ICW Group Reviews

None that I can think of really.

As an experienced professional with almost two decades of experience and being considered a high performer with many wonderful development opportunities in my prior roles, I was specifically recruited to ICW Group to help them build out new a new capability. I joined the company with expertise and enthusiasm, ready to make an impact, but quickly realized that there was actually no senior leader commitment to the subject matter I'd been hired to create. I spent the next two years working to build a case for executing on the capabilities I'd been hired to design and charged with pitching it to leadership to obtain buy-in with the hope of keeping my job. During the course of those two years, my leader wrote complimentary performance reviews on my behalf, gave me a merit raise each year and also elected to give me an annual leader directed bonus of 15 percent. A little more than two years into the position, it was determined that the company was in fact NOT going to execute on the capability they specifically hired me to design and I was asked to shift my work to help a colleague with their workload. I continued reporting to the same manager who had previously been very complimentary of my work. Over the course of the next 3-4 months, the manager and I met weekly (as we always had previously) and as a remote worker, I shared my screen and we chatted about what I was working on and they seemed happy with my progress. Then one day, a switch flipped and they no longer approved of the work they'd previously been directing me to complete and praising me for. All of a sudden, I was a targeted problem in their eyes and the verbal and written communications received from my leader were not only demeaning, but hurtful. Within a few weeks of their attitude towards me changing and without ever being placed on a performance improvement plan, I was fired. During their single sentence to me before HR jumped on the call, my leader told me that I was "not qualified" to do my job (which was not true). The date of my termination was merely a week or two before I was set to be paid my annual bonus, which I obviously didn’t receive. The whole experience felt very surreal and betraying - especially because what I do is very niche focused and there aren't many roles in this specific space. I had been very happy and successful at my prior employer and would have never made a change to ICW Group if I hadn't been lured there with the promise of the opportunity to create something I was passionate about. I not only wouldn't recommend to a friend, but also wouldn't recommend this company to an enemy either! It's also worth noting that within a few months of joining the company, ICW Group laid off literally their entire commercial package underwriting team. The lay-off followed their failed attempt at expanding from a monoline workers compensation writer into the commercial package marketplace due to a lack of strategy, poor products and senior leaders with significant aversion to risk. I later discovered that following these employee terminations, ICW Group was found guilty of violating the National Labor Relations Act by essentially adding a gag order to their severance agreement (search CA Case 21-CA-329099 for more detail), keeping the fired staff from being able to exercise their right to freedom of speech and share the details of their separation from the company. If you are considering joining this company, think very hard first and be sure to ask the right questions. Ask about their strategy, employee turnover, empowerment, transparency and culture. I wish I'd dug deeper before making the leap to ICW Group because it was truly the worst employee experience of my life.