Swiss RE Reviews

Pros

Great lunches, fantastic offices, some great people, huge budgets

Cons

Bureaucratic, internal politics go beyond the necessary, skeptical of foreign skills

Advice to Senior Management

Lighten up, let go, move faster than the competition

Pros

Great people and excellent work life balance, also there are several opportunities to travel.they provide various training programs to help develop each individual professionally

Cons

I am fairly new to the company but a few people have complained about the salaries within the past years-

Pros

It is a very open environment, you can easily reach out other people in the organization and generally they will welcome you and openly discuss topics you want to know. It is a fair environment and even when there are conflicts, normally they do not escalate to certain level of unfairness I have seen in other big companies. It is a big company but with the style of a smaller one, in the more positive sense of the word

Cons

Speed is quite slow for most of the things, change is quite difficult because of comfort zone.

Advice to Senior Management

More support for change and please keep all the good things currently making Swiss re one of the best companies to work for

Pros

Great place for learning and nice people.

Cons

Not many opportunity for career advancement

Advice to Senior Management

Encourage more meaningful challenges among staff.

Pros

Pay and benefits are decent. Used to have good expense accounts and some in office perks but all of those have been taken away gradually over time in the US region. Zurich is still awash in benefits, resources and amenities.

Cons

If you are based in Zurich, you get a wealth of benefits no one else in the company gets including 1% mortgages, credit cards, free food every day, beautiful health /gym facilities, an extra 4 weeks vacation after 10 years with the company among others! If you work anywhere in the US, you are not considered valuable, important or worth much more than the dirty desk you sit at. Despite the fact that the North American region represents about 50% of Swiss Res' global profits, we get likely 15% of the resources and benefits that Swiss Re allocates. The rest goes to Zurich based staff. It is time to start investing in your non Swiss employees so your turnover won't be so horrific. Good people are leaving Swiss Re in droves and are being replaced with low paid staff who steal from the office. The economy isn't that bad that qualified employees won't find jobs. Only the losers will stay because they know they can't find work elsewhere.

Advice to Senior Management

A) Stop overpaying senior mgmt, some of which have merely cut staff and resources as a way to improve bottom line B) actually start hiring women and minorities for senior roles. C) Have more checks and balances - right now, if you get stuck with a bad manager, you have to leave the company as ALL decisions are manager specific. There's no ability for promotions unless you are a Swiss person living in Switzerland. Everyone else is considered a second class citizen. D) Start prioritizing the regions that ACTUALLY MAKE THE COMPANY MONEY! (that would be the US)

Pros

Highly intelligent colleagues and leadership that really wants to make the company change its old ways and become more client centric while improving employee engagement. Its true there is lots of change, but you cannot improve without change.

Cons

It can be too process driven at times and thus slow, but it comes from it's heritage in risk management.

Advice to Senior Management

Stick with the dedication to changing the company into something more agile, more aggressive. Keep communicating (and keep adding transparency)

Pros

good reputation of the company.

Cons

Company is a bit bureaucratic

Pros

Good reputation for CV
Slow paced - good work life balance
Some very knowledgeable nice people
Traditional strong company with good benefits

Cons

Not willing to do things differently - Change is still a concept and not reality
The bureaucracy can be a hindrance
No excitement and dynamism - no encouragement of entrepreneurial spirit
Not as diverse as they like to think they are

Advice to Senior Management

Be as diverse as you say you are and propose you want to be
Take more risks in changing your processes and focusing on external/internal client centricity
Don't just rely on technical experts to see you through, good senior leaders are needed

Pros

Decent work life balance
Management understanding when you need time off
Great benefits
Depending on which group you work for, people are on average very respectful

Cons

Management communication not very transparent
Some of the new people that have joined since the banking crisis are incompetent and unprofessional
Culture has changed from an open, friendly and mobile type of environment to a more investment banking type of culture
Offshoring of certain departments have led to inefficiencies and time consuming processes
Constant restructuring of company
Bureaucracy

Advice to Senior Management

Need to be more open and transparent to subordinates
Should make employees feel more appreciated
Need to realize that there are hidden costs to offshoring that are not beneficial to the company

Pros

Work-life balance (home office, days off, etc.)
Benefits
Competent colleagues
Interesting industry (Re-Insurance but also Asset Management)
International mobility
Attractive office locations

Cons

Career path difficult to "fast track". Most employeees spend a few years on one level, then get promoted (level or project size, etc.). Probably half merits, half seniority decide.

Advice to Senior Management

More efforts to recruit and develop young talents.