Allstate Reviews

Pros

You can have a paycheck and health insurance with plenty of PTO...

Cons

A workload the size of Mt. Everest. Run! Don't do it!

Advice to Senior Management

Hire some additional claims staff. Seriously.

Pros

You learn a lot, learn to handle stress, learn to handle any possible situation whatsoever. Once you have worked in this environment, you can probably handle just about anything.

Cons

Too many rate increases, 5 Auto & 3 property, in the last 5 years. Hard to keep clients on books due to this and the down economy. Too many emails from the company to handle.( i.e. Marketing, Claims, Management, Underwriting, trainers, etc.) Takes most of all your weekend just to catch up on those. Not including regular customer service from clients. Too many meetings. Agents are constantly hounded to sell more, but spend too much time on other non-selling Allstate stuff.
New contract is less lucrative than prior agents contract.

Advice to Senior Management

LET THE AGENTS SELL! SELL! SELL! Quit bombarding then with useless junk. If you want to save the company money, get rid of a bunch of this stuff and stop laying off claims adjusters, underwriters, CSR's, etc.

Pros

A good company with good benefits

Cons

Too much process compliance of insignificant processes at the expense of doing the job. Trying to make it a task system which for certain types of claims does not work well.

Advice to Senior Management

Too much process compliance and micro managment.

Pros

A great product for all consumers that qualfiy.

Cons

Allstate can be pretty expensive sometimes - but the value is there.

Pros

Good products, depending on the area in which you work - hence how good is the credit for your clients in that particular locale.

Cons

No advancement opportunities working for an agency; only if you go corporate

Pros

The benefits are good. Some areas of the company are fine to work.

Cons

People are treated as tools to advance the company goals rather than respected assets. There is a growing lack of work/lifevbalance.

Advice to Senior Management

Trust your employees to do their job. Give promotions and raises based on performance rather than political motives. Remove bad managers even if they have been with the company a long time.

Pros

Work from home one to two days per week. Fairly good salary structure. Good discount programs including for Allstate insurance.

Cons

Absolutely no job stability. Two layoffs in two years (1st was 20% of the work force, the second 10%), despite the CEO taking his raises and bonuses. Management decisions are made with a goal of keeping one's job, rather than what's good for the company. Former excellent work life balance completely scrapped, with overtime expected. Plus, all IT changes are moved to production during the weekend, and if you have changes, you must be available to supervise those changes (over the weekend). Most of the long-term employees who were knowledgeable about the systems are now gone, eroding the accuracy of current projects. The pride that the company workforce formerly had is completely gone, due to the way management has handled things the past few years.

Advice to Senior Management

Get back to treating your people fairly, and get back to valuing them. They can't feel valued when they've been in danger of being laid off for over 5 years now, seen numerous productive colleagues let go, and seen more and more jobs go overseas. There's a reason that projects aren't as accurate as they used to be. You've lost a ton of business knowledge, and regardless of the ability of the overseas resources, they don't have the commitment that the home office employees do.

Pros

Allstate has an excellent source of educational material for those who are willing to dedicate themselves to their career. There is always an opportunity to better yourself and grow. The company spares no expense when it comes to keeping their employees well informed with all the necessary material to do their job at their full potential.

Cons

Just like all companies in the insurance industry, there is no steady ladder to progress. Most positions have huge steps to the next position and are usually achieved by leaps of faith rather than hard work. For an example the step above service representative would be sales producer which usually requires taking a pay cut and hoping you can earn enough commission to make more. The step above that would require you opening your own agency.

Pros

Good Benefits
Great Co-Workers
Balance between Work and Family
Tuition Reimbursement
Great Vacation Time for 10 years service you get 32 days off

Cons

Job Security lately has been a big concern with see lots of lay offs in the past two years and with the economy not sure what will happen in years to come.

Advice to Senior Management

I would suggest that the worker bees be asked more questions when it came to developments and changes and not just be told this is how we are going to do it and get over it if you don't agree.

Pros

Allstate is a great company. I have only worked here for a year or so but have enjoyed my time so far.
The position is commissioned but you are paid a 'guaranteed' advance on commission which allows you to budget for your expenses.
Beyond the advance you can earn more money by reaching and exceeding monthly sales targets, and then can make generous quarterly bonuses based on both your performance and that of your agency.
Overall Allstate has been a great company to work for and I would recommend the company to anyone.

Cons

The sales targets are based on prior years, so you could find it difficult to attain at times. The company preaches sales activities such as networking and cold calling, the latter of which is a dying art in the age of Do Not Call lists and access to online information for the consumer.
But aslong as your sales are on target the activities are secondary, only if you are struggling will management actively push you to reach your activity targets.

Advice to Senior Management

I think senior management are quick and fair in their actions to make sure they are reacting to the markets and trends.
I would suggest they look at the compensation package and targets to ensure it is optimal for the majority to help improve retention of employees, especially over the first couple of years when you are grafting to build your referral base and book of business.