Steer clear - Dinosaur posturing as 'Innovative' - Product Senior Advisor CVS Health Employee Review

2.0
Jan 19, 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

3 weeks PTO 6 Corporate Holidays (Memorial, 4th, Labor, Thanksgiving, Christmas & New Year's) Cafeteria onsite in most locations Some locations have a gym

Cons

Benefits: 1. Expensive! High Deductible Health Plans are essentially the only affordable option. They do have one PPO that is just insanity from a cost perspective. 2. Employees are their test cases for new PBM networks/benefit offerings/restrictions. This year it was the 'value formulary' which didn't even ensure that Class B drugs were included. Class B drugs are those that have been proven safe in pregnancy & breast feeding. Considering half the population is female this is a gigantic oversight 3. Maternity leave is a short term disability policy. 6-weeks for a regular delivery, 8 weeks for a c-section. CVS has also been known to raid female employees PTO banks to 'pay' them while on leave even with confirmation in writing not to do so. I know three employees that this happened to in the last year and all then had to 'pay back' the difference in the form of not receiving a check. Companies of similar size have found ways to make 12 weeks paid leave work for their employees but CVS as a 'Health Care company' doesn't seem interested in doing what's right for their female employees. Work Environment: 1. Locations are primarily driven by the type of work that is done there. If you're ok with the following a move to RI to continually advance may not be in the cards for you: TX - IT professionals, RI - Corporate/Retail & some PBM, IL - Professionals and PBM operations, Scottsdale PBM operations 2. Work life balance all comes down to your Sr leaders. There are some that explicitly say that 50+ hours every week is what they expect. Others are good with 40 3. Re-Orgs: Happen every six months or so. Most don't have enough time to make a material impact before another occurs. They bill this internally as being 'agile' but all it does is create more chaos 4. Transform Care - A signature product the PBM is developing - if you see this listed in job openings, run. Literally, do not apply. This team is now on it's third iteration of staff (the first two waves were laid off) because deadlines were unrealistic to truly build things to work the right way. 5. Reviews: CVS still believes in ranking employees against each other come review time. There is shuffling of employees down in scores to meet these objectives. Employees know about it and quite frankly it's demoralizing and in today's workplace a terrible tactic for keeping and retaining quality talent. Besides, that 'Meets' will get you a 1.5% raise while an Excellent or Outstanding will get you 2-2.5%. How very generous of them. They do also offer bonuses, but again, all based on your rating. A meets will not guarantee you full bonus payout - closer to 75-80% (if the company also met their goals). Stock bonuses also exist for 'high performers' but these take five years to vest. 6. Leadership: C & E level get out there and talk a good game but in reality quite a few at the SVP level have no business being 'leaders'. There are stories of leaders cussing out employees in front of full conference rooms (PBM Innovation group specifically) and leaders like this are continually promoted because they suck up to the right people regardless if they are toxic to the culture. 7. Layoffs every year: November. Like clockwork, every single year. Because we have to meet street expectations. Some leaders are even callous enough to refer to layoffs as 'cost cutting measures'. Nevermind that they just let 400+ people with families go right before the holidays. Sure lives up to their Core Value of Caring. 8. Silo'd. Divisions do their own thing without talking to the others. They could be far more innovative if people would stop being so protective of their 'turf' and actually doing what's right for patients and employees by collaborating.

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5.0
May 13, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Very organized with great corporate structure

Cons

Onsite work but team was located in other cities

5.0
Dec 13, 2014
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

I learned a lot working there as far as how to run a business as well as how to develop a team. I had one of the most successful teams in the company ranking as the top store year over year in two separate markets, one in the Northeast one in the Southeast. I was a paragon winner with the company as well. My most recent DM was very supportive. I genuinely thank them for the opportunity and the knowledge that I acquired while working with them.

Cons

Work hours were excessive. To be successful hours worked were borderline slavery. While I willingly worked them to be successful, the week you didn't you were immediately behind. Vacations were almost non existent due to constant visitors from corporate stopping in to do reviews. Holiday weeks were paid 4 days regular 1 holiday and you worked all 5. The facade of the stores looking great when these people stop by versus the reality of the business is polarizing. There were always teams of people and excessive expenditures of payroll thrown into stores prior to their visits. While I understood the need to make an appearance, it was always will always be a backwards way off thinking. Company preaches quality of life for their clients while quality of life for their employees is non-existent. As a "manager" in your average store you will be "managing" a total of one person during your shift, with a total of 10 people at location. Location open hours will exceed total payroll hours ie Sun-Sat 7am-10pm = 15hrs per day x 7 days x 2 people = 210 hrs which excludes the need to have a person unload deliveries that come in during non opened hours. Your budgeted hours will be approximately 208 hrs. I will only mention that during the month of December that there are extended hours for the stores but no budgeted hours to accommodate. Stores are held to strict shrink targets with little to no control over external theft. Remember 2 people at location, if four people enter to steal there is nothing you can do to stop them. These are facts not personal prejudices.

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