If you question or suggest that the decisions being made are not a good idea....you will be written up for not being "adaptable" "flexible" "open to change"...... Just happened to me. I tried to respectfully say (after being asked) why I thought some recent decisions were difficult for us and why I thought there might be a better way ....and a day later I just got blasted by my manager in the new "MY BLOCK" monthly evaluation for not being receptive to change. Change is always difficult. Maybe all of this reorganization is going to work out perfect....but punishing employees for speaking up especially when you ask is wrong ... but that is the reality. Just smile...take the money....This is their show....Be a yes man....that is what they want! #lookingforanotherjob
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As to agents and marketing, there are many reasons a lot of us have cut back. One is the obvious conflict of always being asked to spend more and hire more, in order to make up for the Company spending less and laying off in droves. Then there’s the issue of spending our own money to buy leads that are actually owned by State Farm, so that we can provide often non competitive quotes. Some of the people who do choose to buy will then do so online or through CCC. We get reduced, very minimal compensation for that, and the amount of service work they cause is tremendous due to the improperly written policies needing repair. And we seldom write a “household” the way we used to. We get a state minimum auto policy only, and it has less than a 50% chance of ever earning a renewal commission. Then, while they are asking us to spend our money to acquire bad business at a reduced commission, they are driving our good long term customers away with a crazy high priced added car model, very poor claim service, and a service and underwriting model that is totally unresponsive. All of this while we operate out of three different computer systems that don’t talk to each other and are “down” (I kid you not) as often as they are up. Oh, they also want to monitor our usage of these systems that don’t work, and tell us we aren’t using them all the time (duh). So they are banking record Billions, and asking us to spend our money to back decisions that are enriching them while bankrupting us. No thanks.
Not sure I understand the comment about surviving the next couple of years? This year will reflect Mutual growth, non-tenant growth, life growth, underwriting profit (before investment income) and a substantial increase in net worth. It will be one of the best “balanced” growth with profit years in quite some time.
We are way beyond Yes men the fall off is so bad I’m not if the brand can survive this cycle we are going thru with in next two years. It’s a total disgrace what’s is happening. There aren’t going to be any yes men left.
Conservative may have been taken to the extreme with our life company use to be in top 3 on internal rate of return now we ARE’NT even in the top 20. If that’s conservative remember Kodak, Blockbuster, Borders, Xerox, and should I say Polaroid who gave millions.
Time to release some of those billions we have been piling up. Policyholders have had enough of artificially high rates, who ever implemented the changes to our new business eligibility model needs to be called out. This has gotten totally out of hand the last three years.
Wonder why agents have shutdown on marketing.
@3umv....."I know the younger folks all think they can invest better than State Farm. Can they?" Don't know and don't care. I'll bet 75-80% of them can't. I have no problem if they want to, and can, opt out of the pension. A lot of them think because they may be technologically savvy, they are also financially savvy. Remember that starting salaries are less now and you get what you pay for. I'll give them one thing. They are without question not lacking confidence. Humility & respect are not in a lot of their vocabularies.
You are absolutely correct in saying that State Farm is a company of "Yes Men." Forbes just released a list of 300 companies in the US that are best for women. Guess what? State Farm didn't make the list. But the majority of their competitors did.
What planet are you on 3umv Bizzaro World
https://www.fool.com/investing/2016/10/14/state-farm-mutual-funds-alternatives-to-its-high-f.aspx
State Farm WAS a CONSERVATIVE company. I know this for a fact.
@2ieb.....I know the younger folks all think they can invest better than State Farm. Can they? Who knows? But there are a few points to consider: 1. Those younger employees have NEVER seen a bad market. They’ve come up during the longest bull market in history, so maybe they just assume it’s always easy to make money. 2. State Farm is a 97 year old company, very conservative, with over $100 BILLION on the books. They know how to keep making long term money. And the name of the game in order to retire is to keep making money in the long term. 3. Even during the short time that State Farm offered retail funds of their own, we saw up markets (where SF fund performance was sub par) and down markets (where SF Funds were the best performers out there, losing 25% instead of 50%). But overall, their total return was very good compared to many competitors. While it’s nice to make the big returns in up years, time shows that’s even more important to minimize losses in down years. State Farm is the master at that.
What the pension comes down to is this: most of the younger employees think they can invest and make more money than the farm doing it for them.
That said, this isn't one of the main issues chasing newer employees away. The micro managing and lack of proper work/life balance are.
State Farm is becoming a good first full time job, but underwriters and claim reps are no longer career jobs unless you get into management.
The 401(k) vests in three years, whereas the pension takes five years to vest. For a young person who may not want to commit to State Farm for five years the 401(k) would be more attractive. But even in that scenario eliminating the pension for new hires may help in attracting young people, but it's not going to help keep them.
@1ekg......I had the same question. You can’t just “eliminate” the pension, ie wipe all that money owed to pensioned employees off the books. That’s money that was promised to them in writing. They planned their lives around it, and it is owed to them. You can stop enrolling new employees in the pension, but I’m not sure how that is supposed to help keep or attract young people. The newer generation is probably not expecting a pension, but I don’t see why they would choose to leave an employer because that employer offers one.
The statement that SF needs to eliminate the pension to keep young employees is just ignorant.
I don’t understand how eliminating the pension would help keep young people....can one of you help educate a fossil?
The pension is not nearly as much an issue for young people as much as they prefer being treated like an adult in a non toxic claim environment. Flexibility with work-life issues might help too.
You don't turnover employees at a 30-35% clip strictly because of a pension. This new model was built knowing and accepting at least a 25% turnover in claim staffing by the supreme leaders.
If you want to keep young people eliminate the pension. You've been warned
Remember. It's not how much work you do, how detailed you are in your job, and how well you interact with the customer. It is all about whether they like you or you fit in. Whether you married into the company (kinda inbred). Whether you are married and divorced several times. Whether you drink and substance abuse. They get off on running people to the ground. Welcome to the cult.
I’m a claim adjuster for another insurance company, I used to work for the Farm for 8 years........I remember I did not get a promotion because they asked a ridiculous question during an interview......it was what would you do if your coworker was not doing their job, the question floored me because if I was doing my job to the best of my ability why would I be concerned what my coworker is doing and isn’t the claim managers job to make sure my coworker was doing their job......the claim managers get paid close to 6 figures. I never understood the State Farm cult, never had......never will. I will encourage you look for another job, because the Farm is in their own little world. Just have faith.....there is life after State Farm.