Great for people who value personal time more than money - Anonymous employee Empower Employee Review

2.0
Jul 29, 2012
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Great-west is fantastic in terms of its demands on you. People rarely work more than 40 hours (except a few depts, which seem understaffed) a week so it's really great for people with families who don't want to focus on work. This is an incredibly fiscally conservative company and so there is no history of layoffs.

Cons

If you are motivated and ambitious this is not the place for you. Our average raise this year was 1.75%. It is in the company policy that you can not get more than 10% a year, even for a promotion. So if you get a 1% merit increase you can only get a 9% maximum raise if you get promoted. I know this goes as high as VP. Not sure if it's applicable to SVPs and up. Also, you might expect an employee benefits company to provide great benefits for their employees. Great-west doesn't. I have heard it costs appx $5,000 out if pocket to have a baby. And our 401(k) plan is unbelievably average (4% match, no profit sharing).

Explore other reviews about Empower

5.0
Jul 21, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Rapid Growth Connected Leadership Open to new ideas and innovation Good pay, fair benefits

Cons

Large organization, takes a while to learn different organizational structures.

3.0
Jul 19, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Responsible Time (which is truly encouraged to be used and is one of the only things keeping people above water at the moment); great coworkers

Cons

Company is growing too big, too fast and employees simply cannot keep up and are burning out. Too many changes at once and employees feel senior leadership does not notice or they simply don’t care. Associates who have been with Empower since the beginning are saying this is not the same Empower they once loved working for.

See reviews by: Helpful|Rating|Date|All