Suncorp-Metway Reviews

Pros

diverse opportunities
innovation focused, great IT environment
focused on graduate recruiting
opportunities in brisbane, sydney, melbourne and NZ
strong leadership

Cons

benefits not competitive with financial services industry
company's fortunes linked to weather events - and this hasn't been good the last few years

Advice to Senior Management

focus on internet channel opportunities
potentially take some of the competitive advantages and create an offshore online company
don't offer earthquake insurance in NZ

Pros

If you are determined to progress your career and work hard then you can get far and be treated well.

Cons

-Callcentre staff must give 8-10months notice to get leave approved
-TeamLeaders bully staff to resign if they are low performers

Advice to Senior Management

- Do whatever is neccersary to allow staff members to take leave within a reasonable timeframe.

Pros

Very community minded. Very flexible in working conditions.

Cons

Strategy at high level is good, although I am concerned the time allowed to implement is insufficient. End result is people take on too much and take longer to achieve the results than if they were focussed on a more manageable sized set of tasks.

Advice to Senior Management

Ensure focus on implementation on strategy is consistent throughout the business. Don't over-simplify, or under estimate the scale of the task at hand.

Pros

Suncorp has nice building in sydney.

Cons

not great to be in sydney - non- hq. communication not great
salary is below competitive

Advice to Senior Management

Need to pay competitve salary to employees

Pros

Can offer excellent work-life balance options
Can offer the chance to work with a lot of good people

Cons

What's possible depends directly on your ability to stand up for yourself and your immediate managements williningness to back you up.
The number of people who get things done is fairly small compared to the number of people who make it hard.
Organisation (as a whole) tends to take a very short-sighted and tactical approach to strategy, direction, and challenge

Advice to Senior Management

Pay close attention to the diferences between reality and the perceptions others create.

Pros

I thought that the work environment was great and as a whole, management worked hard to promote a fair workplace and to achieve good work/life balance. Their principles and commitment to the claims process was excellent.

Cons

Extreme pressure when the call centre was overloaded with calls (in times of disasters). Catastrophe plans weren't the best.
Repetitive work
Their rostering team was awful. Uncaring people.

Advice to Senior Management

Strive to meet employee customer needs a little better

Pros

The opportunity to change the way things are done today is still quite high given the years of following the status quo. As a regional bank, there aren't the same issues as with being with one of Australia's majors. If you really want to get involved - put your hand up as often as you can and odds are you will get an opportunity to do something you'd are interested in.

Cons

Despite their being a number of opportunities; there are still alot of staff who have been here for quite some time and often have trouble adjusting to any kind of change that is attempted.

Advice to Senior Management

Stick with it.

Pros

I have a part-time position because I still study and need time off to attend class so this job is perfect for me. Currently, I work 3 days a week and attend classes the other 2 days. Also, the job is flexible in allowing time off when I need a week before/during exams as long as I make the days up by working full-time during my holidays.

The office is very relaxed in terms of the 8.30 - 5. Sometimes we leave at 4.45 sometimes a little earlier. We never work past 5.

Cons

As always office gossipers and politics. If you work in Brisbane it will be a little friendlier as there are more people.

Regional offices may be hard to get the right training from superiors but again it varies from office to office.

Similar jobs are paying up to $20,000 p.a. more with guaranteed bonuses.

Advice to Senior Management

Senior management should learn to crack down hard and watch for bullying in the office. This makes it hard when one manager is a close personal friend of one of the employees. This is not the case in Brisbane though so I would be pushing harder for a position there.