underwriter

assistant vice president

senior underwriter

claims specialist

claims adjuster

Zurich Insurance

Started at this company when we still had an actual office in which we worked from. The office was located in Colorado Springs and the in-office environment was great. We had a Call Center Director that cared about the employees and gave us the opportunity to express our concerns and frustrations. He would later, reach out and address the concerns with solutions. A lot of this changed a year after I started, and he retired. A new Director was promoted, and then the spaces beneath were filled with external hires. Things continued to move in the downward direction after this point. Processes were aggressively changed affecting our work processes which were ultimately changed back three to six months later. Since March of 2020, we were sent to work from home due to Covid. I honestly believe working from home was their original plan; any intelligent person would’ve been able to recognize this, Covid just accelerated the deadline. Some people like working from home; I am not one of them. I prefer the ability to separate work and personal life, but I do not get paid enough to afford that luxury in my own home. They are now saving money on rent, facilities management, server management since our servers were on site, internet costs, and utilities since these responsibilities have been given to the employees with no compensation. One-third of your bills, utilities, rent, phone bill, and internet go to doing this job, yet they will not compensate in any manner whatsoever. The job is simple, menial and repetitive so if you enjoy mindless work, you may enjoy this job. Advancement is nearly impossible unless you have sacrificed ten plus years at the company. Doing that is a task in and of itself. Every year, you receive your evaluation which they grade you on every aspect of your performance. They even grade you on how often you use their system to reward other employees. The compensation is bare minimum. Wage increase is 5% annually, at max and that's if you exceed every one of their metrics. Don't worry though, after two years of 5% raises, you'll realize that the new hires are receiving starting wages equivalent to the wages you worked two years to attain. Management is severely lacking in knowledge, simply because they will externally hire to fill 66% percent of the managerial positions available. So, your opportunity for advancement only comes every one in three manager's position postings. With the way they hire manager's, you have a two thirds chance of being supervised by someone who does not have the experience, nor the knowledge of procedures that you do, which ultimately makes reaching out to your manager for questions, absurd and valueless. The company proclaims they have an open-door policy with anyone in the upper echelon but even if you express consistently your severe lack of respect for your superior, they will direct you to your manager and you will go no further. Even if you perform highly, take on new projects and exceed expectations, you will only receive a promotion if someone who has more tenure than you doesn't apply, even if they perform at a lower level than you do. You will be offered special projects and things that you can do to diversify the monotony of the job, but they do not earn you any higher compensation, and you won’t be recognized for the work until it frustrates you enough for you to request to exit the special project.
The metrics are skewed in the manner that are nearly impossible to attain for a normal person. Standard production requires you to file 30 incidents a day. Quality scrutinizes only four of those incidents a month. That’s a total of 600 claims a month, but your performance is based off of four of them. That’s 0.6% of your work that dictates your monthly performance. Quality, is a pass or fail, with a 5% error margin. If you miss two things on an incident in which you only have 15 minutes to file, you are dropped below the 95% which ultimately fails you. A 5% error margin on .6% of your claims is a total of a .03% chance you can exceed or meet their expectations. These cases are pulled at random, the whole month. And you have 12 of those in a year that dictates whether or not you get your annual bonus, and your raise.

Zurich is a good place and I will list the benefits below. They can improve in a couple of areas that I am going to list at the end. Skip to the bottom if that’s all you care about. 

You are paid twice a month. 15th and last business day. 

They have a hybrid work model where you can start as early as 6am or as late as 10am. Salary positions can work all hours of the day but they want you to be able to fielding questions from clients or vendors between 10-2. Depending on department and location, you may have to go in the office 5 days a week or you work remotely 5 days a week.  The majority of jobs let you work from home 2 days a week.  If someone’s says they get to work from home 4 days a week then they probably are not lying but that’s not typical pre covid. 

They have lots of opportunities to grow as a person and professionally. They will pay for and reward you for any designation you want to get at the institutes. 

100% tuition assistance but it has to be approved by your manager and has to be in the department budget. This is good but also creates a kangaroo court where some people get it and some don’t because managers are told different things. 

6% match on your 401k and a 3% 401k that acts as a retirement plan. You are fully vested in this one after 6 years. 

Lots of health insurance plans to pick from. They plans are area specific and you can pick between BCBS or UHC.  A individual plan can be as cheap as $20-$30 a pay period. 

Vision & Dental is offered but is higher than what I’ve seen. 

PTO is very competitive and accumulates. You can buy or sale up to 5 days. You can roll over 5 days. They observe at least 7 holidays.  You get out 2hrs early they day before all holidays except for Christmas Eve where you get out 4hrs early.  You get 1 floating holiday. The amount of PTO given depends on how many years you have been with the company. They have summer hours where you get off 2hrs early on Fridays and still get paid. This usually goes between Labor Day and Memorial Day. 

They have an employee rewards program where you can get a minimum of $5 from someone and that can be boosted for more money. The more you participate at Zurich the more you get. I’ve seen colleagues make as much as an extra $300 a year. 

They have health programs where you can earn up to $400 a year by being active. 

They have numerous clubs to join that host public speakers or social events for their members. 

————————————————————

I do not know if the pay is competitive from top to bottom. I do know that HR gets in the way of pay raises.  My personal experience is that once someone gets towards the bottom of pay in their department they will either have to go to a competitor and then come back or hope a few years of positive reviews and pay raises put them in line with others. HR loves percentage based pay raises vs. straight dollars amount and that can get you behind in your field if you start out lower.  

HR believes in “right place/right time” when promoting. Meaning it doesn’t matter if you are the most qualified for a position, if you have been promoted in the last 9 months or less then you can not apply for that position.  So you may need a little luck when getting promoted even if you are the Lebron James of insurance. 

HR only allows you to move up one level at a time. So if you come in as a 5, they rarely let you apply for a 7 spot.  So it may be better to wait for a role to open that you are qualified for than just applying at a lower level job to get your foot in the door. 

Rockstars are rewarded at Zurich with bonuses and reward money but as you see above, they can get lost in the mix thanks to outdated HR thinking. 

I would like to share some insights regarding my experience since joining the company in August 2024. Prior to my current role, I was laid off from QBE in July 2024 due to organizational changes. Joining the company during a period of structural transformation has presented certain challenges, particularly in the training processes, which appeared to be still in development at that time.

During my tenure from August to March 7, I have observed a notable amount of turnover within the team. In the initial months, I received a substantial volume of claims, which was overwhelming as I was still acclimating to the company’s culture and systems. The influx of claims during the holiday months of November and December further complicated my adjustment.

It is important to highlight a perceived gap in management planning regarding staff availability during peak periods. The number of employees on leave at that time resulted in an excessive workload for the remaining staff, making it difficult to address both existing and incoming claims adequately. Additionally, I was supporting a colleague who was on an extended vacation during this timeframe.

While I proactively sought resources independently, I found that the supervision I received did not fully align with my needs. The focus seemed to be more on the adjusters involved in litigation rather than on my integration and workload management.

I appreciate the opportunities to participate in performance reviews and have learned from the feedback provided. However, frequent changes in supervisory personnel have made it challenging to navigate my responsibilities effectively. My concern centers on the feedback regarding my claim management, as it can be increasingly difficult to meet expectations when the management framework and staffing levels are not fully optimized.

This current review reflects the lowest assessment I have received throughout my career at the six-month mark, which is unexpected given my previous experiences in similar roles. While I acknowledge my accountability in this process, it is essential for management to ensure that the team is adequately supported and staffed to handle the workload effectively.

Overall, I believe that Zurich is a commendable organization to work for. However, there are areas within the management structure and employee support systems that could benefit from enhancement to prevent employee overload and ensure more efficient claim handling.

For the most part, when I was hired, I was expecting it to be really good after hearing everything I was told by recruiting. Its was mostly not true. They tell you there are 5 weeks of training, we received 2 and then had "training" taking live calls and were not prepared. 1 and a half weeks later, we were going to our teams unprepared yet even more. Certain areas in the call center are given better privileges, and to understand how they select you to be on which team is either just random or not governed by anything they want you to know. Do not expect to be paid if you speak another language, even if recruiting says that is a very good thing and you will be needed. They use a poorly run language service that just extends call times and lowers production. Their metrics are unattainable, and will manage call priority in a way that has no rhyme or reason and will further lower your statistics, and if you do not receive calls management will hold you accountable. Managers have double standards and socialize all the time, but only with favorites. If you are not their favorite, get ready to be told you can only talk to others on your break time. There are places to research answers for customers, but it is usually unclear and even managers aren't sure how to understand that same material available. Expect total chaos on Customer Care agreements that you must follow on calls with the Insured. And any minute complaint from adjusters on how you set claims up, expect to get a written formal complaint that counts against at the end of the year if you get enough. When we were hired, I guess we should have seen the signs, when 1 manager leaves for 6 months and nobody knows a thing, and another manager leaves the same way 2 months later. They have still not replaced those managers after 7 months further creating more chaos.Expect to be on action plans for not meeting metrics, even if there is not the call volume to fill metrics. I would recommend some place better for what they pay. Most places like this are paying $19-23. It appears to be a place to start, but you will then be burned by your managers to inquiring calls from future employers. Many of my former co-workers quit and have received unwarranted bad mouthing to employers that are reviewing their resumes.

I recently started a position at Zurich. Was lied to about the salary. Asked for $38k was told it paid 35k but then was only offered 32k. After being told the recruiter made a mistake. I am African American and there is hardly any African Americans in management. I am often stared at. No one hardly speaks to make me feel welcomed and I have only been there 2 weeks. Management is rude. They had me start a week before my supervisor went on PTO for a week and apparently she didn’t give any instruction or knowledge of my training to the other manager. I am being constantly watched by management when I come to and from breaks. I am to do my required virtual learning on the computer everyday in the evening because my trainer has to name her mail. I don’t have earphones and was told I could go into the pod to do the required training. Well apparently someone complained about it even though I was recently told that I could go in there since I didn’t have head phones.well my trainer and the other manager made a big deal that no one knew where I was after I have told them several times I would be in the pod to do my required training. I feel I am being picked on because I am African American. Every time someone walks by the pod they look and stare. I have never felt so uncomfortable in my life working at a company. I was reprimanded for leaving early after I was told I could by the manager. She came back and claims it was only the first week and. Not the full training. My trainer  who is Caucasian takes constant smoke breaks and 45 minute lunches without making up her time nor does anyone say anything to her. But I was told that I have to make my time up since we only get one paid break and the other break is unpaid and the 30 minute lunch is unpaid. I would not recommend anyone African American to work here. I have had a horrible experience and do not plan to stay very long. Being a Africans American women with naturally curly hair. I guess I do not fit into their culture. I think I was only hired for them to meet affirmative action quota.

What is the best part of working at the company?
The best part of working at Zurich is good benefits, PTO, and friendly co-workers.

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
The most stressful part about working at Zurich is the extremely high level of inbound phone calls. I worked in Zurich’s VSC Claims department for many years. This is a truthful review of my experience. The VSC Claims department pretty much operates as a call center due to the back-to-back phone calls that pile up in the phone queue. Customers are constantly complaining about the long hold times, it’s a daily battle that you must face. Performance is solely based on how long you can be available for incoming calls and the total number that you take. Management has changed over the years with micromanagement being the norm, which is upper-level managers have cracked down on employees’ available phone time metrics. The upper-level managers are unaware of your overall performance on the job. They are primarily concerned with your ability to be available on the phone at the highest percentage possible. Quantity of phone calls taken and available time for inbound calls are the highest priority, being much more important to management than one’s quality of work. So, from my direct experience, I found the most negative things about the position were the extremely non-stop inbound calls and the stress that comes with such, also the fact that micromanagement is prevalent.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
The work environment is remote 100%, so you work at your home. When I first started working for Zurich, it was a hybrid job, split b/w office and home (3/2), but since Covid (March 2020) they sent us home and then made remote permanent.

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
A typical day is that you take inbound phone calls back-to-back during your entire shift. You can take a break whenever you want, that is aux-out, but that will hurt your number one performance criteria - available time.

For years, the McKinsey method of placing highly educated individuals without practical experience in management roles (i.e. with a masters degree in business or otherwise who lacked actual insurance experience)  has led to a frustrated workforce. Much emphasis on advancement is placed with one's manager as the main conduit for development and promotion. Imagine performing much of your daily function without the manager's understanding of these tasks. How can said manager possibly identify better performance or promote true individual performance. It's a catch-22 such that it is difficult to have meaningful develop plan discussions with someone whom they could be managing themselves. I have often witnessed a chosen few who happened to be favored by a senior executive at some point in their early career path continue to be chosen for a highly successful career path (but pushed along due to favortism rather than actual expertise). Now that the employable marketplace is shrinking, Zurich's XCO is switching to a hire-from-within rhethoric (again, words that have not yet been reflected in the company's actions - prior 3 year cost-cutting plans always centered on head count reduction). This IS a good company, benefits-wise, but advancement requires a lot of behind-scenes conversations if you are lucky enough to actually encounter such an invididual seeking your expertise within the company. HR is the MANAGER's advocate much more so than the employee (very unbalanced) and seemingly run interference against cross-unit advancement. Employees therefore leave the company to advance in claims, underwriting and risk control. 

Expect a buttoned down environment where everyone is offended by everything. When I say everything, I mean everything! When you’re a recruiter it’s hard to work with people that get offended by: negotiating offer terms, communicating policies, advising against bad decisions, copying people on relevant email conversations and even using the word surprising. The worst part is that nobody is willing to tell you this directly, they go above your head. If your manager has your back, they’ll probably get fired and replaced by someone that is awful and not even willing to get you side of the story. 

Most of the hiring teams I worked with were straight up cheapskates on salaries. Candidates’ current/previous salaries were almost always used as a disqualifying factor or a reason to lowball every offer. Since almost everyone is underpaid within the existing salary bands, they disqualify people that are making over a certain amount, even when their budget and salary bands permit them to go higher and even when a candidate’s skills clearly justify the salary level. It was always a gripe session over even the most basic relocation package or upping a salary offer by a few grand.  

You can also look forward to: Constantly changing processes despite perpetual talk about the need for process consistency; Micromanagement and frequent meetings to grill people about every aspect of their job; Favoritism in choice of vendors without any input from the people actually doing the work; Sign on bonus policies that make it difficult to recruit people at certain times of the year and require candidates to produce documentation that may not even exist; and let’s not forget… Poor firing decisions across the board.

The work itself was not the most difficult part of the working day-- the office politics and riding the tidal shifts of upper management was far more strenuous.

A culture of appeasement and Sisyphean number-crunching has become the way that management exercises their will on those beneath them. The UA-UW "team" that is so integral to successful and exceptional service has been forgotten here--it has always been a numbers game at Zurich, no matter how they try to advertise their workplace values and exceptional employee engagement. Particularly at this office, it is nearly impossible to find truly passionate and collaborative teams-- there is simply a thin veneer of camaraderie, undercut by the self-interest of all parties.

UW Support Management by and large seeks to eliminate problems rather than resolve them, which creates a culture of fear rather than trust. The lack of response to suggestions and workflow simplification in the lower levels still shocks me and shows how expendable the UA role has become to Zurich.

At ZNA UWs will always, and without fail, have their contributions far out-prioritize a UA's work-- weather or not the UA has been instrumental in providing a solution to an account or generates the numbers expected of them. Zurich's systems and recent changes to SOP have only exacerbated this issue, and further isolated rating and support from UW to the point that automation of the former two seems like ZNA's next logical step. 

Be prepared to have to fight in both directions to secure the perception of competency among peers.

Compensation was good and "activities" were a great change of pace-- its fun to work in SF where there's a lot to do when you can get out of the office.

I have been with Zurich for many years. I actually enjoyed coming to work when I initially started. The work load was reasonable, and management was there to help you.  Now the company offers work from home 3 days per week.  So the office does not have assigned seating. So you now have to find a seat in the office on the days you are scheduled to work. (This is a fiasco with reserving desks and reserving a desk where someone might sit on a regular basis.)  There are not enough desks in the office, since we downsized to a work from home environment. The pending's are out of control.  There is no training for new people. Basically it is grab someone where and when you can.  Ever try training over the phone?  It's not fun.  People come and go as they please. They take 2 hours lunches, or feel because they work through their lunch they do not have to work the required set hours as set by the company. There is no structure,  We have huddle meetings 3 days per week with our team. They can last any where from 10 minutes to half hour. You really feel unappreciated when you are constantly told how terrible everyone is, and we are not meeting the office goals. Really makes your self worth feel like a total 0.  We also put  our results up every week during these huddles.  We call them shaming boards, so everyone can see either how far behind you are, or if you are keeping up.  The Salaries are good and so is the bonus if you are willing to work 10-12 hours a day . Most people put in an average of 10-12 hour days.  If you are Supervisor 10-12+ .  Most people average 2 -3 losses a day, and you can end up with as little as 15 in a month or 30.  You are set up to fail before your day begins.

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