I worked for Hagerty for over 5 years and up until 2017-2018, I Loved my job and was a top performer. In the beginning, it truly was amazing. Our core values were there and the company really lived by them. It felt like a family. It was all about taking care of eachother, training the staff properly, coaching in a positive manner and focusing in on our strengths, not our weaknesses, as they do now. They planned ahead for big changes and growth and thought very thoroughly about all the decisions that they made for the business And employees, unlike now where decisions are made very impulsively without thinking how the staff may be affected. They supported us, and helped us grow into succesful individuals and didn't expect absolute perfection. No one is perfect!! There is constant coaching sessions now, which are far beyond constructive and they nit pick everything. They focus on 1% imperfection and why we can't fix it, versus 99% of the good work done. It starts to break you down, even when you know you excel at your job.
The growth of the company has also become a huge issue because the company did Not plan for it well enough. They are not handling it gracefully at all. We have been telling the company to prepare for this rapid, rapid growth for a long time and the advice was not taken and they are now paying for it, big time. They didn't hire enough people by a long shot. Due to this, there is very, very little time for training, yet extremely high expectations for performance. New people are becoming managers because of staffing issues. I hate to even say it but management is running the place into the dumps because they aren't experienced enough to handle such huge company growth, let alone just being a manager. Dont get me wrong, these are great people, but need at least another few years before they are ready to take on roles of management. They are new kids, some who have barely been there a year. I always feel as though I'm undertrained and cant go to a manager for help because its them who needs our help the most. Most the veterans have quit or were fired. Hagerty is a challenging job and at least a few years under your belt is needed before a management position should even be considered!!
Its turned into slave work. It's back to back to back phone calls. Now, its not abnormal to be super busy but because of being so short staffed, every time you leave your desk to use the restroom or to grab a snack, it's monitored and frowned upon. Keep potty breaks to a minimum. Drink less coffee. Glue yourself to your desk. They also beg for us to work overtime everyday now and pressure you into it. They look down on you if you're not willing or able to work it.
A TON of people have quit lately due to poorly trained and abrasive management, drastic and rapid decision making with little planning that ultimately adds loads of issues to our plates, kids running the show with almost no experience and who barely know how to handle basic tasks. Expectations and pressure are at an all time high but no training or support to back it up anymore. They are in a state of emergency as far as staffing goes and it's led the veterans to have to take on things that we have little to no training in, yet we are expected to handle it as if we are experts and then just accept the audit we get for our mistakes because they refused to train us. When asking for help or more training so we can best do our job, they treat you as though your an idiot because we can't just figure out extremely complicated things on our own and make you feel bad for asking for help. Truthfully, it all stems from lack of preparation for the needs of the business. We should have hired way more as we said.
Sorry this is all over the place but I hope you get my drift. The company really needs to reevaluate what made Hagerty, Hagerty to begin with. It's lost the family feel. It's just not in a good place anymore. Financially, $$ is of no issue, but it seems that metrics have taken over and its no longer about the employees and all about what the employees make for the business. It's feels corporate ran versus family ran. It's sad to see this happen and I feared it through the years I worked there. Hagerty has lost itself in its strive for profit increase.
Lastly, IT issues are huge right now. We are buying all these new tools/technology on a whim and they are causing more issues than they are fixing. There are non stop issues for work from home employees and the systems are highly unstable and there are oodles of issues that never get fixed. Bandaids are the cure these days because IT is short staffed (they can't handle the demands so they've lost quite a few lately) and are extremely over worked with 100 other projects that they are to complete by X deadline. There's no time to really fix the issue, just cover it up. They don't have the tools or resources to actually fix the issues and we suffer for it terribly. New releases go out everyday but aren't tested enough or planned ahead for well enough which equals issues and more work for IT and they can barely manage their workload as it is.
Change is not the issue and is often for the better, it's how the changes are being handled. I always remained as positive as I could until it became too much of a task to keep convincing myself that everything was okay but it's not anymore. Again, sorry to see this Hagerty and wish you the best getting things back in order in the HSC.
Oh and I can't forget, don't trust anyone!! There are tattles all over the place. If you say one negative thing about how your day went or if you have feedback about how things are ran these days, you will more than likely be fired. I've never been negative or a complainer but people will find any reason to send you packing so watch your words and who you talk to. HR is not a good resource for feedback any more. If you have feedback, just keep it to yourself as it's not generally accepted, even though they say they want it.
