Pros

-Good place for a first internship
-Consultants are all very helpful and fun to work with
-Collaborative environment with other interns and analysts
-Given a decent amount of responsibility
-Was able to get involved with company activities, such as sports, and get to know people in the office

Cons

-Work can be repetitive and mundane at times (probably common to most internships)
-In order to advance, completion of the actuary exams is required (in retirement) and de-facto required in Healthcare

Advice to Senior Management

-Become more aggressive with recruiting at leading universities
-Encourage more collaboration among employees to complete projects
-Cut down on inefficiency

Pros

WW is full of pretty smart, easy going, respectful people. The culture is good, the people are great, work is good. The only problem is hitting a ceiling in salary band.

Cons

The salary band promotion process is okay from bands 1 to 3, a little iffy at band 4, and downright odd at band 5. At the higher levels, its not a meritocricy but a political scheme.

Advice to Senior Management

Change the promotion process. Train managers to give career path options to associates. Offer mid year propotions.

Pros

Well established and financially stable.

Cons

Every week is a death march. Little to no feedback on performance. Mid-senior level management would rather spend millions on writing software rather than spend $10k to buy an off-the-shelf solution. Software framework that the division is married to does not appear to have future growth potential. Office politics royally suck. 90%+ of the people I physically worked with are depressed and not satisfied with treatment they receive.

Advice to Senior Management

Hi John,

If I were you I would do a quite, in depth inspection at the Grade 3 and below levels. Your Grade 4 & 5's are pulling the wool over your eyes. It is the worst leadership development plan I have ever seen and does not follow even your own internal guidelines. It sill makes me sick thinking about it nearly a year later.

Pros

There are many great reasons to work at Watson Wyatt. High salaries and bonuses which are performance based, are top on the list. The Watson Wyatt brand is well respected in the industry -- this reputation is well deserved.

Cons

I only have 2 complaints about Watson Wyatt. The health insurance option & the Performance Development Program (PDP). There is only one option for health insurance -- a "consumer directed high deductible plan". The PDP is too time consuming.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue what you are doing in commuticating to the employees regarding the (yet to be finalized) merger with Towers Perrin.

Pros

When there is plenty of work and you are billable -- it is a great place. Fun people.

Cons

Not much emphasis on practice development or nonbillable activities needed to build tools to better serve the client and make the practice more efficient. .You must be a billing machine. That is all that matters. Work like a scared animal.

Advice to Senior Management

Grow you technical capabilities. Take on the best of TP, but not it's culture.

Pros

The corporate culture is respectful and serious, but relaxed enough to be comfortable; the atmosphere is fun; The co workers are people you want to spend time with outside of work

Cons

Benefits are surprisingly poor for a benefits consultng firm; like all consulting firms, your experience will depend on the location and the practice

Advice to Senior Management

Improve your benefits fo ryou employees so you can be an example for your own clients! Start with a reasonable (competitive) vacation/PTO policy!

Pros

friendly, slow paced, conservative and narrow focused

Cons

dull, not much social life and poor communication

Advice to Senior Management

enahnce communication across teams and practices, delegate responsibilities to junior people more oftenly

Pros

Good quality people throughout the organization. Clear and focused business strategy, with distinct service lines that have remainded fixed over recent years, at a time when competitors have chopped and changed their approaches on a regular basis. Opportunities for global mobility are good, although better in some practices than others. Research base is strong across all business lines.

Cons

Could be more joined up globally, especially within investment consulting. It is a very conservative organization, where management often prioritizes stability of service over innovation. The company is managed on a global matrix strucure, with the matrix divided by geography and business line. The geographical aspects to the matrix are a clear weakness, since it makes managers focus on their distinct geogrpahical areas rather than working to benefit the company as a whole.

Advice to Senior Management

View the company globally and abandon the focus on individual geographies

Pros

Competitive pay; decent work / life balance; recognize leader in industry; we hire nice / smart people; great clients who value Watson Wyatt as partner; good opportunities to learn and grow (but slow to recognize achievements with promotions)

Cons

slow to market with new ideas; bad marketing overall; crappy medical plan; need more effective consultants in marketplace and better coordination between practice areas

Advice to Senior Management

More and better communication; more support in getting associates to next level in career; hire / train new business developers; improve medical benefits; listen to employees and proactively work to address concerns and improve morale; rewards and train good managers

Pros

getting to think every day; having regularly changing projects and problems to resolve, working with super smart people, being a leader in research on issues that are discussed in the media daily. each office is a little different- some very open and collegial; others less so. But, everyone can typically find a home somewhere.

Cons

you are encouraged to take on all that you can do- and more. No one will stop you if you're working 80 hours a week- they just think that you're doing a great job and are decidated.

Advice to Senior Management

streamline the bureaucracy and red tape; this is a consensus driven organization, and sometimes decisions take too long to be made or implemented