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First Niagara Bank

Acquired by KeyBank

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First Niagara Bank Reviews

3.2

50% would recommend to a friend

(201 total reviews)

Beth Mooney

54% approve of CEO

19% positive business outlook

First Niagara Bank has an employee rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 201 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The First Niagara Bank employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Finance industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

201 reviews
1.0
31 Mar 2016

First Niagara Bank-Not the company it used to be

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

When I started in 2011 First Niagara was a great smaller company and an enjoyable place to work- a lot of laughing,enjoying each others company but a good place to get things accomplished-good medical health plan And great 401K plan

Cons

Once HSBC merged with First Niagara(2012) the atmosphere has continuously eroded over the years -now with the Key Bank buyout, the bank is a shell of itself . Moral is low and everyone is getting out while they can. Sorry to see this happen to a bank that has been around for a long long time.

1.0
6 Oct 2014

Wrong Career Move

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Vacation time, Salary and Bonus at par with industry

Cons

No communication even though "transparency" is a frequently used word. Corporate values are a joke. Employees are not valued, no training and no career growth path. Areas are reorganized without notifying those that are affected, no published org charts that are complete or accurate, the only way you know who you report to is by looking at the phone directory. Too many chiefs and empire builders, overloaded with consultants. Too many people resistant to improving process and fully utilizing the capability of the software/systems being implemented. Many of us believed we would have the opportunity to significantly improve the technology and methodology to bring the environment into the 21st century, but IT has done a near 180 degree turn in the wrong direction with the current leadership. Very disappointing, one of the worst organizations I have ever worked in.

1.0
25 Sept 2015
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Banking hours, and some of the customers make your day worth it.

Cons

Where to even begin with this poor excuse for a customer service position. It's become a complete sales position, with little regard for actually improving the customer relationship. Rather than providing excellent service and good word of mouth, the expectation was to harass them into signing up for as many items as possible (especially Home Equity Loans/LOC), so it would be a hassle to eventually leave when they figured out what a sham this bank is. Mandatory call nights for all customer facing positions, calling the same unqualified customers every month to hassle them into meeting during business hours. Used to be that you would do a call night once a month, which slowly dragged into every other week, which turned into every single week with no exceptions. Management argued that we needed more call nights because of declining sales, but this was an inefficient use of time, scheduling problems, etc. Management didn't want you to do anything except call customers day in and day out. Harassing them two-three days a week over the phone. Your job was partially based on credit applications (credit cards, home equities, personal loans, etc.), so you weren't considered successful with your customer unless you got an application. Doesn't matter that they didn't need the loan - just keep force feeding them things they don't want or need. Became increasingly more difficult to achieve goals, since personal bonuses were based on amount of money you brought into the bank. For a bank that offered little incentive to join and poor word of mouth in the community, this was exceedingly difficult in blue collar areas and places with stagnant local economies. Asking for $25,000 in new funds (and that's only if they place it in a checking account) forced us into providing bad product options, offering checking accounts rather than savings/money markets, and being reluctant to pass them onto financial advisors in lieu of losing our bonuses at the end of the quarter.

Viewing 1 - 3 of 201 Reviews

Glassdoor has 206 First Niagara Bank reviews submitted anonymously by First Niagara Bank employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if First Niagara Bank is right for you.