Fireman's Fund Insurance Reviews

Pros

insurance, coworkers, flexibility to work schedule and the benefits

Cons

management doesnt have any knowledge of how how to do their jobs. I feel like grown people are treated like students

Advice to Senior Management

get new management!!!!

Pros

The benefits offered by the company were decent including 401 k , earned leaves , medical , dental , long and short term visibility etc.

Cons

1. Top heavy organization with more managers and directors..
2. No respect for good technical resources in the IT staff.
3. Politics everywhere..

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of the top heavy org. Get some young blood and leadership with proven credibility who can bridge the gap between IT and Business..

Pros

Generally nice people, nice location

Cons

Not competitive in most markets
Extremely poorly planned venture into the general market
IT senior mgmt is incompetent

Advice to Senior Management

Sell the books of business - other than reputation, there is no competitive advantage to leverage

Pros

Good Benefits including Flex time, work from home, telecommute, Vacation (4 weeks for full time employees), medical, dental, vision coverage, life insurance
Company history
Allianz backing

Cons

Minimal oversight of vendor partners
Self serving, defensive middle managers
Too much outsourcing
Lack of in-house current technology talent
Legacy systems spaghetti

Advice to Senior Management

Empower and encourage good employees
Middle management requires proactive leadership and people skills - too many are reactive and unqualified
Make technology a partner to the business, not an after-thought or support function

Pros

Has been a great place, otherwise why did all these people stay here so long? The average tenure for people is much longer than most companies; especially in IT where technology people jump ship every two years

Cons

The company is at crossroads that will test leadership from senior leaders to mid-managers. Senior leaders need to start making changes, mid-managers need to step up

Advice to Senior Management

Enforce accountability while promoting teamwork. Take advantage of the challenges and bring fresh talent in. Focus on whats important for the company

Pros

The only thing I can say is that the benefits are good.

Cons

This company consistently rewards those who are facially loyal, not those who are competent. Competent people eventually become frustrated and leave. Infrastructure, especially technology, is woefully outdated. Many of those in upper management are unsophisticated about technology, and wholly unsympathetic to employees struggling to meet ever increasing demands without the necessary tools. Reporting methodologies are often flawed or statistically invalid, which is not surprising given the 1980s technology. Management participates in endless, unproductive meetings and conference calls, without achieving any significant improvement in performance. Upper management pays lip service to improving employee engagement, but the day to day reality is an unstable, extremely stressful and unrewarding working environment.

Advice to Senior Management

Clean house in management and develop ways of recognizing and promoting competent employees.

Pros

The only thing I can think of is the benefits are okay, and that under the intense stress in the O'Fallon/MO office, the adjusters somehow work together and get things done.

Cons

Do you want to work in claims for Fireman's Fund when the following has happened over the last several years:

1. Fireman's Fund has appointed a new CEO, the third CEO in the last 4 years for the company. This clearly is a sign that at the CEO position, it is very unstable for the entire organization.

2. FFIC has recently laid off nearly 150 people countrywide and are closing 8 offices nationwide as a result of the high loss ratio that has been affecting the company. In addition, the layoffs are still going on at the O'Fallon/MO office, and for those who are let go, their positions are not being replaced? In the GL unit in particular, more than 20 people have been terminated/stepped down or resigned since 2009, and this is not only adjusters. It also includes several management positions. Talk with all the adjusters who have been laid off in the GL unit in the O'Fallon/MO office, and they will mention to you that they are relieved that they are no longer working there. With so many people being laid off in the O'Fallon/MO office, word has gotten to the other insurance companies in the St. Louis area about the layoffs.

3. No work-life balance at all, which means Senior Management does not put the employee first. Now with a new CEO being brought on, will she maintain that position?

4. The agents who constantly complain about how their claims are being handled have no clue how overloaded the claims adjusters are. Yet the supervisors never place the adjusters first and take a stand for them when an agent makes a complaint call.

5. You are constantly marginalized on your claims files by supervisors which could affect your Quality Audit (QA) score, no matter how many years of claims experience you have?

6. That the yearly performance appraisal goals for the adjusters in the St. Louis office was lowered last year, but that was done after several people were laid off when the goals were set too high?

If you have answered "No" to all the above, then do not work for Fireman's Fund.

Advice to Senior Management

Now that a new CEO has been hired within the last 10 days of this writing, it is up to Ms. Fouche to right the derailed train, and one thing that can be done is to clean house of all the lower level management. The low ratings are that of her predecessor and not her own work. It will take several years for Ms. Fouche to bring down the loss ratio at Fireman's Fund, and even more so to restore professionalism and ethics within the management structure, and to place the employees first. If that can't be done, then Fireman's Fund will be looking for another CEO. I would never recommend Fireman's Fund as a place to work in the St. Louis area, or for the same reason in the Novato/CA home office.

Pros

Office location is very pretty, on-site cafeteria, on-site gym, very likeable CEO, LOTS of opportunity to improve company.

Cons

I don't understand how most of the leaders keep their jobs. Some the CEO actually worked with before he brought them here -- and they have toxic, nearly cruel management behavior. It's a mystery how they can get away with their performance. Actually, that upper-mid-level of management seems to be the problem of the company executing the CEO's vision. It's like they are yes-men to CEO's face, but then turn around and do very differently in their domains.

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of managers who under perform with regard to employee satisfaction, their business metrics, etc. There are so many smart, passionate employees that can actually execute, but leadership targets them for the lay-offs because they rock the boat.

Pros

Trying to improve the co. and less authoritarian than many other carriers. Year after year they take employee engagement surveys and do attempt to make changes to improve the low scores. But they completely ignore the lowest scores involving Sr. mgmt behavior as well as salaries and respecting personal time.

Cons

Only way to advance is to be a friend of a sr. mgr, performance is not as valuable as loyalty to them. The company continues to lose good to great employees who find themselves with no career path and don't feel appreciated. Unless you live in St. Louis, you have a very limited career path.

Advice to Senior Management

Stop hiring/promoting based upon perceived mgmt skills, and start hiring/promoting based upon abilities and technical knowledge. This goes for Director level and up. The single biggest issue is IT, yet the people in charge have no IT background so are inept and must rely upon their staffs to tell them how to manage from a technical standpoint. This is true of a number of some claims lines as well.

Pros

1) telecommuting is no problem
2) my direct boss does not micro manage
3) nice facility, nice cafe & on site gym
4) they "seem" to do what they can to keep employee confidence high

Cons

1) too much offshore outsourcing, too soon
2) lots of angry, stressed out, upset people
3) people work like dogs and have no work-life balance
4) expected to "act" like a manager with authority even when you aren't one - it's a joke
5) don't work here unless you enjoy eating lunch at your desk everyday or getting no lunch at all
6) they LOVE to schedule meetings at lunch time

Advice to Senior Management

IT is divided into 3 distinct silos. Everyone's tired of the arguments between them. IT is over committed and everyone's burning out.