Hermes Investment Management Employee Reviews about "work life balance"

Pros

Great colleagues, interesting work, work life balance

Cons

Need to be more risk aware to stay ahead

Pros

Work life balance, new office, a US parent company, contrived ESG reputation for what its worth

Cons

I agree with many of the negative comments below. Too many of the PMs here have no experience raising AUM and junior analysts are hired through nepotism or from back office positions. The investment teams carry too much deadweight from the days of BT ownership and are in desperate need of restructuring. The workplace has, sadly, become more political and unmeritocratic here, with teams now entrenched with underperformers who turn up to say their pleasantries and do the bare minimum. Not surprising once you meet some of the petulant, thin-skinned senior managers who encourage this culture. The lack of professionalism displayed by certain desk heads is astounding and has no place at any asset manager.

Pros

I have a hard time believing some other reviewers worked at the same firm, but I expect the company is emerging from a period of difficult change. Although I am relatively new to the company, it appears that an increasingly professional management team is embracing greater scope and ambition to try new things and stay on strategy, teams are composed of intelligent and friendly colleagues, and a move to a very attractive new office space has considerably improved corporate culture. I am very pleased with the intellectualism and challenge of my job, a respectful, supportive and engaged team which is invested in the work they do, and a healthy work-life balance and remuneration package.

Cons

Some aspects of strategy and execution need to professionalise further and there may be a lack of strong strategic thinkers and well-resourced projects and project managers. The company's efforts to communicate internally could be improved, and external communications are substandard compared to competitors. Serious investment in thought leadership, compelling communications and consistent brand and reputation building would go a long way in "opening doors" and putting teams on a better footing against larger asset managers. The company lives its values better than most in financial services and should leverage this asset.

Pros

Good atmosphere and work life balance

Cons

Too far behind the competition

Pros

The friendly culture is just about still there. Good staff entertainment programme. There isn't a culture of excessive working hours, so generally you can have a good work-life balance, although management had said they would like to change this.

Cons

Incredibly political - boutique structure means that all areas of the organisation are working against rather than with each other. Some people over-promoted due to cosy relationships with senior management. High turnover of staff. Bonus system heavily in favour of investment staff, with central services staff left with pretty meagre awards. Lack of proper oversight and management wtihin the company - team leaders left to their own devices, resulting in a "do as I say not as I do" culture, and money wasted on expensive white elephant projects and excessive internal entertaining (particularly for the Sales team - fine when they're entertaining potential clients, but not when it's just them).