insurance advisor

insurance agent

insurance broker

insurance producer

customer service representative

Western Financial Group

Management told us several years in a row to lie on the annual employee engagement survey. Management consistently said they wanted employees to be empowered however when an employee made a decision and asked for support from even direct supervisors, supervisors would go against employees with no explanation, even when an explanation was requested. When going to a manager with an issue of any sort, rather than working with the employee to solve the issue, management would either take over and not involve the employee at all, or wouldn't offer assistance saying to "figure it out yourself". These would have been excellent opportunities for management to work with employees to better learn their role, but this was pretty much never done. I learned far more from my immediate colleagues than I ever did from management. But at the same time, sometimes what a colleague taught me when management refused, I was told the wrong thing.

In terms of salary, work/life balance and culture: Salary was low for the industry. Work/life balance wasn't terrible when I left however there was a lot of discussion involving requiring employees to be available to clients after hours (7 am to 10 pm), with no additional compensation. Bonus structure was under constant review to the point that bonuses were no longer given because the bonus structure would be under review before the prior bonus structure even reached a point where one could earn a bonus (ie: quarterly bonus would be presented to start Jan 1 but by mid March, the bonus structure was under review again, and the old bonus from Jan 1 was no longer available). Long tenured employees were not valued. One colleague of mine who had been there for 10+ years was never given any sort of years of service award beyond a form email congratulating them for their work anniversary. Even with an extremely good annual review and excellent KPI's, raises were barely above COLA. There was very little opportunity for advancement.

Management did little about poor preforming employees. There was a great deal of sexism occurring, especially with the sales team (which was nearly all male) that never seemed to be addressed. Racist and sexist comments frequently went unaddressed even when management was notified. Additionally, there were people who yelled at clients over the phone on a regular basis and they still managed to stay with the organization for several years.

Your day generally starts off with getting into the office and instantly starting to get calls and answer email requests. This is absolutely fine if you are used to a fast-paced environment but there are so many people that are hired that got the job because of "general insurance level 1 or 2" license. Be prepared to have to do the job of at least two people with no increase in compensation. 

The turn over rate is ridiculous. In the time that I worked there, there were 12 people that came and left before I finally had enough. If you're a good worker there, expect to be ridden into the ground. 

Management care only for sales and little about their employees. This goes for any level of management that you may come in contact with. 

The pay structure is laughable. Starting out at other companies in the same city you can instantly be making what someone who was there for almost 3 years was. 

Seniority means nothing as well. There is little to no opportunity to move up unless someone who has been there for years leaves the company. Those that are in any position that is higher than an Insurance Advisor do not know the basics that those under them do. There were many times that I would be doing the job of those above me because they wouldn't or couldn't do it. 

Listen to your employees. It isn't always just petty issues. Something that seems small to management can be quite large to those that are under them. 

Working here ruined a career path for me that at first I enjoyed and now just am glad that I never had to deal with again.

I think they must have taken my review down so I will post it again. 

I agree with all the negative points made before. There is no real leadership and they purposely under-staff and force you to work overtime without compensation to save the company money. 

I also agree with the catty coworkers. Instead of telling me how things were done, being I had come from a direct writer and a brokerage is totally different, they just kept telling me to work faster and started complaining to my manager behind my back, when I had barely even finished training!

I also agree my complaints fall on deaf ears, and I had spoken to coworkers, my TL and my branch manager. Then it was decided that us new employees would get some training, but my assigned trainer blew me off. On top of this I was told to take a client while still on my lunch break after making it very clear I was not back from lunch yet! 

No where in the interview or the job ad did it say working on personal time with no pay was a requirement, but that appears to be the only way anyone could keep up with the workload. They'd come in early, stay late, work through lunch and come in on days off! If they would all stop enabling head office to get away with this then maybe they would hire enough staff.

I went home in tears day after day and I am not one to do this kind of thing. I had to leave for my own mental well being, without having had a change to find other work first. This is absolutely the worst job I have ever had.

Some great people work here. Unfortunately most of them are too afraid to speak up, to share ideas or concerns. This inhibits an environment where innovation and collaboration are part of the culture and people can safely feel heard and respected. Churn is high. 

Truthfulness, fairness, value and loyalty are professed not practiced. I witnessed numerous co-workers go from being strong, confident, capable and talented employees to stressed out shells of themselves who then ended up quietly being "packaged" out. Mental health is touted as important but show the slightest sign and out comes an envelope and an NDA.

The hardest part of this job was working directly for a boss, not a leader. It felt like going backwards in time. When you have worked alongside some really great leaders before the contrast is glaringly apparent when you do not. The disconnect in the organization between the internal team and the sales team is a major obstacle over all and was challenging to navigate. 

In fairness I did work with some executives outside of my own team that did exemplify leadership that I was grateful to learn from. As is typical there are some really good apples in the bunch but there are a couple not so good ones spoiling it. 

In my tenure within this organization I accomplished some pretty great things unfortunately when it comes down to it, like many companies, you are just a number at the end of day.

I have found Western to be a very supportive place to work and this has proved true over the 21years I have worked for the company. Through personal and professional struggles, the majority of my management and supervisors have been very helpful and offered lots of guidance and patience.

 A good work day is when I am able to help someone with a situation they thought was impossible, like getting property insurance during the middle of our Fire Season.  Alternatively a good day is any day that you learn something new that could help you to help customers.

The hardest part of the job is dealing with clients that are very disillusioned about Auto Insurance in BC, especially with the current financial troubles that ICBC is having.  It is very challenging to try to explain premium increases when everyone is feeling the financial crunch.

I have learned throughout the years that employee job satisfaction is the key to customer satisfaction and company progression.  Most of my managers/supervisors have shown me how to help myself and my co-workers obtain and retain that satisfaction.  We spend more time with our co-workers than with our family at some times, we need to learn how to get along with each other and our personal egos have no place in the office if everyone is to succeed and share in that success.

I used to love my job. I showed up, I cared, I put in the effort. Now? It’s just a paycheque, and honestly, that’s all this place deserves from me at this point.

The culture has gone downhill fast. Everything is about selling, pushing, hitting numbers — no matter what it costs the people actually doing the work. It feels like the message from the top is basically: “Do more. Do it faster. Don’t ask questions.” And if you burn out in the process, well… that’s your problem.

The decisions coming from higher up make the job harder than it needs to be, every single day. It’s exhausting watching leadership on the ground try to hold things together when they clearly have no real power to fix anything. Morale is shot. People are drained. And it’s obvious that the folks making the big decisions have no idea what it’s like to actually do the work.

If you care about your mental health, or even just want to feel like a human being at work, look somewhere else. There are plenty of insurance companies out there that treat their employees better than this. This place used to be one of them — but not anymore.

Started at wfg with no insurance experience. Started in department and learned a ton. Everything was great at first until it was basically a requirement to work thru breaks/come in early or late to get the work done. Always behind. Full of micromanaging, stress and a burden on my mental health I was forced to reduce my hours in order to maintain employment for my sanity. Decided to move to another area with hopes this would help. It did for a while but they are very much about pumping out the business and you will be audited no matter the department so better make sure your work is perfect. You are always a number and replaceable. They will redo paybands and hire new staff paying them more than staff who has been there years. If you question this you are reminded on how great the benefits are. Bottom line if you want to eventually make more money you will need to move on. They are one of the lowest paying companies which is unfortunate as they advertise to pay fair. Constantly acquiring more offices, yet staff is not happy and they don’t seem to care about the front line workers. If you can buy more offices you can pay your staff better. 

Western Financial Group, while seemingly provides advancement, they forget about the little people, the ones tucked far away from the major communities center's, the budget is low preventing people from being able to travel to courses and being forced to self study, which is not beneficial to everyone, the advancement and education process is slow, bothersome and provided no additional benefit, there is no wage increases for bettering your education in the job through your CAIB Levels, this is something that prevents people from furthering their education, as it is 100% expected to be done outside of work hours without any sort of compensation. I do believe Western Financial Group could Benefit from $0.50 - $1.00 Wage increases per CAIB Completed, something that would make all that additional time and stress feel like a bigger accomplishment.

If Western could improve on their compensation vs work load requirements, this job would be one of the best in the world, we are professionals and should all be treated as professionals in every way possible.

In the beginning I thought I had hit the jackpot. Came in with no prior insurance background and by the end of 3 months had my level 2 insurance licence. Head office promised us the world, home office, expenses paid, support staff to handle submissions and admin work so we could sell, sell, sell. Started with no book of business so we needed that. Support staff refused to assist and only gave advice and did not know how to use the systems. Had 5 different managers in 3 years, only one knew how to coach us and they let him go. Bit by bit all the perks were whittled away and I was stuck with a manager that had no idea how coach/manage a commercial producer, advisor staff were verbally abusive, clients given to other staff even if they were one of my prospects/referrals, blamed for mismanaging files even with clear documentation to prove this was not the case. I could go on and on. In the end, instead of honouring what was promised or offering another position within the company they let me go. Along with everyone else that took their commercial producer program.

I was employed here as a director. Initially everything seemed fine.  Actually it seemed more than fine, almost too good.  Then i started noticing things.  I started to notice what kind of people I was directly reporting to.  Let me preface this by saying I left an extremely good position based off of false pretences and promises.  I soon realized that what the 1400 or some odd employees out in the field saw was not necessarily the real story.  They would be praised to their faces then laughed at and ridiculed behind their backs.  A perfect example was a meeting I attended at the Saddledome with 2 execs.  Completely shattered my image of this company.  But, I suppose the lure of a very good salary is enough to make almost anyone willing to throw people under the bus for their own gain, not me.  It is a very back stabbing and cut throat executive group there only looking out for a chosen few.  I could go into detail but what’s the point, i’m in a better place now but boy did they screw me over at a very inconvenient time in my life.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Insurance advisor 4 salaries reported	$47,000 per year
Insurance agent 1 salary reported	$60,000 per year
Insurance broker 2 salaries reported	$60,500 per year
Insurance producer 4 salaries reported	$47,500 per year
Customer service representative 1 salary reported	$219 per day

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