Pros
+ Bonus payment for good performance. The bonus that you could potentially get for great performance makes such a big different. They have recently revised the scores and made it a little easier to hit end of the month bonuses. By easier, I meant manageable. + Fair benefits. You do receive Medical, 401K, HSA, Prescription, Dental, Vision, and Life benefits at a reasonable price, however that is about it. There are no other great benefits such as discounts or anything exciting. + Employees are friendly for the most part. I actually enjoy interacting with my coworkers, and even field care managers are nicer to assist and talk to. There are some departments that do indeed behave horribly to one another, like bullies and sororities. Fortunately, the call center is not one of those departments. + They listen to concerns –sometimes. A few years ago we had an internal survey within the call center on areas that could be improved, and upper management did listen to those concerns and are working to improve them. Pay, the atrocious attendance policy, training, and our lack of reliable resources were some of other areas that they have worked to improve.
Cons
+ Prepare to be forced into training for other lines of businesses without an increase in payment and your consent. Your workload can be doubled or tripled, on top of mandatory over-time and weekend hours, and your wage will stay the same. You can end up with two completely different lines of businesses, which means double the call load, and double the information, but nothing else changes. + Attendance is far too strict. Prepare to be denied for Paid Time Off (PTO) if you are sick, or your immediate family members die, if CareSource needs shift coverage or the calendar is full. You will be marked for being late coming back from a break or clocking in too late, but you are expected to stay on the phones after your scheduled clock off time DESPITE the handbook stating that you are not permitted to work off the clock hours. Management will hound 'handbook' rules into your face constantly, except this one. If your clock off time is 1:15 PM and you receive a call at 1:15 PM, you have to take that call. + Bonuses for performance are based on numbers. Your quality scores are determined by strict, point-based guidelines and 5-10 out of 1,000s of those calls are scored for audits and graded each month. + It is hounded in you to use your resources that are not generally up to date and our systems are often down. If a member receives a phone call from a care manager or an automated call, we will not know about it. If our systems are down, we are to tell members that the ‘system is updating’ and still assist them in some way. Then, when our systems are up again, we must either call out to them to complete the calls or document the call properly in the system. Mind you, we are not given extra time to do so. + There is a huge amount of teacher’s pet favoritism and high school disciplinarian mindsets among the leadership team. They nag and nitpick over everything. Do not expect to be allowed to do anything at work other than stare at the blank screen even at an 8:00PM shift. The call center environment is suffocating. For a company that wants to flaunt how fun and innovative it is, they are anything BUT when it comes to their employees. + Despite what I was told when I was hired in, there is no room for growth. I have applied to many positions that will fit me best. I have not received a word about any of them -and yet the company will tell new hires that they have room for growth. No. You don't. There has been cases where those who do manage to hire into a new position is expected to wait months before they can transition because the call center still needs them to work. Another problem with moving out of the call center is the circular arguments you may receive when asking about an issue of something not getting done, or resolved in a timely manner. Applications are not being processed because HR is behind, but HR is not hiring more people. Claim Analysts are backed up with processing claims and yet they are not hiring people. + In the call center, you are segregated and left out from the rest of CareSource. You will not be included in company parties, All-Staff Meetings and you are bunched in a grey cubicle space and building with such horrible ventilation that it is making people sick. The call center does not even have a cafeteria. Advocates will not even be included in “Company Employee Satisfaction Rating Surveys” when CareSource is going for rewards and improving their public image. The call center is left out of everything.
