Burns & Wilcox Reviews

Pros

The sky is limit if you work hard and aren't afraid to go out of your way to own your own career progression.

Cons

Don't expect hand holding or spoonfeeding. This culture is best for proactive and driven employees.

Pros

-Good downtown office location on Bay st. -Good place to learn how to not build a good company culture / atmosphere and what poor management looks like.

Cons

-Compared to other employers in the industry, employees at Burns & Wilcox Toronto are underpaid, have longer standard hours, less paid time off, underwhelming bonuses and have much worse benefits packages. -Despite what upper management tells its staff, the company has a poor reputation in the industry which is apparent as soon as you attend an industry event and start talking to people at other companies.... -Junior staff are set up in a sweat shop model of brain numbing processing with very high turnover rates with managers that don't care about them. -Toxic culture is rewarded with underwriters and mangers able to get away with bad behavior as long as they are bringing in the dollars and meeting their sales targets. Dollars are more important than culture here. Management not brave enough to let bad apples go because it would affect business numbers. -No standard casual Fridays, and if there is you need to pay to dress casual with a charity donation from your already underwhelming salary. -Culture of nepotism and favoritism. -Sexism: Two male managers are well known by everyone for automatically disliking any new male employees because they are men and not a young female -Leadership only pays lip service to carrying about its staff. -Everyone at the company knows that Burns and Wilcox Canada management apparently asked Glassdoor to remove a previous bad review... You can bet after this review there will be a witch hunt to find out who wrote it

Advice to Management

Be honest with your intentions. Do you actually care about your staff? Stop rewarding toxic individuals. Actually try for once to be ahead of the curve instead of playing catch up on employee benefits / culture / pay.

Pros

It will make every other job you ever have seem amazing in comparison. There's some good people so once you all quit it's nice to share war stories and show off your scars.

Cons

Everything. There's rampant nepotism; if you are one of the trusted few you have free rein. You will get promoted beyond your abilities and will be given the choicest business. The sky is the limit and you should never leave because you won't ever have it as good. If you're not one of the lucky few, you will experience the exact opposite; Impossible targets that have no basis in reality, constant pressure to... work late or at home with no rewards for doing so, bonuses taken away indiscriminately, and a constant fear of being fired. One senior manager once told me that if he doesn't like someone, he'll get them fired. Not because of performance, but because of some strange grudge with no basis in reality that he held against his next victim. Unbelievable turnover, well over 100% during my time there. Terrible reputation in the industry, which is why they are unable to hire any experienced talent unless those employees have a black mark in the industry. At first they were able to hire respected talent, but that ability disappeared once those people quickly quit or were fired for questioning how the business was run. Management has an aversion to listening to other people's opinions and are unwilling to change how they operate even if the suggestion is well-reasoned and will help the company. It is the insurance world's last resort. I'd never experience random people in the industry telling me that I need to leave a company for the sake of my career. Literally every person I've spoken to after leaving has asked me if all of the terrible rumours are true; they are.

Advice to Management

Stop the nepotism, treat your employees like they are humans, not automatons. Get rid of senior management that pose a significant risk to your liability and do nothing but damage your reputation. Consider getting out of insurance and opening a for-profit jail; you will excel.

Pros

Salary (they only do it because they think it will motivate people to stay with them and they think it gives them the right to treat their employees terribly- beware of wolves in sheeps clothing)

Cons

Management practice and encourage classic bullying techniques - gas lighting - mobbing - isolation - intimidation - humiliation Upper management had no empathy for employees issues - only interested in the almighty dollar

Advice to Management

Leader lead by example Bosses bully people into getting what they want 'nuff said!

Pros

Open-minded to change, mostly younger staff. Can listen to personal music when at desk. Upper management recognizes work of front-line staff

Cons

In need of cultural diversity training, upper front-line staff and Mangers take advantage of positions. Staff takes dress code too lightly. Lack of diverse hiring.

Pros

If you are an assistant its a good place to gain some knowledge. 2 years is your max!!!! For U/W Producers there is an opportunity to make good bonus payments... Not much else, I am afraid

Cons

Remember Kindergarden? They speak to team, but its all about a few individuals at the end of the day. It's all about numbers and not about people. American style does not work here!

Advice to Management

Get someone who knows how to manage running the place. This is a sales organization. Stop running it on numbers and start running it on relationships. That was everyone has an opportunity.

Pros

Lots of the people - particularly the assistant underwriters - are very nice and good to work with. It can be fun if you're young because there are tons of people in their 20s. You can get promoted to underwriter from assistant underwriter relatively quickly if you are competent and stick with it, although the main reason that promotions are available is due to the high turnover.

Cons

Below the industry average in pay, time off, and benefits. More hours than is standard - you have to work 8:30-5:30, no flexibility. You don't technically get coffee breaks - most people take them but there are some more senior employees that tell management when they see assistants taking breaks. The company tries to foster competition between employees by displaying everyone's numbers at meetings. This... creates a very negative work environment. There is a general feeling of frustration toward management, which refuses to listen to the concerns of employees. Management is very rigid and unwilling to make necessary changes to adapt to Canadian work environment. Turnover is incredibly high and it's very easy to see why. Other companies do not tend to hold experience at Burns & Wilcox in very high regard so many people, upon leaving, have to take a slight demotion.

Advice to Management

Listen to your employees. Match other companies in hours, time off, flexibility, pay, and benefits. Stop trying to set your employees at each other.

Pros

Good people to work with.

Cons

Terrible benefits. Too many American values and very money driven over people.