Alight Solutions offers a promising future to those who are interested in a fair introductory salary, paid training program, robust benefits package, and opportunities for advancement. Ultimately, however, Alight does not fulfill these initial promises. I was hired to be a Customer Service Representative, or CCR I, on Alight's tiered Customer Care scale. The interview and background-check process was easy, they provided all necessary equipment, and remained communicative regarding all initial steps required of me to begin the job. For me, the issues did not begin until I had finished On-boarding training. For others, issues began the day equipment was supposed to arrive. We were sent three separate packages, of which would include a laptop, monitor, wireless keyboard and mouse, and a headset. No one in my training class received these items on the same day or time, making the first few days rough for some. Once everyone had their equipment, the real problems began. Many people experienced advanced technical issues, either with the hardware itself or the Alight-specific programs that came theoretically pre-installed on our laptops. I and many others had to personally install many of the necessary programs ourselves, or wait days to receive help from IT who often, unfortunately, made things much worse. These technical issues made it difficult or near-impossible for many in my training class to keep up with On-boarding training, which began on our official "first day." While I have no qualms with the initial On-boarding training - many others did. On-boarding training lasted 7 days and covered everything from how to navigate your new Alight-sponsored benefits to an introductory look at CS Pro, the main program used by CCRs during the job. Many in my training class found this period stressful, both due to the ongoing technical issues and the amount of information covered in such a short amount of time, coupled with a series of lengthy assessments that tested material you may not have been able to access due to said technical issues. My true gripe with this company came after On-boarding training was over and I and a few others from my training class were placed in Client Specific training. Client Specific training, in my opinion, was a complete and utter let down. After the previous week spent looking at written material in-depth, pausing for questions, and watching helpful videos, I was expecting the same from my second round of training. Unfortunately, what I received was nothing like I had expected. Those who led the training were clearly knowledgeable about the material and experienced in their roles, but being knowledgeable and experienced does inherently qualify someone to be a good instructor. Our instructors had little idea of what had been covered in our initial training, had no clear outline for what material they would be covering, sped through said material, did not want to answer questions and when doing so would go on long, irrelevant tangents. The worst part of all, though, was the complete lack of clear communication regarding the length of training. At different points during On-boarding training we were told Client-Specific training would be 3-5 weeks long, then 21 days, and finally 14 days. How long was Client-Specific training, you may ask? 3 days. It was 3 days long. Others assigned to different clients received longer Client-Specific training, but not I. Within a week and a half, and after an almost entirely irrelevant Client-Specific training course, I was expected to go live on the phones. We were given a single half-day of "side by sides" in which we took calls while in a Microsoft Teams meeting with a higher-up on the team. The process of taking calls is easy enough, though do not expect to know how to effectively help any customers given your lack of training and inadequate access to what they lovingly refer to as your magic bag of "tools." These tools (I.E digital material the customers are already given by their employers or outdated online glossaries) are all you have to read through when taking calls. There are, on some teams, digital chats you can type out questions to and hope for a timely reply. The term "thrown to the wolves" has never felt quite so true as when I was working at Alight. Should you want to discuss any of these issues with management, expect to be met with silence, irritation, Forced Corporate PositivityTM, or a combination of the three. All kind-ears and helpful attitudes were gone the moment I or any of my colleagues attempted to bring forth these issues. Needless to say, within two weeks time I and many others in my initial hiring class were gone, though don't think the fun stops there. Should you want to quit, returning the equipment to Alight will be no easy task. Email from the company handling the return will be slow (or not come at all), and once you receive the packing material you may find yourself surprised to see a beaten-up box (AKA utterly torn apart), more bubble-wrap than one could ever possibly need, and no paid return slip as promised or the packing tape necessary to make said box remotely functional. In sum, do not apply to Alight Solutions if you're not interested in training yourself, being forced into production before you're feasibly ready in order to compensate for Alight's poor retention rate, and meeting insane metrics put forth by out-of-touch higher-ups.
