Low Morale and Weak Management - Avoid! - Principal Analyst Verisk Maplecroft Employee Review

Established by an idiosyncratic former CEO who treated employees extremely badly, the acquisition of Maplecroft by Verisk in December 2014 and de facto merger with sister company Wood Mackenzie in 2015 were widely expected by employees to turn the company around. However, performance has flatlined, with the underlying root causes of the company’s malaise left completely unaddressed by the new management. While there have been a few marginal improvements around processes and benefits in the area of human resources, the core of the company remains as rotten as it ever was in the pre-Verisk era. The fundamental flaws in the company lie with a cadre of middle/senior managers – most previously in position before the acquisition – who facilitated a business culture that treated employees with total disdain, working them to the bone and regularly deceiving both them and clients on deadlines and deliverables. Instead of jettisoning the senior team after the acquisition, these people were rewarded with new jobs and pay rises, while much more competent and respected employees were permitted to leave the company. In addition to weak middle/senior managers, the company continues to suffer from an identity crisis. Cynically positioning the company as a ‘data analytics’ company to attract suitors in New York, the former CEO and her acolytes – many still with the company – deliberately downplayed the real strengths of the company in political risk, human rights and the environment. Instead, the emphasis was placed on indices and supply chain management despite an almost total absence of anyone with real expertise in quantitative research or logistics/supply chain management. Unfortunately, the errors of the previous era have been perpetuated by the new CEO based in New York, who makes very infrequent visits to the UK offices where the bulk of staff work. This has left her over-reliant on the same people who created the mess in the first place. Two employee surveys have revealed that employees are very unhappy – morale is extremely low and there is little light at the end of the tunnel.