Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. Reviews

Former Employee – worked at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. full-time for more than 8 years

Pros – Some of my co-workers are still friends today. Usually not a problem to take a day off. Chairs were comfortable. Could listen to music at my desk. Nature of the work was interesting and kept me around a lot longer after losing faith in advancement & management.

Cons – Favoritism & male chauvinism run rampant. Pay raises & bonuses frozen for years, yet company brags about how much revenue they are pulling in. Obvious outsourcing to India will ultimately replace some jobs in the future. Strong leadership is lacking. Training is lacking.

Advice to Senior Management – Care about your employees. It really isn't that hard. Don't hype how well the company is doing fiscally then turn around and claim it isn't in the budget to give raises to people who work very hard to keep those wheels turning for you. Make advancement opportunities available for everyone who qualifies, not just friends of senior management.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. as an intern for less than a year

Pros – Tremendous culture and work environment. Upper-level management is very much involved with employees/interns and always willing to offer advice and assistance. Exceptional opportunity to gain sales training as a college student and a heavy emphasis is placed on increasing the interns professionalism and value as a future member of the workforce.

Cons – Industry that demands significant training before an employee would be able to tackle problems on their own

Advice to Senior Management – Continue to stay involved with the internship program and develop young talent that will eventually lead AJG to further success in the marketplace.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. as a contractor for less than a year

Pros – Company has workout/fitness center and a nice, but pricy cafe.

Cons – All of my managers were from Arthur Anderson, and we all know what the management did to that company. Positions were 'created' for Arthur Anderson friends. Gallagher is not a bad company to work for, but someone should be watching who's hiring employees.

My manager fired me because I couldn't complete a project that she knew nothing about. She was with AJG for only 2 months before I started and I could tell she didn't know what she was talking about and that I would be the 'scapegoat' when she couldn't meet the timeline.

Nice to know I was right about that!!!! It's weird getting that sense when you first meet your boss.

Advice to Senior Management – Please watch that not too many people from Arthur Anderson are hired. Also, be sure that projects are given the correct timeline. AND Gallagher Family........ watch out for those Arthur Anderson people, they brought down one company and after working with them....yours could be next. One more thing Mr.Gallagher, you know that book "The Gallagher Way"? The Arthur Anderson people made fun of it for an hour during one of my meetings.........

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co. full-time for more than 3 years

Pros – people that work there are great to work with
good culture, my superior was one of the best I've worked for, very easy going.

Cons – benefits could be better (especially the health insurance, which is self funded)
commissions are also not very competitive
lots of gallaghers in the corporate office (nepotism)

Advice to Senior Management – I just wish you had more options for Health Insurance, and were more quick to recognize those that work hard.

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Pros – Outstanding people in my division; interesting work; best boss I've ever had the pleasure working for; great benefits package (except leave policy)

Cons – Limited opportunity for career advancement; not a very flexible leave policy for working parents

Advice to Senior Management – Consider revising your leave policy; The Gallagher Family emphasized the importance of family, but doesn't demonstrate this in their time away from work policy. A working parent is likely to have more than 2 occurances of absence per year to care for sick children. This doesn't make us a bad employee!

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Pros – great people, thriving environment, good work and life balance

Cons – insurance is not the most exciting field

Advice to Senior Management – keep doing what you're doing

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Pros – There is a large room for advancement

Cons – Inter office competition can become hostile

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Pros – Great flexibility in terms of what you want exposure to. You can work on a number of different types of insurance lines without any problem from the company structure (unlike the Aons and Marshs that only allow you to have exposure to just 1 line of business). You can really learn a lot and expand your knowledge here.

Cons – If you're looking to build a technical career during the launch phase (1-4 years), this place is not a good start. Very limiting on your growth potential. The company structure is too defragmented by offices and as a result is a counter-incentive to working with each other across offices or regions, in effect limiting your growth opportunities, exposure, and recognitions to just your office. For a global brokerage, you're still getting the same experience you could get at a localized single office brokerage, but with nationwide corporate protocols that further restrain your role.

No payscale with constraining by-office budgeting will limit you from getting any sort of raise to once every 5 years. Consistently excellent performance has merited a raise for some as "early" as once every 3 years. Only decent growth potential are for the producers. Company culture is not keen on promoting from within and believes that technical roles and expertise can always be found from hiring externally, and it does help keep employee costs down.

Also very easy to get complacent and lost within the beat of your office, and I've witnessed this keep some stuck in their role for 10-20 years without really growing much at all.

Advice to Senior Management – Restructure the business model, office structure, budgeting structures. Find a new way to operate that will be enabling for office-to-office, region-to-region interaction. Think "virtual" teams. Offer pay-scales or a career track to entry level employees to make them feel like they are growing somewhere. Especially with Gen Y, very likely to move after 2 years. It's hard to grow talent from bottom up and expect them to stay in the company for 20-30 years, traditional methods are not efficient anymore.

Current Employee – been working at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Pros – Most employees believe in a good work/life balance
Competitive salaries

Cons – Benefits package lags peers
Rampant nepotism
Corporate cowardice is commonplace

Advice to Senior Management – Lead by example, stop hiring friends and family.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at Arthur J. Gallagher & Co.

Pros – Arthur Gallagher is a reputable company with a stable reputation. Most of the company is very professional.

Cons – Arthur Gallagher must ensure that its corporate culture is reflected in all small companies it takes over. For example, the Media, PA office is a revolving door and quite frankly, a joke. The employees and work environment is abusive and not condusive to the mission and goals of the company.

Advice to Senior Management – Close the Media, PA office. Cost too much money to operate and the office is a lawsuit waiting to happen.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend