Avantages
I’ve only been with Berkley less than 6 months but everyone has been extremely kind and welcoming. If you live more than 50 miles from an office you can be totally remote. Underwriter autonomy is given so underwriters aren’t completely bogged down with referrals. There are actual marketing reps so underwriters can be at their desk instead of having to constantly be out networking providing a better work life balance. Having regional companies within WR Berkley allows for more of a flat day to day organization which has been a welcome change and seems to allow for more collaboration.
Inconvénients
If you live within 50 miles of an office, you’re in the office 4 days a week. Training was a bit chaotic. There doesn’t seem to be much of a formal program in place for systems and guidelines, but I’ve been told it’s something they are working on. The health insurance benefits are bad. They offer two expensive high-deductible plans while contributing very little to the employees’ HSA. The PTO/holiday time is also not great compared to other carriers I’ve been with. For < 5 years, you only accrue 15 days and are given 9 holidays with a floating. My two previous carriers, I had a minimum of 20 days of PTO starting out with 10-12 days for holidays and a floating. You can only carry over 5 days, so it’s nearly impossible to plan a longer vacation at the beginning of the year if you only have 40 hours banked and are accruing 5 hours a pay period. If PTO can’t be increased, then providing a lump sum of hours at the beginning of the year or the ability to buy additional days would be great. I haven’t been through a bonus period yet, but I’ve heard mixed feedback from employees, and management hasn’t been super clear, so I am a bit concerned there. Instead of a traditional 401k where the employer matches the employee’s contributions, they do profit sharing for a minimum of 5% of your salary that’s added to your 401k. In theory, it sounds great, but no one can remember when they’ve gotten more than 5%, and personally, I’d rather be able to invest and earn on the employer’s contribution throughout the year instead of getting a lump sum after the company has been able to make gains for themselves.