State Farm Reviews

Pros

Company has great benefits and family/worklife balance

Cons

Communication from management, downsizing/office closures

Pros

Lots of knowledgeable people - you just have to find them and hope they don't get re- assigned!

Cons

- company plays favorites - work until you burn yourself out, but that won't always get you ahead...

Advice to Senior Management

Reputable company, built on relationships, trying to turn into starbucks with an agent on every corner, this will back fire!

Pros

Benefits
Longevity
Nice coworkers
Decent pay over time

Cons

Current supervisor is very hard to interact with. We just don't click which makes it hard to want to work.

My hours are not favorable. I work 3rd shift and have explained to my supervisor that the hours are not working for my family (husband and three children), but no solution is offered only that I may bid for a different work time in 8 weeks. There is no guarantee that I can get the hours I bid for since it is based on seniority.

In my position, I am on the phones. My calls and screens are recorded and graded. Have to follow certain word tracks, ask certain questions with every call, not take too much time on a call or you will get a bad "grade." This is such a low paying position that has caused me much anxiety and high blood pressure as well as illness each week since I started.

After having been back (this is my third time), I have found that they do not offer a career that I am interested in (health care - holistic).

Pros

Great job, if you find the right agency owner
Friendly people
Good experience

Cons

Pick the wrong owner and you will get nothing while they reap off your hard work
Easy for owners to start being stingy with rewards
Older owners, 30+ years, seem to be stingier than the others

Advice to Senior Management

If you dont pay your people right, get used to your customers noticing a revolving door for your employees.

Pros

- Very flexible work hours.
- Really nice co-workers.
- Big company name.
- Interesting problems.
- Decent benefits and investments.

Cons

- Slow advancement in technology.
- Lower salary then average.
- Needs better processes.
- No career growth possible.
- Mainframes...

Advice to Senior Management

Make a push to technologically advance and I believe you will leave your competitors further in the dust and become the hegemon of insurance.

Pros

Good health, vision and dental benefits with employer contribution. Pension and 401K plan, with company matching. The older executives and managers are very knowledgeable and helpful with furthering your career.

Cons

Over the last five to six years upper management in the NE zone began changing over every two years or so. Therefore new ideas were implemented but never seen to the end. This has bred lack of communication, inconsistency and low morale. Due to company downsizing and office closings older executives and management are being pushed into early retirement. These are the people who actually cared and assisted those beneath them with achieving their goals. The new management doesn't seem to have the same mentality and employees are leaving.
This was once a career company, not it's just a job.

Advice to Senior Management

See your decisions and thoughts through to the end and take the pulse of your employees. It will tell a lot.

Pros

Nice co -workers
If you make mistakes, no worries,feedback is friendly and forgiving
they encourage promotions, though most positions are in HQ in Bloomington, IL
They do give raises, which a lot of companies have done away with.
Each Auto claim is unique and often interesting.

Cons

Workforce management dictates your shifts and your work duties every 15 minutes, which adds to the call center atmosphere. You receive a bimonthly report on how many times you're out of schedule adherence.

Very little availability to take a day off, if you're out sick 5 times a year, you get written up as an incident. All of this is to improve productivity, but moral in Auto Claims is low, everyone I work with is miserable about their job.

Nepotism is strongly encouraged, they truly want family members to work there, they attribute higher likelihood of staying with the company if family members work there.

Call volume is king, as much as they want you to handle customers with quality, they are counting how many calls you take, how long you're on them and promotions are based on that.

Not enough Claim Reps, and the training for reps is almost non-existent, so if you don't like the answer from a Rep, asked another and you will get a completely different answer.

The people that write good reviews, haven't gotten Workforce Management into their department yet - it is slated for all departments eventually and has made a great mom and pop company into a third world production center. Sad.

Low pay, Claims processors start at 30K. even with a college degree. Highest increase is 10% -, half toward your salary and half in bonus. So if you do an amazing job and get a 10% increase, your salary goes from $30k to $31500 - not tremendous, but by the time you're there for $20 years you are making around $90k. and a pension.

Advice to Senior Management

Get rid of Workforce Management and have the guts to get rid of the dead wood instead.
Put joy back into the workplace.
Hire claims processors at a higher rate. The going rate is $30k, 20 yrs ago it was $21,800, Really? close to $8000 improvement in 20+yrs? You're taking advantage of a bad economy and people desperate for a job. Who can live on that?
State Farm is relying on its old time reputation, the days of working there for 20+ years are gone as long as Workforce management runs the show.
So many customer calls are angry because claims are not being handled expediently. There aren't enough Claim Reps to establish liability in a timely fashion, which is costing the company in many ways.

Pros

Pay and good hours to work

Cons

Heavy workload, rude customers, and a lot of hard work

Advice to Senior Management

Stop being pushy and give realistic time for tasks

Pros

Excellent work and life balance.
Regular training and opportunities for outside industry conferences
A family environment in a corporate structure
Comprehensive compensation package

Cons

Nepotism is cloaked, but heavily relied upon

Advice to Senior Management

Keep up the excellent job.

Pros

Good training program
Flexible hours
Good Student Program
Friendly Work Environment
Good place to work if starting a family
Wonderful Cafeteria

Cons

Low salary compared to market
Very high corporate hierarchy
Headquarters is in the middle of nowhere
Need more corporate offices around the nation

Advice to Senior Management

Smart leaders at the AVP and VP level. Friendly and helpful a majority of time. However, need more rotation programs for employees