Aon UK

The UK business of a global professional services firm, with its global headquarters in London, advising on risk, insurance, pensions, health and benefits.

About Aon UK

Aon is a professional services firm. In the UK its work falls into three broad areas. Risk covers commercial risk, credit, fleet, private clients, surety, climate risk and mergers and acquisitions advice. Health Solutions covers employee benefits. Retirement and Investment covers pensions, investment consulting and fiduciary management, which means managing pension money on behalf of trustees. It also offers human capital work on assessment, performance and rewards.

Aon was founded in Chicago in 1982 and took the Aon name in 1987. In the UK it grew through acquisitions of businesses such as the Minet Group (1997) and Benfield Group (2008). Its global description is that it aims to "empower results for clients" using data and analytics to reduce volatility and improve performance. We did not find a separate UK mission statement.

Aon's global operational headquarters is the Aon Centre in the Leadenhall Building (the "Cheesegrater") at 122 Leadenhall Street, London. Aon occupies floors 4 to 13 of the 45-floor tower. Its UK site lists 26 offices: London, Chelmsford, St Albans, Epsom, Farnborough, Marlow, Reading, Redhill, Bristol, Birmingham, Kirmington, Leicester, Peterborough, Harrogate, Hull, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Newcastle, Stockton-on-Tees, Cardiff, Aberdeen, Edinburgh and Glasgow, plus Guernsey and the Isle of Man.

Aon says it has about 50,000 colleagues in 120 countries, though that is a global figure and we did not find a UK-only headcount. A 2019 UK announcement named seven newly promoted partners in pensions and retirement work, based in Birmingham, Bristol, Farnborough and Epsom among other places, which gives a sense of the specialist teams, from actuaries to legal and incentives specialists. We did not find a UK culture page, so ask current staff what the day-to-day is like. Aon's UK pages also point to Life at Aon, a section we could not read, so look there for staff stories.

People at Aon UK work as brokers, actuaries (who use maths to price and plan for risk), pensions administrators, consultants, lawyers, analysts and operations staff. The pensions administration work has a base in Birmingham and Sheffield. That mix means you could start from a maths, business, law or people-skills background. Check Aon's UK site for the roles currently open near you. With offices from Aberdeen and Glasgow to Cardiff, Bristol and Leeds, many of those jobs are outside London, so you can often work close to home.

What they do

• {'desc': 'Insurance advice and placement for UK businesses.', 'title': 'Commercial risk and broking'}
• {'desc': 'Employee benefits and wellbeing advice for employers.', 'title': 'Health and benefits'}
• {'desc': 'Pensions consulting, investment advice and administration.', 'title': 'Retirement and investment'}

Key facts

• Founded in Chicago in 1982; global HQ at the Leadenhall Building, London
• 26 UK offices listed on Aon UK site
• Occupies floors 4 to 13 of the 45-floor Aon Centre tower
• About 50,000 colleagues in 120 countries (global figure, 2019 release)

Website: www.aon.com/unitedkingdom