Old school thinking will lead to stagnant growth - Non-clinical Services Coordinator Kaiser Permanente Employee Review

4.0
Aug 26, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

+Great health benefits +Stable company that has long history +Well known and large in size +Ahead of its competitors +Able to leverage technology +Able to adapt to changes

Cons

-Even when you're more competent, highly skilled and has great potentials, hiring managers will go with "experience and previous title on paper". Sadly, in KP it is not what you know, but who you know. -KP can't assess talent and won't grow its new work force (less than 5 years of services at KP). They sometimes hire from the outside for people with the "right" experience. -Lack of training programs and opportunities for new work force (less than 5 years of services at KP) -Horrible recruitment services. If you apply from the outside, you know how much of a black hole it is to apply on kp.org. It is not that much if you're a current employee applying to internal positions. Most KP recruiters are not helpful or friendly. -Pay raises are very little and are capped out at a certain percentage each year. -Each department is slow to make changes due to its large size and bureaucratic nature -Lazy, and incompetent employees still allow to work, causing headaches for other dedicated, hard working, and competent employees.

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5.0
Jun 3, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Learned a lot, coworkers nice

Cons

N/a no cons in my experience

4.0
Sep 9, 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Kaiser is a great place to work and build a career over time. In my experience salaries are above market for most positions, and the benefits are so good that many people become "lifers". The health coverage is extremely generous, and time off starts off adequate and gets better over time (18 days when you start, moving up to 33 after 15+ years - this does not include sick time). Employees truly believe in the mission of KP (at least, I do) and it's clear that this is a place where employees' contributions are valued. Although my role is not part of any of the unions, the fact that our workforce is predominantly unionized also places a positive role in KP's reputation as a good place for workers (although having unionized staff also presents many challenges). Overall, I enjoy working at KP and would recommend it to others, but understand that you are entering a big bureaucracy. A friendly, mission-driven bureaucracy, but still.

Cons

Cons: having lots of "lifers" means that innovative ideas and workflows are not always adopted without a fight. People have their roles deeply embedded here, and any threat to the status quo is seen as negative, even though we need to make some pretty radical changes given the new health care environment post-ACA. There's a lot of "not my job" attitudes here. It's hard to navigate the layers of bureaucracy, both in terms of personnel/HR/benefits, and in getting work done (there are often 4-5 departments at the regional and national KP levels working on similar areas, and no guidance on who does what.) Be aware that KP is not immune to reorganizations and layoffs -- they do make a good attempt to ensure workers are hired elsewhere in the organization, but there are no guarantees, and there can be a lot of turnover in certain departments. Benefits are currently generous but are always subject to downgrades in the future, so just be aware of that. Some changes to the pension and retiree medical benefits are about to hit, and with them a wave of Baby Boomers will be taking retirement, which should hopefully open up many new management opportunities for Millennials. Oh, and the biggest con of all: we still - STILL - use Lotus Notes for email. Shocking, I know, but true.

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