Fireman's Fund Insurance Reviews

Pros

Great environment, doesn't hurt that you're right next door to Sonoma and SF Bay Area. People are awesome!! Job was challenging but not too difficult to meet the base requirement

Cons

Maybe a bit slow moving as far as job promotion, not a high growth company. Its really hard to think of anything else, overall good company, great people.

Advice to Senior Management

Overall, I think they did a great job. Every large company has its issues internally and this company is no exception, but compared to other companies senior management was very good.

Pros

The vacation and benefits package is untouchable

Cons

Everything else. There is no work/life balance. No advancement opportunities and morale is at an all time low

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to your front line employees. They are the face of the company

Pros

Fireman's Fund is owned by a large Germany based conglomerate- Allianz. Therefore, you can be exposed to a complex and elaborate organization of titles and middle-management.

Cons

The culture is dominated by an aging "baby-boom" generation of employees that are biding time until retirement. Complacency and apathy are the norm.

Advice to Senior Management

Re-invent the company from the ground up and salvage very little.

Pros

Nice work environment
Wonderful co-workers
Excellent health / retirement benefits
Nice, flexible schedule
Great vacation benefits

Cons

Lack of reward for a job well done (recently removed monetary rewards program)
Heavy upper management
tends to change management frequently

Pros

The company participates in a program which provides aid to Fire Departments in need.

Cons

Workloads can be heavy at times.

Advice to Senior Management

Continue the course of improvement

Pros

Good benefits
Beautiful home office setting
Current CEO is honest and hard working

Cons

The DSM organization continues to be particularly troublesome. Many excellent employees, many senior level, left specifically because of the way they were treated by current leadership of DSM. It is unclear whether FFIC will be able the correct the damage done (both internally and externally) by this group in the foreseeable future.

Advice to Senior Management

The current DSM mess is still viewed as a legacy from the previous CEO. It was believed that current CEO's hands were tied. Current CEO has now been in her current position long enough to make some necessary changes, however DSM leadership is still in place. It is a mystery and it is hurting FFIC.

Pros

I used to really enjoy working for Fireman's Fund but the morale has changed drastically in the O'Fallon office. It is nice that you can accrue 4-6 weeks of vacation time depending how long you have worked at FFIC, however, when you leave for vacation you come back to a huge pile of work and stress, so it isn't always fun to take time awar from work. Other than the vacation time and 401k contribution I can't really think of a lot of positive things right now.

Cons

I used to really enjoy working for Fireman's Fund but the morale has changed drastically in the O'Fallon office. Too often employees comment about how short-staffed their teams are and how it would be beneficial to have another team member or two. The workload is pretty extreme sometimes and managers just tell you to "Keep working.....and don't worry, because it will be there waiting for you tomorrow." The workload is never ending and there isn't a good work-life balance. Management definitely have "cush" jobs. The adjusters (front line employees) do all of the hard work and the managers reap the rewards. It seems that management is always in meetings, doing file reviews, or is chatting or surfing the net. Must be nice.

Advice to Senior Management

Management needs to focus on employees because employees are the ones providing the customer service and we are the ones that will contribute most to retention and new business. Instead of tightening up the checkbook they should hire some more people so the company can provide better customer service. Most agents and brokers are aware of the situation at FFIC and are placing business elsewhere. Why pay more for insurance if the company can't provide the service to your clients. Management is making changes to it's leadership organization but they do not communicate clearly what they plan is and what the company is actually doing. They just gloss over new changes and new people in senior leadership and say, "Hang on, keep working hard." If management had to actually work a claim from time to time they would understand employees better and advocate for us. FFIC probably needs at least 3 to 5 or more years to become profitable again.

Pros

Some managers are great to work with. if you get lucky to work for a good manager, there are a lot of good projects to be working on.

Cons

Old school style. The company has kept a lot of traditions from the past that might not be useful today. Most of the systems are outdated.

Pros

Location in Novato is fabulous.
You get to see what an insurance company ran like before there were computers.
Ability to interact with Sr. management on a regular basis.
Work life balance is there if you have the right manager

Cons

The Co. does not use the skills of the employees.
There is true insanity going on. Same people ... same decisions... expecting a different outcome.
Don't get rid of bad managers!
Have too many managers who really don't care and the good managers are walking out the door. (they are valuable and good people and it is easy for them to find another job)
Too top heavy.

Advice to Senior Management

Look at your former DSM organization and ask yourself who put it where it is now. Ask yourself who destroyed the DSM model and ran away all the data savvy folks who were once there. Those are the same people you are letting decide the future of the marketing intelligence. YIKES!

Pros

beautiful office setting
ergonomically set-up workspaces
coworkers are mostly very nice people

Cons

the smart people walk or get canned because leadership in DSM is threatened by them
DSM is reactive at best, takes no risks and does not know strategy
DSM leaders behave toxically, it's inexcusable how they treat some of the employees

Advice to Senior Management

OMG -- get rid of 2/3 of DSM leaders -- they are poison, just look at their employee satisfaction results from all past years. They are brilliant BSers and upward managers. It's tragic that executive leaders do not recognize their game of ass-covering and BS.