 76 - 78 of 15,516 Reviews

Glassdoor has 16,986 Optum reviews submitted anonymously by Optum employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Optum is right for you.