Stay far, far away - Anonymous employee Aon Employee Review

The way the firm has managed the COVID pandemic has been disgusting. Being the only major brokerage firm to cut salaries (by 20%*, no less) to keep “operational flexibility” signals that Aon is in financial trouble and does not have the resources to stay afloat despite operating in an essential industry. This would be fine, but instead all communications to the general public flaunt a “very stable business in global economic recessions” and that only 20% of our business is discretionary (Christa Davies, CFO, 2020 Q1 shareholders call). The firm will continue to pay dividends to shareholders and it still plans to buy out competitor WTW early 2021. This mixed messaging makes it abundantly clear to employees that we are only upper management’s puppets, despite being in a consulting & people business. This is not a company I want to be a part of, and I’m finding that many of my colleagues agree. *The salary cut was actually 19.9% to not trigger a qualifying event in our severance policy (it is triggered at 20% or more), but is “rounded up in communications”