Travelers Companies Reviews in Minneapolis-St. Paul, MN Area

Pros

Good collaboration within teams and generally people are willing to work together for a common goal - most are committed to the company

Cons

All the hiring and opportunities seem to be in Hartford - St Paul location is withering and will die off in the not too distant future

Advice to Senior Management

Some of management is nearly clueless as to what their teams are doing and they really don't seem to understand the concept of leadership

Pros

benefits people location longevity investments

Cons

speak as if collaborative, however not a collaborative environment

Advice to Senior Management

a lot of the work is completed leveraging ordinary people dedicated to doing exceptional work. this should be embraced via financial recognition which is sorely lacking for regular employees.

Pros

Travelers is a financially stable company where conservative ideas are the norm. Management sticks with what works to avoid surprises.

Cons

Work volume expectations are very high and you are expected to get it done with little concern for ones personal health. Performance evaluations focus on negatives with performance criteria being subjective and measured by your ranking within your immediate managers group of favorites.

Advice to Senior Management

Performance should be measured objectively with compensation and advancement aligned accordingly versus an overworked persons skill/ability to navigate Travelers political landscape.

Pros

Work environment tends to be fairly laid back
You can run some projects independently
The business leaders are great to work with

Cons

Sometimes management can be heavy handed
Some of the systems are aging and need replacement
Many people just work 9-5 and call it quits when the day is done

Advice to Senior Management

There were some management changes immediately after I left, if I had known those changes were coming I probably would not have left

Pros

Great people to work with
Intellectual staff
Strong finances
great compensation for an intern
Sends all interns to Hartford for a symposium

Cons

Very conservative work environment. Although headquartered in St. Paul, the office is shrinking rapidly ever since the merger. A lot of the higher up positions are filled in St. Paul but moved to Hartford.

Advice to Senior Management

Grow the St. Paul office or close it, the building sitting half empty is a waste.

Pros

Lots of opportunity if you are a new grad
Great benefits

Cons

Communication by managers is not great.

Advice to Senior Management

Leadership needs to interact with those who actually do the work.

Pros

The firm is centrally located close to public transportation. One of the few firms that still has a pension and some good benefits.

Cons

It is a paper factory job. You are judged by how many files you handle each day. Overtime is forbidden so people come in earyy or give up their lunch to have higher numbers than co-workers just to protect their jobs.

Advice to Senior Management

Come out of your offices and make an attempt to learn the challenges and hear some suggestions from emplyees. Some of the managers only will speak to the intermediate supervisors so you are not receiving a complete view of yoru departments.

Pros

Good enough benefits. Flexible with work and life balance.

Cons

Management needs improvements on fair compensation.

Advice to Senior Management

Needs improvements on employee being rewarded fairly with level of work performance done.

Pros

Management was very transparent. I worked during the time of the National Repulican Convention and our office was used to assist with security. The entire situation had the potential to be very stressful, but instead was handled very well and the culture and climate at Travelers is very positive and team orientated.

Cons

Half of the headquarters is located in CT which made it very challenging to have a strong team. We did lots of meetins via online, but it's not the same as in person.

Advice to Senior Management

I know they have been considering moving headquarters to CT and closing down St. Paul. I don't think this is the right move for the company. I think the midwest has a huge talent pool that they would be wasting by pulling out.

Pros

There are great opportunities to learn how a large national company works
Great place to practice political savvy
Excellent financial performance

Cons

The company is highly silo'd
The company tends to be risk averse and is therefore a slow decision maker
Business unit heads do not work together with coordinated goals and objectives

Advice to Senior Management

Senior leadership needs to work on incentivizing business unit heads to work with each other to share processes, people and goals. The company is way too silo'd and it's causing higher operating costs and lower effectiveness - just look at our expense ratio compared to our competitors.