claims adjuster

underwriter

actuary

application developer

senior underwriter

Wawanesa Insurance

I recently had the misfortune of working as an application developer at Wawanesa Insurance, and I must say that it was an incredibly disappointing experience. I feel compelled to share my thoughts and warn others considering a position at this company. Here are the key reasons why I would strongly discourage anyone from joining Wawanesa Insurance as an application developer:

Worst work culture: The work culture at Wawanesa Insurance is nothing short of abysmal. From day one, I noticed a lack of teamwork and collaboration. Instead of fostering a positive and supportive environment, there was an overwhelming sense of competition and hostility among colleagues. The atmosphere was toxic and demoralizing, making it nearly impossible to enjoy working there.
Poor management: The management at Wawanesa Insurance is undoubtedly one of the main reasons for the company's dysfunctional work culture. The managers showed a complete lack of leadership skills and failed to provide clear guidance or support to the development team. They seemed disengaged and disinterested in the well-being and professional growth of their employees. It was frustrating to work under such indifferent and ineffective leadership.
Office politics: Office politics were rampant at Wawanesa Insurance, creating an incredibly toxic environment. It seemed that promotions and recognition were based more on personal relationships and favoritism rather than merit and hard work. I witnessed talented developers being overlooked for opportunities simply because they didn't engage in the unhealthy politics prevalent within the company. This kind of environment hindered productivity and made it difficult to focus on meaningful work.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Great benefits and pension plan. 

What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
No structured development process. Performance and experience has little to no impact on growth opportunity. Limited to no supervision, resulting in unequal distribution of work. Exacerbated by lack of accountability since moving to remote work scheme. 

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Lack of diversity, communication, and accountability, resulting in feelings of isolation by a large number of team members. Individuals would be promoted knowing they were far less experienced/knowledgeable than others and would admit this, which led to confusion and frustration, as well as toxic animosity at times. Leadership team inexperienced professionally leading to inappropriate handling of situations and delivery of critical information. Overall toxic environment. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Get caught up on emails and pick out any priority items, assess backlog of new business submissions, triaging and quoting commercial new business accordingly. Answering questions asked by newer staff and training less senior underwriters (who were sometimes hired in a more senior position due to having a family member on the team or in order to be attained within the most competitive salary bracket at the time), answering broker inquiries, processing endorsements, and correcting mistakes made by previous underwriters who did not receive any training.

Overall, this is a decent place to work with a generally positive environment. One of the strongest aspects of the job is the people. Most co-workers are supportive, friendly, and willing to help when needed, which makes day-to-day work more enjoyable. Team collaboration is encouraged, and there is a sense of mutual respect among colleagues. The work culture is fairly healthy, and management usually communicates expectations clearly.

That said, there are areas that could use improvement. The extended health care benefits are not very competitive compared to similar companies in the industry. Coverage feels limited, and some important services are either only partially covered or not covered at all. This can be frustrating, especially for employees who rely on insurance benefits for ongoing health needs or family support. Improving the benefits package would go a long way in boosting employee satisfaction and retention.

Workload and expectations are generally manageable, though this can vary by role and department. There is room for growth, but clearer development plans and stronger benefits would make the company more appealing long-term.

In summary, the company offers a good team environment and decent work culture, but upgrading extended health care benefits and insurance coverage would significantly improve the overall employee experience.
 

A typical day at Wawanesa depends on what task you have been given for that particular day. For example, if I had been placed on credit card processing, I would start my day off by printing all the faxes. These faxes are a mixture of payments and bank changes. I sort through these faxes, keeping the payments for myself and passing the bank changes to the person responsible. I make sure all the information is correct on the payments and sort them and hand them off to the person in charge of putting the final product through. I will also spend time opening and sorting through cheques. The hardest part of this is making sure all the payments are put through before 2:30pm. Often it is a fast-paced environment in order to get everything done in time. 
The most enjoyable part of this job is the fact that there is always something to do and my co-workers are fantastic and interesting people. I truly enjoy working with them and they make my time at Wawanesa very enjoyable. 
I have learned many things while working at Wawanesa. I have learned cheque processing, credit card processing, mail extraction on the mail machines and mail distribution. All of these tasks require a lot of attention to detail and deadlines.

Incoming calls consist of people reporting an accident or calling for an update on an accident they've previously reported,  both of which are negative situations that you have to deal with.  Customers are usually very upset being just in a car accident or irrate that they've been waiting 3 weeks for a Claims Adjuster to call them back, there's no in-between. 

Most claim adjusters are on administrative leave due to being over worked,  this leaves the customers bouncing from adjuster to adjuster, sometimes going months without communicating with the customers.

Management,  you mostly deal with your direct supervisor,  I doubt their managers understand the true nature of what's actively happening to front end employees.

The hardest part is the constant gaslighting from your supervisor.  The supervisors only care about making themselves look good,  regardless what that means for the front line agent.

For a company that claims to have strong small town values that is no longer the case. Small towns do NOT treat their community members the way the current leadership is. . Employees are scared to speak out, scared to challenge the status quo and even the chats are silent for fear that anything they say will be held against them. You have upper leadership that does not stand behind their employees and have their back against bad brokers. 

Due better Wawanesa, treat your people like they are actual people not data processing drones, listen to them...and for godsakes stand behind your company motto and truly invest in a culture that actually cares, not one that only cares when your employees support your decision making. One that cares even when they don't. It is in your darkest hour that your true colors come out, at the time I left the colors at Wawanesa we're not pretty. I thought I worked for a Canadian company but by the time I left I felt like I worked for a giant conglomerate that didn't care at all for the very people generating their revenues and high paying salaries. 

This company is by far the most challenging job experience I have yet been burdened by. Management alone acts as if they are in preschool, firing those who they "do not like" for reasons unexplained. They go about things cowardly and childishly, by making up lies saying that the person they fired, took early retirement. They are hypocritical when it comes to the dress code, letting the claims department be the only department to get away with everything. They under pay you while increasing the work load. The benefits are about the only thing other than some of the coworkers who are worth sticking it through for another day. The chance of improving yourself within the company is a joke and the morale is even worse than not being able to move up effectively. Hard work is not recognized and it seems that's all they want you to do... is work your behind off. They don't care if you hate your job, their logic is that if you don't like how things work, leave. Gong show for sure.

Working here was a disappointing experience. I had almost zero training, my laptop wasn’t working for the first two weeks and we work from home. I had no time to speak with my manager as she was always in meetings. 
They expect you to jump right into files with no prior knowledge to what the customer has experienced before you. Most take over files because nightmares. And the hours are long, and overtime is most always required. With no pay compensation. They track your clicks on your computer. So taking time to speak on the phone or write out on paper what you’re saying to an insured isn’t okay and is seen as “not working.”
I was let go after helping cover weeks and weeks of employees who quit without notice. Because I was asking about more pay to balance out the more time I was giving to my job. Instantly fired the next day.  Frustrating as it was something I really enjoyed doing day to day, but “people are easily replaceable” as I was told.

Every supervisor and manager I worked under was uncommonly communicative, and it's clear to see that open communication and teamwork is valued here. Neither I, nor anyone I talked to felt stressed or overworked, or pressured to take on more work than they were comfortable handling. This is easily one of the healthiest office cultures I've ever encountered!

Unfortunately as a contract worker I was rarely considered for advancement within the company, and there were no raises or benefits made available to me either. For regular employees they cover the cost of courses and training if you want to advance, but not having that available to contract workers meant that I had very little way to go any further.

That being said, still one of the best companies I've ever seen. Bosses are all very willing to trust their employees and empower people to make a lot of their own decisions.

A typical day is one that most definitely keeps one occupied. Each adjuster will have a minimum of 200 files, and many activities in a day. Each adjuster is trained in multiple lines, giving them an opportunity to view all different kinds of insurance. This would include, corporate, commercial, liability, bodily injury (includes required knowledge of auto and ab), CAT losses, and property. Some individuals from the management team are exceptional. Each worker is assigned a buddy , which allows for file handling while in absence. The hardest part of the job would most surely be handling multiple files, multiple deadlines, multiple directions from superiors. The most enjoyable part of the job would be the co-workers attitudes, and the learning experience that's made available.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Claims adjuster 26 salaries reported	$70,462 per year
Underwriter 13 salaries reported	$75,769 per year
Actuary 30 salaries reported	$128,333 per year
Application developer 1 salary reported	$28.28 per hour
Senior underwriter 15 salaries reported	$83,667 per year

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