Pros
Benefits are good as they are provided through Marsh (health, dental, vision, 401K matching, ~10 holidays); Locations – offices in most big cities (Chicago, Atlanta, Philly, NYC, LA, San Francisco, Dallas); Some flexibility with work-from-home, although this is very much dependent on your manager and role; Colleagues are very knowledgeable; Product direction is new with the unveiling of STARS|One this year (see press releases Oct 2014)
Cons
Management at STARS is comprised of a grp of execs with no industry experience. While they have big resume backgrounds, don’t expect any of them to know a thing about our clients, the use of our products in the industries we serve or our colleagues. The executive leadership team is not cohesive, and this bleeds into the organization at every turn. STARS has had four CEOs in the past 3 years and has an ELT with the longest tenure being 18 mos. – that means nothing more than instability and chaos. The current CEO is a slick orator that can be very convincing thru all-colleague calls and presentations, but has yet to deliver and cannot make a personal connection with a colleague or a client to save his life. In summary, this group looks good on paper but falls short in the real world. The sales group is divided into geo zones but these zones are so loosely defined and governed that pretty much anything goes so long as you are putting numbers on the board. Half the zone directors have had their role only about a year, with the others being brand new or vacant, so their is little leadership here. Most of the sales reps are also new, and cannot demo our products or promote our value prop without the support of half the organization. Account Managers are basically responsible for everything related to their book regardless of their ability to control the majority of it – growth, service, product, Marsh, etc. Mgmt in sales cares most about new sales, so good luck if you support existing business. STARS also has the worst commission plan in the industry – don’t expect to be a big earner even if you are a big seller. The backbone of STARS is our Professional Services group, and it is in traction. To say that it is a mess is an understatement. This group loses colleagues at an astonishing rate, and the impact to our clients and to STARS is detrimental. Implementations take forever and are riddled with issues. Daily support of our clients suffers as the majority of the skilled system consultants have walked over the last year and the mgmt in this group is clueless on how to attract/retain talent or how to structure a support team. The residual services provided in this group are the most solid, but they are picking up the slack for the others and this is impacting their work product as well. This group needs a major overhaul and the introduction of the human element, for any hope of making real change. The question is will the CEO allow this change to happen, or will he once again send everyone down his rabbit hole. The direction of STARS is vague. Who are we really and who do we want to be? Are we striving to be the best RIMS in the industry? Do we want to corner the market in data analytics? Are we in the claims business? Do we want more of the healthcare market share, the safety arena, the public sector space? Who knows…But we created this STARS|One product and we think it is going to revolutionize who we are. Maybe, but we should know who we are first before we try to take us to the next level. This identity crisis is a critical factor in the loss of knowledgeable colleagues, good clients and support from the industry. We have had years to figure this out, and haven’t. Is it too late? We have engaged PWC and other external firms to help us here - what about listening to our own people? Don’t be fooled, STARS is controlled by Marsh at every turn. We try to say we are own independent company, but the reality is that Marsh tells us what to do and when to do it. It is actually sad these new leaders come into STARS thinking they are going to call the shots, and it is a matter of minutes before they realize this isn’t ever going to happen. And Marsh is a brokerage not a software company, so they impose on us the same goals, limitations, structure, etc. they do on the brokerage. It doesn’t work – like oil and water – and that has proven to be the case for many years. So much so, that all signs indicate that Marsh will be absorbing STARS into their fold within the next 12-18 months. That is obviously concerning to me, both from a long term strategy and job retention perspective – neither looks good. Culture has been a big topic here this past year, since most of us have vocalized that it is horrible. Sure there have been some efforts made to address this, but a few happy hours, pizza lunches and trinkets are no substitute for what we lack. This is a sterile place to work, where people simply do not matter to anyone beyond their immediate peers. The family feel from 5+ years ago is gone; the fun times both during work hours and afterwards are virtually non-existent. Our culture reflects the personality of our leadership – cold, stuffy, elitist, dysfunctional, non-empathetic – so colleagues have adapted by withdrawing and developing a heads-down work mentality. There are one or two departments who have created their own mini-culture, but even that has been negatively impacted by the overall organization. While, in general our people are the greatest asset, they are also the most fragile. Our attrition rate over the last two years is off the charts. It seems like every day, really good, skilled and knowledgeable people are leaving STARS. Seriously, we hear about departures at least once a week. It used to be people you didn’t know well or that were with the company 1-2 years, but now it is people that are super smart, knowledgeable, experts in their field who are leaving. And we are not replacing them and, if we do, it is with people who lack the industry, market or product experience. Some of it is about compensation – we don’t exactly pay at competitive rates – but mostly it is about job satisfaction and happiness. Our leadership thinks everyone is replaceable, and sure they are, but at what cost? They seem surprised when people leave….publicly bad mouthing and belittling them….but they fail to realize that they are just escaping us. Promotions internally are virtually non-existent. If you do get one, there will likely be no increase in comp or bonus as a result. Most salaried people are expected to work however many hours it takes to get the job done - that is great very once in a while but this is all of the time. We are so understaffed and under-skilled, that the work load on most if crazy. Expect to work nights, weekends, on your vacation just to get an "average" performance rating.
