Fourth place in this year’s Top Employer of the Year
awards held earlier this year organised by the Cayman Islands Society for Human
Resource Professionals went to AON. The Journal finds out more as to what makes
this company a great place for employees.
Headquartered in Chicago, Aon Corporation is the leading
provider of risk management services, insurance and reinsurance brokerage and
human capital and management consulting.
Dan McLean, AON Insurance Managers (Cayman) Ltd.’s managing director
says the company’s key advantage is “our broad view of the insurance industry.”
“With an employee base of 36,000 people working in 500
offices in more than 120 countries, we can anticipate how changes in one sector
impact another,” he says.
Aon’s presence in Cayman dates back to the mid 1970s and
is currently comprised of three Aon companies: in captive management,
reinsurance and insurance brokerage, namely Aon Insurance Managers (Cayman)
Ltd, Aon Cayman National Insurance Brokers Ltd (recently acquired balance of
joint venture interest from Cayman National Corp) and Crown Risk Services Ltd.
(recently acquired from Island Heritage).
In 2009 clients the reader’s of Business Insurance voted
Aon as the Best Captive Manager and this year of course they were voted as one
of Cayman’s Top Employers.
The company has 53 staff, 27 of whom are Caymanian. Seven
senior staff members are Caymanian and 10 senior staffers are women.
Staff members (who all spoke anonymously) talk about why
they believe Aon is such a great place to work.
One employee says: “We are a global leader at what we do.
I started 12 years ago with an office of three people.
“We are now approximately 50 colleagues and I am proud of
where we started and where we are today. I have great colleagues and great
clients.”
Another employee states: “Aon is open and fair with very
reasonable practices, working with the individual to utilise personal
strengths.”
Further comment includes: “I enjoy the variety of
interesting and challenging work and have good relationships with colleagues
and clients. It’s also situated in a good location. I do not expect the company
to make allowances for my personal commitments which are arranged outside
office time; however the company does allow this for others.”
One staff member says the people are key:
“The Aon-Cayman office is lucky enough to have a diverse
and great group of people who are not only co-workers but friends as well.
“This would be the main reason in my mind that most
people continue to be loyal to this office. There is also a great sense of
loyalty to the MD – he is fair and honest and one generally wants to make him
proud. The work- life balance could use some improvement. I think the office
needs to be given the opportunity to hire more people to help out some staff
who have a heavy work load. I also think that compensation needs to be
increased, as people work very hard to keep clients happy,” they say.
Another individual comments: “In our field of captive
management, we have some of the world’s biggest and best clients as captives
under our management. Our client base is more diverse, more complex and more
stimulating than that of other captive managers on island. Every day brings new
impetus to work for our clients and go the extra mile, for our clients.”
Staff believe that they are well looked after at AON as
individuals testify as follows:
“I think that the managers are very supportive of the
staff and I have been at the receiving end of support during the last two
years. I really believe that managers went above and beyond to support me.”
“We work in a relaxed environment which is accommodating
to personal needs,” says one staff member, while another confirms, “Management
is fair, the job is interesting and fellow staff members are good friends.”