Aon Reviews

Pros

You can get involved in many aspects of the business. The company has a wide variety of industries and products it offers, so there a lots of opportunities.

Cons

It is a fast past company. Because the change is so fast, it is some times challenges to keep up.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue to promote grow in the company and drive the business for consistency thorughout the enterprise in all countries and regions.

Pros

large company, a lot of opportunities

Cons

not much of a job security

Advice to Senior Management

na na na na na na na na na na na an na na na na na na na na na na na an

Pros

Unique opportunities
Good people
Nice perks
Fast-paced environment
Exposure to many different facets of marketing

Cons

Politics -- though those exist everywhere
Career growth can be a bit difficult

Pros

If you are determined you can go far.

Cons

Current Margins would allow additional employees however budgeting doesn't allow it when workloads for some are unsubstainable.

Pros

- It's a job that pays pretty decent
- The hours are not bad
- I love the clients I handle
- Most employees have awesome personalities, I work with great people

Cons

- Horrible training for new employees.
- They tell employees the same day (or day before) that they have mandatory overtime all week. People do have lives outside of the job!
- Management rates their employees based on how they feel towards them, not on job performance.
- Eliminate all of the unecessary performance measures. Employees fail because you measure everything they do.
- Unfair promotions; if you kiss butt and are a complete idiot, you will probably get promoted.
- Overworking the best employees; I work with numerous people that have worked there 3+ years and have been a CSR the entire time, yet management uses them as trainers and supervisors. You lose good employees by overlooking them for promotions.
- Management is BEYOND incompetent. They have absolutely no knowledge about anything other than "metrics".

Advice to Senior Management

- Get educated about what Aon does
- Stop treating employees like slaves (and speaking to them that way)
- Learn the clients you handle! You cannot pass judgement on employees about how they do their job if you don't know what their tasks are or about the client they take care of.
- Do some work, stop micromanaging and watching every move your employees make.
- Please stop making decisions without considering the effect it will have on your employees; mistakes are made and the morale is low because you disregard your employees.

Pros

Aon has a great benefits package, and after 5 years, they offer 3 weeks of paid vacation, along with 4 personal days.

Cons

Career advancement happens when someone else leaves or gets fired. Aon management gives a LOT of rhetoric on talent development and retention, but you never see any of the practices in play. My manager does not want to see me promoted/transferred (as upper management says they like to see happen) because it would mean her losing someone on her staff.

Aon has blindly invested heavily in building their own internal software program, only to spend the last 6+ years doing nothing but fixing problems with it. Even if all problems were resolved, they'd be left with a program that would have been considered outdated 10 years ago.

Advice to Senior Management

Take some time to solicit feedback from employees when considering internal promotions and transfers. Some employees look great on paper, but if you ask their colleagues, you may find no one likes working with them.

Pros

Friendly management team. One of the best places to work.

Cons

Not everything must change in the world. Some things can stay the same if they are still working properly. But in Aon, everything must change in every 2 years.

Advice to Senior Management

The world is not just US and UK. There are some other countries and cultures you need to understand. Not everybody understands the "cool" names you've created.

Pros

Many smart and competent professionals, especially in some practices. I have worked with some people who are the best in the business. Aon has a good reputation that is a boon when working with prospects. Aon also has a huge bench depth of knowledge so, with a little digging, I can help even the most esoteric needs of a client. I think the Hewitt acquisition gives Aon opportunities to better sell benefits and consulting to traditional customers.

Cons

Too much internal bureaucracy. Aon is getting very AIG-like with GRIP and Client Promise and all sorts of nonsense. Many senior execs have little insurance industry experience so something that is common practice is given a bunch of b-school buzzwords and introduced as such a great new idea (i.e. Client Promise). Compensation increases and bonuses even when there are truly measurable successes are often poor. Senior management seems to be leading for the next quarter. McKinsey cost cutting has gone beyond fat now and is hitting muscle and they seem to be a three trick pony: cut more costs, acquire more businesses (not so bad, IMO), and make up more silly processes with cute b-school names.

Advice to Senior Management

Improve internal communication. It's very hard to find the resources I need to get the job done if a prospect or client has needs that are outside the scope of my daily work. This is because our intranet sucks. I usually have to rely on word-of-mouth to find the appropriate people. Reduce internal paperwork; it's getting out of control. Aon has some very good people; AE's, claims, brokers, etc. If they leave, no amount of Client Promise or GRIP is going to retain clients. Clients follow the best professionals in this business. They don't follow processes.

Pros

-There's always work to be done so there is some job security
- flexibility to work from home is a plus

Cons

- 60-80 hr work weeks are normal
- "do more with less" is the staffing model, it's very difficult to clear a request for additional staff and when people leave you will end up covering their workload in lieu of bringing in a replacement
- senior management has little (if any) understanding of the product offerings and the complexity behind their development
- information sharing is poor, there are hundreds of databases with information but nothing to connect them all under a single search engine (it's difficult to find info unless you know someone that's done what you're working on)
- Nepotism and Good Ole Boy mentality makes it difficult to get through the day, be careful what you say and who you say it to
- you have to "wear many hats" by being you're own requirements consultant, developer, tester, quality analyst, project manager and unit manager; there should be a better separation of responsibilities so employees can focus on their role and deliver the best results

Advice to Senior Management

Your best and brightest are overworked and under paid, focus on getting employees the tools and talent they need to create a sustainable work pace that delivers quality. There is an urgent need to INVEST in training and technology, the majority of the equipment and documentation in use for both right now is 10-15 years old, the world has changed, so should our outdated materials.
I could go on, but let's start with this.

Pros

Hey, it's a port in a storm. Huge company with plenty of work to do, so if you can figure out the bureaucracy it is possible to plug your skills into a given project, get some skills and some half decent pay.

Cons

A series of complicated mergers over the last ten years have resulted in an extremely complex environment especially in the Information Technology space where I work. There may be over 30 different support lines for individual colleagues to call for IT support, hundreds of legacy environments, dozens of domains, insourcers, outsourcers, vendors and a complete lack of coherence. Other internal operations such as Financial and HR seem similarly convoluted. It's a MADHOUSE, a MADDDDHOUUUUSE.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop. What you are doing is not working. Go play golf and quit making deals. *sigh*