Nowhere near what it once was or what it could have become. It's on it's tipping point of a downward spiral.
Pros
Some of the people truly care about our mission, our members and the future of our organization. Inaction is rewarded, so if you want to coast...
Cons
The sheen is becoming slightly dull on the old kings crown. LOTS of outside 'talent' coming in from old competitors who went belly up in the financial crisis. Sadly no one at the top of USAA seems smart enough to see the history these executives made at their old companies is likely soon to repeat itself at USAA. Times are changing and not for the better. Its clear we have lost the focus on what made us who we are. Heres the simple equation on how the company grew to greatness: The best employees take care of the best members who are loyal and buy products from the best company. Employees CARE ABOUT THE COMPANY and protect it from exorbitant expenses as if it were their own. This makes competing on price easy and further enhances retention, because service doesn't have to be sacrificed. These new folks spend money like it was air and do not care about this company like they should. We're becoming very top heavy with new made up executive positions so they can bring in more of their old buddies. They create new jobs for each other with gobbledygook titles full of exec-u-speak like Executive of Execution Sales Relationship Integrator. Why do this? When no one knows what you do how can you do it wrong? I'll create a made up position for you, you create one for me and off we go. Meanwhile the long term folks who care about our mission get a 1% annual pay increase, don't get the budgets needed to improve our antique infrastructure and systems or staff our operations appropriately. Downward spiral. Today 'taking care of employees' is a joke. They are overworked. It's an ever lower priority, the pension is gone, Humana health care coverage is universally hated and horrible, annual raises are averaging a half percent. Employees are seen and treated as nothing more than replaceable commodities. Quality and service are frequently sacrificed at the alter of year over year growth. Quality leaves, then goes the brand reputation, then goes the loyalty, then goes customer retention and all that's left is to compete on price while carrying the bloated top heavy executive compensation packages. So what to do? Squeeze whomever is left, the frontline employee, "do more with less" is the mantra. Turnover grows, you loose your skilled anchors who are the only ones capable of delivering the quality service you promised. And there we have it history has repeated