Farmers Insurance Group Reviews

Pros

Strong leaders, good compensation package, career growth opportunities

Cons

Large organization, fast pace of change

Pros

For a long time, with the last CEO, it really was a great place to work. They pivoted and made decisions with the employees in mind. They shared performance bonuses with their employees. They promised fully and permanently remote positions, and encouraged us to make our homes work friendly.

Cons

Now there's a new CEO. And he decided to break that promise and his employees trust. One of his first decisions as CEO was to break the news that people within 50 miles of an office were now required to come in 3 times a week. This includes the Woodland Hills office, which means that people living on the opposite side of LA now have to account for a 4+ hour roundtrip commute. And the worst part is that the ostensive reason of more collaboration is completely untrue, there are entire teams who will have to come into an office simply to interact with the rest of their team through Zoom. Farmers showed a complete disregard for their employees, who put their trust in the company as they made their life decisions, selling cars and starting families. I firmly believe that it's a shady way to do soft layoffs, or quiet firing.

Pros

The retirement benefit is great. 6% match plus 4% so your 6% = 14%. Parental leave of 10 weeks for both men and women for birthed or adopted children.

Cons

Communication and lack of trust in executive leadership. December 2021 most employees were told they were now classified as virtual employees. 17 months later after a CEO change we were informed we would return to the office 3 days per week, two of which will be determined by your department. Employees have 3.5 months to make this adjustment. The impact financially and to work/life balance will be significant. Inconceivably the news was given via an internal social media post by the CEO. Local leadership, several levels above the front line employees had no info, no answers, no more info than we had. Our productivity has not skipped a beat and our customer service scores are up. They say the change will Allow collaboration but most teams are split across the country. If we can’t trust them with something as important as our virtual status how can we trust them with anything else???

Pros

Benefits are good although expensive There are lots of other career paths if you can get there Company match/contribution to 401k (for now)

Cons

Recent change in ceo has really placed a lot of distrust in our company. We were promised forever WFH and that was just stripped. Causing some people who were hired as remote to commute up to hours a day. They say we need to save money but then are going to be renting multiple buildings in high rent areas, purchasing office equipment. Pension was taken away years ago and replaced with 401k. We have match up to 6% with company contributing an additional 4%. Worries this will be taken away. The micro managing is out of control and has gotten worse since January. Just look at overall performance and let us do our jobs

Pros

Pay and benefits are good, just not amazing. It will get you to leave a small business, but wont compare to other companies of it's size. For example when I started we had a pension, but that was replaced with a 401k, nice to have but not nearly as valuable as a clearly defined benefit. Lower level management is full of talented hardworking people who care.

Cons

New CEO decided to reclassify all employees within 50 miles of an office as Hybrid, even if they were hired as permanently remote and have never been to the office. The company line is that this is to increase collaboration, despite 3 years of praise for increased collaboration and ease of communication due to all employees being remote. Leaders who repeatedly praised remote work have now done a total 180 and claim that going back to the office will make things better when we all know it wont. Employees see this for the quiet firing that it is. Straight out of the bad leader playbook, make the environment worse and worse until people leave so we dont have to pay unemployment. It's spineless and cruel.

Pros

Lots of potential bonuses, and the offer to own your own agency. Some solid people that are long time employees and friendly co-workers that make for a pleasant working environment.

Cons

Farmers is among the most expensive insurance there is right now, making it next to impossible to land new clients and build up a book of business. Their current pricing model is pushing administrators to find new agents will to buy established books from old agents getting out of the business. But those established agents are losing so many clients due to premium increases, it makes it hard to determine the actual value of an established portfolio. Farmers also has tight restrictions and appetites for commercial insurance, and limits insurance offerings to Farmers products only.

Pros

Extremely competitive benefits! 6% 401K Match and, at the time, an additional automatic 4% 401K contribution. Health insurance cost only fairly priced. Post-Covid, many offices went full-remote and during Covid Farmers was quick to adapt and implement effective WFH procedures. Work Culture is excellent, but can depend on the manager. Some are flexible and results-oriented, others can be rigid and task-oriented. Generous and universal Paternity/Maternity leave. Many employees stay long-term for this benefit alone. Commitment to innovation and procedural improvement, lots of automation opportunity and management is receptive to guidance. However, automation is self-directed, if something sucks leadership expect a grassroots solution instead of investing time/money. "Doing more with less" is a common response.

Cons

Pay is average, neither good nor bad. However, bonus pool has struggled at times. Promotion largely based on tenure or being a favorite of leadership. Can lead to rapid promotion and pay increases, but also jealous relationships with co-workers. Also, people have been promoted before they are ready, leading to being punished during year-end evaluations or re-organizations. Frequent reporting structure changes and re-orgs. Had 3 different organization changes over 3 years. A little bit of a "deck chairs on the titanic" problem. Certain departments dominate decision making, hampering Farmers speed-to-market. Analysts and PMs make changes where they can but struggle to get buy-in from other stakeholders.

Pros

Good PTO amount, decent healthcare package options, coworkers are amazing

Cons

Lack of communication and transparency from top leadership. We recently underwent a leadership change and were being forced back to the office after working remote for 3 years and last being “permanently” moved to virtual positions. We were assured that this wouldn’t happen and we’re not being told why that has changed. Feels like a ploy to get staff reductions without having to do layoffs.

Pros

Networking and meeting with new and current clients was the best part. The pay was nice with potential for repeat clients. They provided me with time to study for my P&C license. Simple interface to create quotes and review policies. My main agent was super organized in keeping track of clients.

Cons

The main agent was VERY particular about where I would put anything on my desk, like the stapler and hand sanitizer. He was not experienced at managing people, only good at handling the policies and customers. Its very repetitive in terms of day to day. We got paid MONTHLY, which was new to me. I had to budget monthly.

Pros

401k contribution is above average At this point in time (and for the past year roughly) I can’t identify one other single pro.

Cons

The workload is unbelievably overwhelming. Staffing has reduced by about 40%, while the tasks for property adjusters has at least increased by 3-4x. Encouragement from management to not incur overtime when they acknowledge “full-time” workload is roughly 8 claims/week we average 25-30 claims/week. Very difficult to get promotions if you think independently and critically as opposed to being a yes man.