Desperate to escape - Executive Director WTW Employee Review

1.0
Feb 27, 2011
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Willis is a great place to train so absorb as much as you can (yes even the compliance!) then get out at the first opportunity. It is also good for networking, with employees coming from a wide variety of backgrounds and nationalities. Less importantly in London the company has an impressive, well located building and although these next two shouldn't be at the top of your list the canteen and gym are pretty well stocked and equipped!

Cons

At senior level management seems to be looking purely at figures and statistics without taking into account or having any regard for the human resource impact as they consider employees to be lucky to work for the "World's Greatest Insurance Broker" and believe there are always people prepared to take your place at less pay. We are obliged to implement this culture at divisional and team level and it is hard to lie to your staff. Our staff are overworked and overstretched with no resources forthcoming. This makes it difficult to run your team and there is very high employee turnover as a result of this push to overstretch margins and no doubt clients are starting to realize this. If you work hard to meet objectives and achieve them this is accepted as standard even though you've had to work unreasonable hours and bend rules to achieve unreasonable targets. Official statements and communications to employees and clients often have different "unofficial" of unwritten versions behind close doors and at executive management meetings. There is no long term strategy from senior management, only focus on quarter to quarter. It is disappointing to say but the only way to obtain any kind of salary increase is to threaten to leave and to buy into the politics of the greasy promotion pole...not really possible if you are someone with any integrity and honesty and you simply expect cream to rise to the top in a good well run organization. Unfortunately Willis appears not to be well run and consequently it is an entirely different substance of another color that rises (and there is plenty of this in Willis management)

Explore other reviews about WTW

5.0
May 15, 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great people who excel in their field and enjoyable to work with; good benefits and compensation; good feedback systems

Cons

a little too much email from corporate staff

3.0
Jun 17, 2026
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Paycheck is great, people to work with are generally very intelligent, positive and professional. Many positions are work from home or at least hybrid. Continuous learning is encouraged. Since the company is technically British, it is very inclusive and has several networks to ensure inclusion (although some such as the menopause support group are UK based which isn't surprising as the US doesn't typically care about such things though they should).

Cons

The workload is often insane to put it mildly. You are expected to sort of "do everything". When you are encouraged to speak up if you have too much work, they pretty much tell you "well you just have to figure out how to get it done because we have to give you more work". There is blatant favoritism. Those who are liked are praised for giving detailed answers on calls and granted a month off of PTO while those not as well liked get grilled when they ask for one day off and are told "not to overthink" when they try to provide detailed answers.

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