Safeco Reviews

Pros

Very supportive of family life and flexible on schedule. The projects were outstanding to be involved in and you could be very creative with solutions.

Cons

No real direction overall especially from the Cheif Information Officer. Priorities between Information Systems and other departments rarely were in line, which created big issues.

Advice to Senior Management

Priorities need to be resolved.

Pros

Tools available to obtain SEC licensing in a number of areas including non-insurance related licenses. Low pressure culture. Great benefits. No surprises. Good management -- and very approachable. Even senior executives showed willingness to make time for the concerns of the rank and file staff.

Cons

Very lazy culture in general. Staff tended to be negative about their jobs: would take numerous breaks, while complaining about being overworked. The workload was by far the lightest I have ever seen in a professional environment. It is hard to work around negative, lazy people.

Advice to Senior Management

Much of the staff seems bored and may need either training or other stimulation to change their mentality.

Pros

There are a lot of high quality people at Safeco, very bright and motivated. Safeco also seems to be moving in the right direction, adopting more of a customer focus and learning from its parent Liberty Mutual. The offices are nicely designed, and very open. Safeco is cozy and stable.

Cons

Safeco is no longer a local company, you can practically feel the bureaucracy from Boston. There are definite silos between groups, and a poor flow of knowledge and ideas. There isn't a lot of training, but there is an overwhelming amount of compliance classes that you take online. There is no orientation when you start there, your computer will not be set up (no local IT people) and your badge will not be ready. Hearing muzak by the elevators and in the rest rooms only serves to remind you how old this company is; it's like being sent back to the early 70s or trapped in a dentist's waiting room. Executives are all the way up on the top floor in gigantic offices, far from their people, and an entirely different world when compared to your work area.

Advice to Senior Management

Improve your onboarding experience and provide relevant training for the jobs people are doing. Lose some of the Boston personality in Seattle and act more like a Pacific Northwest company.

Pros

Too much buracracy and too much middle management

Cons

stable, reliable, company has been around for years

Advice to Senior Management

More opportunities

Pros

Great Benefit package, good work / life balance, friendly co workers, the pay is alright, yearly pay increases and bonuses

Cons

Not much opportunity to advance from within the company, Sr. management does a very poor job with a lot of decision making. Since the merger, it is all about the company making that buck no matter how it has to be done, and almost no regard for employee tenure or cimcumstances.

Advice to Senior Management

Safeco was in great standing years back when Mike McGavick was CEO, the company really cared / valued their employees.

Pros

The company culture is laid back and coworkers are super friendly. There is no required time frame used to keep claims handlers tied to the phone all day.

Cons

Not enough personal respect given by middle management. They can be as catty about employee situations and information as a coworker. It is also hard to work for Safeco and have any type of isuues, as they are not generous when it comes to illness.

Advice to Senior Management

Management should review the employees that are in middle management roles. They should also look at the individuals they hire and develop those who have potential to move into higher roles based on work ethic, education background, and their claim files.

Pros

- Benefits package
- Understanding of needing time away
- Bonus / Raise based on individual performance

Cons

- Upper management has NO clue of the inefficient processes we deal with daily
- VERY archaic systems which make it essentially impossible to do your job the way they want it to be don
- MANY hoops to jump through for the simplest of coverage and/or liability decisions
- Communication to desk employees is non-existent

Advice to Senior Management

Your claims department is critical to the success of the company (RETENTION), listen to them and get something done about the systems you are having them go through daily. Then you'll begin to see the results you're wanting. LISTEN, LISTEN, LISTEN

Pros

Management supports its workers and the work load is fairly reasonable - management is usually pretty flexible with work hours

Cons

I feel that the compensation is a bit lacking but overall they strive to keep their employees satisfied and happy

Advice to Senior Management

Management ussualy has an open ear to the issues at hand and respects empoyees feed back and comments toward team goals and personal progress

Pros

-Good vacation and 401(k) benefits
-Good schedule
-Right level of communication between leadership and employees
-Up to date facilities
-Benefits and pay raises have stayed almost completely intact through recession

Cons

-My former manager was vindictive, not supportive, and unfair (current is great, however). Plenty of people came and went because of this manager, but she was not corrected but rather promoted.
-Wish we had closer relationships as coworkers. We are all friendly with each other, but there are few get-togethers outside of work.
-Could use better communication/visibility and cooperation with Liberty Mutual corporate.

Advice to Senior Management

Review managers more critically - there are some great ones and some bad ones. Make sure all areas are accountable for performance - half of our expenses are corporate and shared services, and we have very little visibility into how those expenses are being controlled.

Pros

If you land right department it is a great place to balance work/life while being treated with respect and fairness by your management team.

Cons

No opportunity for growth or professional development. Politics range from creating road blocks on a good day to be being simply nasty on a bad day. Politicking has become so instituionalized within the organization that one is better off abandoning all hope of doing a job right lest they get trampled by self-serving leadership.

Advice to Senior Management

Much more house cleaning is necessary.