Post ET Transformation Review - Anonymous employee State Farm Employee Review

Where to begin. This is not the same company it was just a few years ago. The new CEO has essentially destroyed the great culture that was State Farm. This is no longer a place to have a career. This is not to say that changes weren't warranted, after all you need to remain competitive, however in my opinion the implementation has been handled poorly and will likely have unintended consequences. First and second line leadership was offered a voluntary severance last fall. It was a numbers game and they needed to reduce leadership. Unfortunately, the most talented leaders jumped on the opportunity and left the company. Several were demoted just to keep a job and more were unlucky enough to get the involuntary severance (which for leadership was still a pretty good deal). The problem this caused was ALL remaining managers and directors were re-aligned to new work. While the intent was to encourage the best to stay and be put in the right area, the good ole "who you know" network took over and confidence is not high that the right people made it to the right jobs. Analysts treated poorly. What you must first understand is that for a long time State Farm was seen as a career. Many many folks have 30 or 40+ years at the company. The tradeoff for job stability was slightly less pay than average, and average benefits plus a pension. As boomers retire and millennials replace them, the demand on the workplace has changed and it feels like life long employees are being hung out to dry. A few examples: Unlimited (essentially) sick days were replaced with a PTO system. The sick days, always abused by a few outliers, become problematic with the younger workforce. Vacation - at years 20, 25, and 30, 7 extra days of vacation used to be added. Now with the new system, a max of 6 weeks total can be earned. This was quite a blow to employees close to earning more vacation. Culture - after opening the "hubs" outside Bloomington, they cancelled several yearly traditions that meant a lot to employees. They've also removed services provided to employees like SFEA, Founders Day, Car Show, Christmas Music Special and personal mail services. The family, friendly culture is essentially dead. It's leaving with the retirements, severances and layoffs. This WAS a place folks would go for a career, but through actions, they've made it unattractive to stay over 24 months.. and it's showing in our turn over numbers. Failure to innovate - There are a LOT of great ideas from talented employees that get shot down by corporate law. They are going to protect us right into business failure because we're kept from taking any risk. The "fear" of lawsuits runs the company, not providing value for the customer. I would not recommend working here and if you currently employed, I'd highly recommend an exit strategy.