Thread regarding State Farm Insurance layoffs

I work in claims central and have $100,000 draft authority, which means i can write a $100,000 check without approval, but need to be told when to take my break, lunch, and bathroom. With the production metric expectations, we don't have time to diligently investigate or review anything we receive. Our set schedules with no flexibility or chances to switch shifts has forced all our tenured employees and/or anyone with families to leave the company. The first open Friday to take off is in November. Good luck making it to any of your kid's events. Some are forced to work every weekend. Those of us left are short staffed and expected to pick up the slack. I have never worked for a company who trains their employees to work fast and ask for quality second. 80% of our good handlers are gone, and our new handlers are so unprofessional that we have a standing cell phone policy, because the new associates can't stay off their phones, let alone show up to work. We have the highest daily unexpected absense rates in decades, so much that we have an attendance policy and get "points" if we are more than 5 min late. They have invested too much into "future state" to turn around now, but won't admit that it was a horrible idea, record losses, and the employees are now paying the price. Tipsord is driving this company into the ground and no one can say/do anything to stop it or save themselves or their family.

The agents will probably be next up on cuts. No need for them in mass force with society doing a lot online.

What is so funny is that there seems to be a move towards more IA's. The biggest thing I hear asked from agents if a claim goes south ia whether it is an IA or staff person.

Quote: "This mass layoff of Fire Proximity is State Farm’s plan to get independent adjusters in ASAP. This has been the plan for almost 3 years now.

Also, SF is gearing up to roll out the third-party Contractor Connection company vendor to replace field employees by contacting the insured, setting appointments, taking photos, writing the estimates and sending them to Fire Claims Central for review and payment for claims up to $100,000.00."

Is this actually coming from reliable intel or just speculation? It wouldn't surprise me at all but would like hear more about your sources. If legit, I may need to consider going to work for one of the above when my QTD rolls around.

The joke will be on the company if they think Claim Central will be able to handle anything beyond a simple claim. No offense to anyone in CC as it is not your fault. Between the turnover issues, the metrics driven process, and horrible claims platform, there is no way anyone would thrive in that environment. I have seen more than my share of claims kicked back out to reconcile a simple estimate so I can just imagine what a nightmare it will be to have a total loss handled in CC. I agree, run while you can!

This mass layoff of Fire Proximity is State Farm’s plan to get independent adjusters in ASAP. This has been the plan for almost 3 years now.

Independents are cheaper than employees since they aren’t paid salary, pension, 401K, health benefits, bonuses, company car costs (ie: gas/maintenance/etc). And the bigger cost savings is that SF will hire more independents during peak times and then send them away when times are slow versus paying employees ALL the time. It’s ALL ABOUT MONEY. The greedy Tipsord regime.

HOWEVER: 85% of the independent adjusters we deal with on a fairly regular basis, as they are covering the desks of many field employees who have quit, are horrible. Meaning, they have very very little (or zero) insurance and/or estimating experience and produce horrible work product. 70+% of their files come back to the field employees to fix their horrible incorrect estimates; issue supplemental payments due to estimates missing pertinent information; get yelled at by irate policyholders saying “another insurance company trying to nickel and dime” or “why do I pay higher premiums for horrible service?”.....when it’s all because SF is saving money hiring the worst to represent the company.

Also, SF is gearing up to roll out the third-party Contractor Connection company vendor to replace field employees by contacting the insured, setting appointments, taking photos, writing the estimates and sending them to Fire Claims Central for review and payment for claims up to $100,000.00. Once again—all to replace salaried employees to save money sacrificing experience and service.

The writing is on the wall, folks. Get out or at least start posting your resumes ASAP before the floodgates open July 31st with thousands of terminated employees looking for jobs in the increasing saturated insurance industry job market.

What I keep coming up with end my mind: who are these people, the ones who came up with this 'plan', and why do they still have jobs? They could screw up a 2 car parade! And, yes, very disturbing to compare the list of folks who are more or less guaranteed to keep their job vs. those with months left on the payroll. The "keepers" include some real dead wood. One quick glance at their numbers will show they are just biding their time until retirement or they get canned. Meanwhile, some of the hardest working people at the Farm live 20, 30 minutes farther away & are being shown the door, and not politely.

I have been hearing that estimatics has been offering voluntary severance to anyone who wants it, while that option was off the table with Fire Proximity. I know people that would volunteer to take a severance to save someone else (and get the heck out) but have been told no, while others have been told by their TM that they would have to check with higher ups. I know impacted employees that can adjust with the best of them, while there are some non-impacted people who can't/don't set up a ladder. WTF??? Keep under performers and let good if not great employees go???

As big as sf thinks they are...to send out a huddle request naming it reorgnational change....and the thursday fols who were impacted are told they are impacted...and will receive another email on monday...giving them the option to opt out or in.....then on monday another email comes out saying due to the estimatics footprint not being validated....hold off on the email we promised you today...aka...our plan was not well thought out...and we are not sure what the new plan means.....but we will let you know soon.....then today those impacted employees got another email bascially saying...hold up...we are not sure of anything now....we need to reevaluate everything......really ?....there was never any well thought out plan in place...just like the reorg 5-6 yrs ago....this is embarrassing.......