MEET Charlie (Charlotte) Garrod
Wordings Analyst
Team Property & Casualty Wordings practice
Segment Corporate Risk and Broking
Location Ipswich, United Kingdom
Year hired 2011
University The Open University, Business Management, Social Sciences and IT
Personal skills or interests
I play golf at county level for Norfolk and hold a single-figure handicap.
Can you describe your career progression within Willis Towers Watson?
After a variety of previous roles with insurers and brokers, I joined Willis Towers Watson as a client services team leader in Major Accounts (now Manufacturing and Industrial, Services and Utilities) within GB Retail. I then moved into an account executive role, managing my own clients within the Natural Resources Utilities team. When my personal circumstances changed (I had a baby), Willis Towers Watson was really supportive in enabling me to move into my current job where I can bring my industry knowledge and relationships to bear but also work with more flexibility.
Can you tell us about the day-to-day responsibilities of your job?
Our team works on wordings to establish the best insurance cover for clients. I provide technical knowledge and wordings analysis, including property, casualty, motor, personal accident and travel coverage.
What are the key challenges of your role? How have you overcome them?
One of the key challenges is the non-standardized nature of the policy wordings, as each insurer has its own bespoke style. This presents an opportunity to learn something new every day, as well as use the knowledge I’ve gained throughout my career.
What training and development opportunities have you received in your role?
There is a wealth of training and development opportunities available, whether personal (interpersonal communications and confidence building) or technical/IT-based support. I have completed many courses both face-to-face and electronically – including onsite “Lunch and Learn” sessions – and enjoyed the experience.
What’s been one of your most exciting projects to date?
I had an opportunity to work on the Model Office in 2012, in which the processes and roles of the client teams were mapped to help improve operational efficiency.
Also, I was honoured to be nominated and voted in as an Employee Representative (ER) through two consulting projects, and be the chair of the ERs in face-to-face meetings with senior management.
What is your proudest achievement since joining Willis Towers Watson?
I take pride in helping my team develop and watching their careers progress.
How would you describe the culture at Willis Towers Watson?
The culture is changing – for the better. Management is taking a fresh view on everything and making appropriate changes, which is encouraging.
What do you like best about working at Willis Towers Watson?
The people who work here are very knowledgeable and, because of its size and internal network, there’s always someone who is able to help – or can recommend someone who can!
I’m very lucky that as my life outside of work changed, Willis Towers Watson helped me find a position that fits with my home life.
Was there anything that surprised you about your role or the company?
I was pleasantly surprised to learn of the width and breadth of knowledge, and the longevity of service of colleagues.
What is your hope for your career in the future?
I’m very glad I have the opportunity to work at Willis Towers Watson and hope that my career here lasts a long time. I hope to be a go-to person for technical knowledge and be in a position to one day lead the team if the opportunity arises.
Based on your experience, what advice would you give someone considering employment with Willis Towers Watson?
Join Willis Towers Watson! It’s an interesting company with many different roles to consider and opportunities to learn and develop.
MEET Karen McDonagh Reynolds
Cloud Programme Director
Team Corporate IT
Segment Cloud enablement team
Location Ipswich, UK (but I travel loads)
Year hired 2018
University Birmingham City University, Industrial Information Technology
Personal skills or interests
I am passionate about my family, love to cook and also grow chillies!
Can you tell us about the day-to-day responsibilities of your job?
I am part of the team responsible for the global delivery of Willis Towers Watson’s cloud programme. This involves everything from working with segments to help them deliver their plans, to tracking all deliverables, financials, risks, etc. and bringing together the right people to help drive our ambitious agenda forward.
What are the key challenges of your role? How have you overcome them?
A key challenge is getting people to see the new opportunities that are available to us as an organisation with new cloud technologies. I’ve learned that by taking the time to talk to and educate people, they will see that we are willing to evolve as an organisation and take on new ideas.
What is your proudest achievement since joining Willis Towers Watson?
Bringing the first apprentice into IT and watching him grow in the role and become part of the team was awesome.
I also am very proud to be part of Willis Towers Watson’s work to transform IT through Inclusion and Diversity (I&D). It’s important to reach out internally and externally to find and encourage candidates through our own personal networks and LinkedIn in order to cultivate a large pool of diverse talent to bring to IT.
More and more people want to work in an organisation that cares about its employees and empowers you to bring your whole self into the office. I enjoy being part of this I&D initiative, which is creating a groundswell – it’s that important and we’re beginning to make inroads. I’m grateful to be supported by senior-level allies. We need to create change together – otherwise it won’t happen.
What do you like best about working at Willis Towers Watson?
The people are the best aspect of working at Willis Towers Watson. This is the best team I’ve ever been part of – professionals at the top of their game who are great fun to work with. Our team is progressive, we take a good look at ourselves and how we need to transform, especially from a diversity viewpoint. We truly walk the I&D talk – this is very important in the tech field.
Was there anything that surprised you about your role or the company?
The scope of the work we do surprised me the most. We are so much more than a consultancy and insurance business. We are involved in so many markets globally and every day I learn something new about the business
Due to our company’s position and reputation I am fortunate to be dealing with state-of-the-art technologies, and work closely with suppliers where we get to provide input into the roadmaps for their tools. Also, I haven’t met anyone who isn’t genuinely nice here.
Based on your experience, what advice would you give someone considering employment with Willis Towers Watson?
My advice would be to apply, even if you are not able to meet the job requirements 100%. Even if you feel you don’t check every box on the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. Give us the opportunity to have a conversation with you. If you’re not right for the current role, we may want to invite you back to apply for a different role.
When we bring people on board, we want to make sure they’ll be happy here. It only takes one person to throw a team off, so we look for people who fit with our core values. As an example, our team embraces positive disruption as opposed to confrontational challenge – it’s okay to say, I don’t agree – we want to learn from each other, understand what’s working, what’s not and what can be improved.
MEET Ravi Khambhati
Senior Associate — Systems Development
Team Collaboration Solutions
Segment Corporate
Location Arlington, Virginia, U.S.
Year hired 2017
University Shrimad Rajchandra Institute of Management and Computer Application, Master of Computer Application
Personal interests
Learning new skills and technologies, reading about information technology, listening to Bollywood music and eating spicy Indian food.
Can you tell us about the day-to-day responsibilities on your job?
In July 2017, I was hired as a senior SharePoint developer. In this role, I am responsible for solving IT issues within our company related to our team collaboration tool (TCT). TCT is a shared server that functions as a repository of data to be shared among all employees so that information pertaining to a large number of complex internal and client projects can be stored and managed effectively. I also work with supporting applications and generate customized/ad hoc reports to satisfy internal requests. We are constantly monitoring the growth of our TCT sites, and have recently started work on moving the company’s systems to the cloud in conjunction with the SharePoint Online and Azure platforms.
What are the key challenges of your role? How have you overcome them?
Some challenges for us in working with TCT is ensuring users’ work is properly stored and protected. I always provide alternative solutions/workarounds for problems so our employees can keep working on their day-to-day jobs if they have an issue. Moving our systems to the cloud brings many nuances to the role — as everything we do is evolving to keep up with the latest advances. Though challenging, moving forward is interesting and I am always learning something.
How would you describe the culture at Willis Towers Watson?
The culture is very balanced between personal and professional life. The ability to work from home is a benefit, as it saves time on commuting and increases productivity.
What do you like best about working at Willis Towers Watson?
Every day is a challenge, which I really like and enjoy. These challenges keep me motivated and foster innovation.
What is your hope for your career in the future?
I’ve always enjoyed working on the technical side and have embraced the associated challenges. I look forward to one day becoming a SharePoint architect in the same area.
Based on your experience, what advice would you give someone considering employment with Willis Towers Watson?
It’s a great company that provides great benefits. Go for it! If you know you want a career in IT, this is a great time to work on some amazing projects that will challenge you and provide training you can only get on the job.
