Alterna Savings Employee Reviews
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Alterna Savings is a member-facing financial institution. Even though Alterna operates in the same retail banking environment as the banks, there is less sales pressure. There is a heightened focus on member needs. My experience has been supportive and collaborative for the most part. As with any business, there is always a focus towards doing more with less which can get frustrating at times. I have met a lot of great friends here and would definitely recommend. Alterna has supported me in my personal career aspirations.
Pros
Great work/life balance
Cons
Smaller institution, so total compensation package is a bit below avg
Fun place to work, great work/life balance. Don't get paid 37.5 hours which is not the greatest. Would love to work more hours. The manager was great, does not micromanage. Hard to move up in the company. Great benefits. USD employee rate purchase is best in the indsutry.
Pros
Culture, co-workers, Manager, Benefits, work/life balance
Cons
Not enough hours, hard to move up, need more snacks
Alterna really took care of its employees through the pandemic. I believe they put people firstAnd worked hard to keep us safe. Focus is on members and creating a better member experience. We have to sell but they do make us focus on our members needs vs just selling whatever. Good supportive leaders.
Pros
Good pay, strong culture, good work life balance
Cons
Can be long hours
I would not recommend a job at Alterna until there is a strong effort to bring up the caliber of leadership across all departments at the highest level.
Poorly managed from the CEO and downwards. A lot of back stabbing and very little direction from directors. HR is very poorly run and any staff who are hard working are forced out of the company.
They talk a good fight but in reality care very little about members and staff alike.
Turnover is rampant for a reason. It’s hilarious that senior management has to ask staff to right positive reviews
otherwise their ratings
- Very unorganized environment and process, with meaningless organizational chart.
- Hardest part of the job was to have a professional conversation with the head of my department and the CAMLO. Very incompetent management team. Do yourself a favor and search for a descent place - NOT this one.
Pros
Close to home
Cons
Company culture
I worked at Alterna for about 11 months now, it’s a very demanding job with lots of hidden loopholes. At first I was hired as a Member service specialist but was asked to do many different task in other departments. Poor management which cause severe turn overs. BE AWARE!!!
You have to take care of member needs and fins out what their need is so you can provide them with the best financial solution, or direct them to one of the bankers.
poor training. they expect you to upsell on products you arent taught about. They expect you to upsell on every call despite the fact that you often talk to the same people several times a week. the bilingual CS take so many calls it's painful and you dont get enough breaks to relax
Pros
location
Cons
long hours, short lunches. they give only the legal minimum required of everything
STAY AWAY!! Toxic environment. The pay is horrendous and the management provides no support. They find reasons to blame you...PLEASE DO YOURSELF A FAVOUR AND STAY AWAY!!!
Toxic environment in my last dept, wouldn't recommend to work in that dept, learned a lot and able to take away a lot of transferable skills, work life balance doesn't exist in certain areas even though company prides itself on community oriented company
I wasted a few months here. During the interview, they really pumped how much they don't micro-manage and how awesome and competent the people are. After they bypassed numerous hiring steps I was in. We had a welcome lunch... Nice... One guy stood out as friendly and sociable.. the next day they fired him... Welcome to the company? Working with the shell shocked team, I had my work cut out for me... as it turns out the people on my team only have these jobs because they didn't quit... they were all incompetent, except for one, who somehow was tolerant of doing everyone else's job. Manger started to chase me around the office, when i went for a wee, coffee, help or ask for help. and stood there eavesdropping on my conversation. when he wasn't following me, he was teasing his hair or watching YouTube. I'm happy not to be there
My advice to you, keep looking. Keep looking for something better. This is not worth your time and energy
Horrible place to work. Forced to make calls to their members. Pressures staff to make sales. Management, especially certain branches are all competing at being number one at all cost. I worked at branch and was constantly bullied by the manager. She would turn other staff members against you if you did not agree with her. She would lie to your face and twist everthing you said to her advantage.They play favorites. Some staff got away with everything.while some othetd were constantly being threatened or harassed .
My manager would not speak or address me to for days if she was angry at you for whatever reasone. And HR is not helpful to solving conflicts. They are never on the side of the staff. Constantly talked bad about members. Especially those you are poor.with no money to invest. And the managers all gossip against each other to the staff.
Pros
Good benefits
Cons
You are expected to do activites with the staff on your days off, for instance attend birthday parties and so on. If you do mot go, my manager would say that You are not a team playet.
I have nothing but great thing about the alterna branch at St Laurent .I would work here again in a heart beat. The stuff and customers are just amazing.
Alterna prides itself in giving back to their long standing community. Our customers are not clients, but members so they feel apart of the company itself. Alterna Savings has a good pay grade and has outstanding benefits especially for those who have families.
Pros
Outstanding benefits
Cons
Longer hours
Great group of people, they are very welcoming and easy to get along with. Also have a very good training system, makes it easy to learn the job as fast as possible.
Pros
great work environment
Cons
pay
If you have a choice go somewhere else to work.
Upper management is horrible and all the directors
Are out of touch and are big bank rejects.
Hard work is not rewarded and if you try and voice your concerns you are deemed a trouble maker and black balled.
Alterna received an award from AON because the CEO use to work there, what a joke.
good luck if you accept a position here
Pros
Ok benefits
Cons
Toxic work environment and no room for advancement
Good to staff, you have to be dedicated.
High Sales Target
Great Manager and coaching sessions
Convenient hours
Friendly atmosphere
Managers keep staff in the know and always have meeting to help staff attain their goals
Pros
Full support from Management
Cons
Fixed Hours. Extremely high sales targets
-Good management
-Friendly co workers
-Good place to learn and gain knowledge
-Good place to grow and open yourself up to several new positions
-Position can have stress on it but it is stress that is not too overwhelming and motivates you to do better
Pros
good environment to work in
Cons
long hours on some days
This company is very behind when it comes to banking. The employees and management are also not up to date with pleasant work culture or work and life balance. The contact center employees are beyond overworked since they are to deal with all customer inquiries (no transferring). The training for the contact center role is not long enough for what you are expected to know and apply on the calls. It is the most stressful customer service role, with little compensation.
In my opinion and experience I would not recommend this company as senior managers often fire hardworking employees without reason. There is no alignment at the senior level, often middle level employees are going around in circles because senior management cannot agree on a project or strategy. Technology is in need of massive updating. Marketing & Product team has had 4 VP's in the last 4 years. All prior VP's have quit or have been fired.
Pros
free coffee
Cons
poor management, work/life balance, lack of balance, poor company culture
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