There are so many things wrong with this company that I don't even know where to begin. I have been with MetLife for 9 years. Within the past 2 years, there have been a ridiculous amount of changes and reorganization. So many changes that employees cannot keep up.
To start, there have been new metrics put in place for associates without providing them with the tools or training necessary to make these goals. They are generalizing evaluation processes across groups, even in cases where it is not applicable. Customer Centricity is supposed to be the main focus right now, but the stats imposed on employees do not make for a more customer friendly team.
They are laying off employees around the country and moving jobs to North Carolina. The state of NC gave MetLife a huge tax break as an incentive. The IT department is part of this move. The new hires for IT are clueless. You cannot even call for a simple password reset. They just don't know anything about our systems. You cannot fault them though, because clearly, this is due to lack of training.
Let's not forget to mention, the IT systems we use for to work are outdated and frequently bogged down with multiple issues. Right now, we are using an expired, unsupported operating system (Windows XP). The company has plans to move to Windows 7, but as of April 8, 2014, Windows XP is no longer being updated or supported by Microsoft. In effect, that means there are no more security updates.
The sales desk, wholesaler, underwriting and compensation units that handle our third party distribution have also moved to NC. These associates appear to have gotten little to no training. This will be very detrimental to the third party distribution channel for MetLife. The company wishes to grow in this area, but I fear that it will be the opposite. I frequently talk to brokers who threaten to not bother selling MetLife product, because it is too much hassle for them.
My job frequently consists of cleaning up messes made by our employees in India. Many administrative processing jobs were outsourced to India a few years back. Associates have repeatedly complained about the mistakes made offshore to senior management, but it seems to fall on deaf ears. No one does anything to fix the problems.
Every Friday, we get an email with information about management employees being replaced or moved to different areas. I am not talking about one a week... It is more like 3-5 on average. It is mind boggling how fickle the current upper management team is. It certainly does not present MetLife stable light.
These are just a small sample of the major issues with this company. I used to love going to work, now I dread it. And everyone that works around me is miserable.
Advice to Senior Management – Listen to your employees. Rather than upping shareholder dividends by millions of dollars per year, spend some money on your IT systems. If you want to focus on customer centricity, provide actual goals AND training that are related to excellent customer service.
