AIA Group reviews

Having worked at a number of companies that varies in industry, size, level of local"ness", and location, AIA has taken the throne as the worst I have the misfortune to be associated with. Management: Coming over from Prudential Asia, the CEO was supposed to bring forth the necessary change to transform the company. Instead, 7 years after the IPO, what remains is the disconnect between the upper management (mostly westerners) and the rest (the local) being BAU (business as-usual). Its first transformation program was such abject failure where many who are doing the actual work didn't know what they were (to the surprise of management of course), they ended up having to re-brand it can call it the second iteration. As if being incompetent is bad enough in itself, the management are the visionaries who managed to spend million of dollars creating a brand (Real Life Company), sponsoring a football team that is NOT in Asia, banca deal with little benefit to the bottomline a couple years into the relationship, and creating an "innovation" team where their supposed incubator was a merely quarter at an empty office with a handwritten sign taped on door to the room. This is simply a company with no real strategy and of course a CSO who hasn't articulated anything other than the boilerplate from other competitors. Benefits If you are not the privileged few at the top, staying at hotels that is clean is not a norm because of cost-cutting initiatives. They don't want you to travel (unless necessary) nor they would invest in you personally. Medical and life insurance is below par among peers, and to think that is the company's core product. Uber employees get to ride Uber for free, Microsoft employees have free copies of Windows, etc. Of course, one need to be realistic here. HR The infamous gallup survey which the comms team touted annually is a joke. That's because HR will apply pressure to the managers and have a sit-down with his/her team to understand why the team's score is below "peer". While they will always stress for people to be honest, they seem to have all the time in the world to help clarify people's misunderstanding so the score can be more reflective of the "reality". Of course, you hear little from them after the survey is over, until the whole charade the next year. The whole compensation and promotion process is arbitrary in substance but meritocratic in appearance. For comp, they have this formula with multiple factors but no one really knows how exactly is calculated.

Endless working hours Bad culture, serious hierarchy Not inclusive to expats The team does not leave work until 8 or 9pm every day, and on weekends, they also expect you to work. If you do not answer the phone / reply text instantly after working hours, they will consider you as an irresponsible employee. In short, they expect you to be available 24/7 without any time for rest.