Towers Perrin Reviews

Pros

Plenty of room for upward mobility. Less travel required than the management consulting firms. The people are brilliant and nice. Everyone is hard working.

Cons

60+ hours often required. It depends on your interest in this space. HR and benefits consulting was not my preference.

Advice to Senior Management

Focus on providing more opportunities for employees to get a balanced, fulfilled life. Encourage simple things like affinity groups, volunteering, etc. It was surprising so see that such a large company has so little community involvement or opportunity for employees to engage, outside of work activities, across functions.

Pros

There are good minds, intelligent people

Cons

Too many highly compensated Principals eroding profitability.

Very limited useable assets available to conduct projects.

TP tried entered into larger scale, global projects without the necessary methodology and tools critical for successful outcomes

Encouraged to "borrow IP" from other companies and competitors as IP substance rarely existed

Poor infrastructure supporting the business (systems, people lacking skills/experience). Leadership was challenged to make well informed decisions

Advice to Senior Management

Provide core business infrastructure. Significant upgrade required in Finance, HR, Technology and business leaders.

Pros

The people are amongst the best and the brightest in the business

Cons

Overly competitive meaning that your co-worker may steal your client.
Senior management plays favorites.
Senior management are poor managers.
The people have huge egos

Advice to Senior Management

Take your head out of the sand. Figure out why many of your competitors are getting inundated with RFPs and Towers only gets a trickle.

Pros

international operation
exposure to new projects/industries

Cons

overwork, work life balance issues

Pros

The company offered a great working environment that allowed for excellent on the job training. It was a good community with my coworkers and I felt I learned a lot.

Cons

While the working environment was superb at Towers Perrin, I found that the salaries were a bit low compared to my peers also working downtown.

Advice to Senior Management

My advice to the management would be to offer a higher form of compensation for your employees. This would increase the retention rate and satisfy everyone.

Pros

TP now TW is truly a brand name consulting firm. Most people have heard the name and respect the quality of the firm.

Cons

In the office I worked, it was awful. No leadership, no communciation, no open sharing of projects or ideas. It was a toxic environment with little imagination or desire to improve. I think the heirarchial structure is really detrimental to the productivity and development of the firm. Too many people have been there for too long and have no idea how other, productive businesses operate.

Advice to Senior Management

Put people in leadership positions who have leadership qualities. Give clear direction on goal attainment and advancement. Attempt to reduce the overinflated opinions of senior level management as they are typically out of touch and egomanical.

Pros

training program is good
actuarial exam support is adequate
performance can be rewarded fairly
most people seem to care each other

Cons

too many corporate layers
top management seems to be detached from employees
too much focus on unnecessary processes to make certain processes more efficient
too many meetings

Advice to Senior Management

the merger with wattson made a lot of people unhappy. people are worried about inadquate pay raises. the pay freeze has made many junior people unhappy.

Pros

The people can be excellent

Cons

Upper management seems totally checked out at all times and it trickles down to every level of work. The merger has been especially poorly handled.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop just collecting a paycheck and engage in your job.

Pros

large actuarial consulting firm with good resources

Cons

too competitive and too stressful

Advice to Senior Management

need better people management, especially of entry-level analysts

Pros

* High performers get treated well
* Company is open to hearing thoughts/ideas - you guide your own career
* Small company feel, even though it's a big company

Cons

* Technology is outdated and horrible
* Inconsistent people manager experience -- some are good, others are bad
* Long hours (but what consulting firm doesn't have long hours?"
* Merger with WW -- feels like we've been taken over; many WW leaders in leadership positions

Advice to Senior Management

Get some better technology! That makes us less productive and less able to bill our time!