technician

sales associate

business coordinator

insurance agent

customer service representative

Allstate Insurance

When you start one of the Allstate Customer Information Centers, everything is great, throughout training and transition into your regular position, scheduling, pay, time off, managers, and the company as a whole are just great. That lasts for about 3-4 months. After that, things are a bit more rigid, but you're at the mercy of your manager. If you've got a good one, you're golden, if not, then unless you're naturally a salesperson, you're screwed. I had the fortune of having both throughout my time at Allstate, so I can speak to both experiences.
A good manager can give you productive, constructive criticism that will build your sales abilities, work with any scheduling quirks you may have, and help deal with any issues that may arise. A bad manager (at least in my experience with the company) gives little to no criticism, or gives very generalized criticism, with no positive reinforcement, and will not bend at all when extraordinary circumstances arise.
The company itself, however, is another beast, especially when it comes to timekeeping. The system for "occurrences" (basically sick days, but it's more complicated than that) is complex, and not explained particularly well (out of the 7 occurrences you can have before being terminated, several people in my class had 4 by the time we graduated from transition onto the sales floor because when it was explained to us, even the teachers weren't positively sure how it worked, and many of us were led to believe that you had to take an occurrence to take *any* time off) then, on top of that, the system that timekeeping has put into place with the intent of keeping track of how many occurrences you have (as well as PTO days) is flawed in it's calculations, categorization, and stability. Sometimes the system would go down without warning for weeks at a time (in the event that led to my termination, the system had not updated in 3 weeks, but even when loading the system, it loaded as usual, just not with up-to-date numbers, which misleads you to believe that you have more time available than you actually do.), and when you call the timekeepers, they can give you little, to no information. The other thing is that you're told throughout training that you'll get something like 24 days of vacation throughout the year (estimates from the teachers varied between 22 and 28), but as soon as you hit the floor, you quickly discover that you're only given 12, and that it takes almost a decade to be able to earn 24 days.

There's also a term used by agents, and you would hear it on the floor from time to time, especially around bonus time, where someone has been "Allstated." For example, often times, an agent who only occasionally gets bonus will have, over the course of their time, an average of 6 policies terminated every month, and a maximum of 10 in one month, ever. But say the agent has a great month and passes the threshold for bonus by 16 policies. Suddenly, at the end of the month, Allstate tells them they've had 24 policies terminate in the last month, which means the agent gets nothing whatsoever. There are lots of convenient coincidences like this, and it happens often enough that it's impossible to not be suspicious about it.
Overall, it's not a bad place to work though. As long as you can meet some basic sales numbers, and learn the systems as quickly and thoroughly as possible so as to dodge the timekeeping issues, then you'll have no problem whatsoever.
The pay is pretty great, a majority of the managers are great, and know exactly what they're doing, the customers are just like any other customers, they can be great or they can be terrible, and your team members are generally great. Once you've made it through licensing, training and transition, anyone who would bring a lot of drama has been weeded out, so everyone gets along well, regardless of what your background or walk of life is. The environment is really great, the problem is just a company which looks to scrimp every penny from anywhere they can get it.

This application is to get the online Quotes & Purchase for Auto & Property in different states in United States It enables the customer to get the Quick / Full Quotes / New Business for Auto, Home (Home owners, Renters, Condominiums), Health, Annuity, Mutual Funds, Business & Property Insurance. It involves with both Commercial and Personal insurance. The auto Insurance deals with all details of the Drivers history and Vehicle history. It also deals with the customer care claims. The application also deals with Mortgage, Investment and Financial (Fixed Income, Bonds, and Banking Products). 

Responsibilities: 
•	Involved in all stages of testing the Mutual Fund applications – Stock mutual funds, Bond mutual funds, Money Market mutual funds.
•	Responsible for testing the Quote & Purchase for both Auto and Property Insurance of the customers, which compares with the Allstate premium. 
•	Design, develop, and implement test plan, test design, test cases/scenarios for the MS CRM application. Work closely with a cross-functional team, including business analysts, QA analysts, in-house developers, and project management in order to plan and conduct thorough testing in a fast-paced, agile environment.
•	Created Entities, Related Entities, Custom Attributes and Workflows for the MS CRM QA environment and executed Manual Test cases logged the defects in Test Director.
•	Performed Regression & Assembly Testing and responsible for interacting with developers to fix the problems especially pertaining to database which are not populated to the online screen when Customer enters his Quote such as Discounts, Models of Vehicles etc. 
•	Developed SQL Queries and executed Triggers and Stored procedures to validate the database the back end of the application.
•	Involved in testing the Property & Casualty application, which delivers the online Auto Insurance information related to the accidents. 
•	As Team Lead for Automation team (QTP) – standardized common library functions, object repository, function repository, regression scripts, smoke tests and test data.
•	Used QTP for .Net applications and developed various VB Script functions to test the functionality of each component of the application.
•	Mapped the custom objects to the standard objects where necessary, and inserted GUI, Bitmap and Text checkpoints where needed, to compare the current behavior of the application being tested to its behavior in the earlier version using QTP
•	Performed data driven testing on QTP scripts - Parameterized the fixed values in checkpoint statements, created data tables for the parameters and wrote functions for the parameters to read new data from the table upon each iteration 
•	Responsible for setting up DB, BITMAP, XML Checkpoints to check the validity of the data. 
•	Used Test Director as repository for requirement analysis, design test cases, Execute test cases, Bug tracking and reporting. 
•	Based on the Critical Transactions generated Scripts using Load Runner VuGen (Virtual User Generator) 
•	Using VuGen enhanced the scripts and did Parameterization, Correlation to meet the requirements. 
•	Debugged the scripts by running in Stand-alone mode by using VuGen. 
•	Extensively used various Recording options in the VuGen depending on the requirement and the application. 
•	Performed tests using Load Runner Controller by creating 100, 200, 400 virtual users for load, stress and steady state test respectively. Performance Monitor was used to monitor and analyze the performance of the server by generating various reports for CPU utilization, Memory Usage etc. 
•	Recorded performance measurements before running the test in the Controller for UNIX, Oracle, Web sphere servers in Load Runner controller and monitored online transaction Response times, Web hits, TCP/IP Connections, Throughput, CPU, Memory, Heap sizes, Various Http requests etc. Identified bottlenecks rectified the same by changing configurations, adding Indexes etc.

Environment: Windows NT/2000, VB.Net, SQL Server 6.0, PL/SQL, MVS, Java/Swing, AS/400, QTP, Win Runner, Test Director, PVCS Tracker, LoadRunner, RUP, Rational Requisite Pro, UNIX


I worked for Allstate claims as a claim service specialist for 6 years. My first year there was great. They were all about keeping their employee happy. They had an awesome incentive program! You would get vouchers to use for tardiness, switch your shift for a week, gift cards, extended lunch. It was awesome and it made us feel valued and appreciated. And it showed. Everyone was in a great mood and worked hard because we felt appreciated.  After my first year They got rid of the  incentive program. The company went through soon many changes the last 5 years. It seems like there was something new every week. No incentive pay for bilingual employees.  Its a call center environment. So bilingual employees for the MOST part got more calls and worked more than English speaking employees. Which in turn gave us less outbound work because we stayed inbound all day. There was no training for bilingual employees. So the employees such as my self who had more tenure voted to have Spanish speaking huddle (meetings) to discuss our barriers with our Spanish speaking customer. We as employees came up with job aides to help our peers and new hires. You have a huddle every morning to discuss barriers from the day prior and give updates or discuss changes. It was great for team bounding and you were encourage to discuss how you felt. WHAT I LOVED about claims. They encourage transpancy. They admit when they are wrong,  they encourage employees to discuss issues during these meeting. the employees have a voice. Another thing There's favoritism like any other job. Managers gossip like crazy. The worst for me and everyone else was the micro management. Its a lot to handle. The job is already stressful as is but the micro management made it much worst. Its alot!! Co workers who got promoted to become adjuster would always say they loved being adjuster. And even though there work load was ALOT more. They could handle it better because they weren't micro managed like the express team. The training was good but in reality it only taught you basics everything else you learn on the floor. But you work in a team environment and everyone is helpful. Someone will always have an answer. And if you make a mistake it could always be fixed! On the brighter side. We always had free food. Alot of pot lucks and employee appreciation month. You will gain the allstate 15. 15 pounds because all they do is feed you. Our regional boss was the best!! I will never have a boss like him. He had an open door policy. Everyday he made his rounds through the office greeting and shaking hands EVERYONES HANDS. He knew everyone's name. He would step in to help when all managers were busy. Oh and the attendance policy was like no other. If you got fired because of your attendance its your fault. There attendance policy is VERY lenient! The pto was my favorite. My first year i had 17 pto days. EVERY year when you renew your benefits they give an option to purchase an extra 5 days of pto. So I had 22 days of pto!! Once I hit my 5 years I went up to 32 days with my extra 5 days. So if it was a busy day and you didn't want to be there and if there was enough time offered for pto that day. You would be allowed to enter your pto for that day to leave early. The health insurance coverage is not good. My first 3 years it was great! But they changed it and everyone deductible went through the roof. All the other benefits are good. I loved working there because of my coworkers and PTO. The schedule for express sucked. You have one day during the week off and sunday off. Once a month they would switch it so every team could have a full two day weekend instead of one. Over all it was a good company. I would have stayed with the company for the long term. But unfortunately they relocated all there claims offices from California to Arizona. 

The benefits that Allstate offers have extremely high annual premiums with extremely high deductibles. One would think that a leader in the insurance industry which Allstate claims to be would have done a better job in the current health benefits negotiations. This has prompted several complaints from its employees. High deductions should have lower premiums, no Allstate has high premiums and high deductibles for health benefits for its employees which makes no sense from an insurance standpoint.

 

Being someone that has 10 years of insurance experience, coming to Allstate is like the Jetsons meeting the Flintstones. It's like coming from Spacely Sprockets to work for Slate Rock & Co. I expected for Allstate to be on the same level or somewhere in the vicinity with technology and innovation but somehow Allstate is lagging. This is exceptionally true for the Chandler AZ location. Management barely has a solid foundation in regulatory insurance knowledge outside of Allstate processes. I am still in awe that a brand name insurance company would have to outsource licensing education to a low level independent LLC in TX to prepare its employees in AZ for the licensing exam but after my first week of training and being taught by trainers who use slang terminology, having difficultly teaching from PowerPoint presentations and RightAnswers which ironically has wrong information within the database. My understanding was clear, this is deplorable for an organization of Allstate's magnitude and prowess.

 

The customer is in "Good Hands”, well it's clear that those hands are in the customer's pocket. Along with the high premiums according to industry standards Allstate is also one of the few insurance companies that charges it customers late fees. Poorly trained management/trainers which produces poorly trained representatives and agents who are robotic and incapable of critical thinking. Allstate is like the car that is beautiful on the outside but has an engine that may breakdown at any moment. Which explains its continued descent as a top choice for insurance by consumers. The company processes are antiquated and slow which leaves its customers dissatisfied, miseducated and devalued. When a customer calls to cancel their policy, I'm obliged to cancel it because they deserve better.

Allstate needs to be reeducated or really educate itself on what customer focused means. Service representatives who are required to cross sell as part of their performance requirements and Allstate doesn't even compensate them until they reach 7 sales. Now those "Good Hand" are in the employees’ pocket. That is potentially 72 items/policies annually that representatives are not being compensated for.

 

Allstate caters more to the influence of its agents and stockholders which will ultimately be its downfall. If the employee and the customer is truly in "Good Hands", show it in your deeds with new and innovative processes and benefits that exemplify this very expression. Compensate your employees for every sale if it is a requirement. Otherwise, in "Good Hands" is merely a slogan that rolls off the tongue with no actual intent. I've had the opportunity to work for several insurance companies in my career big and small. Allstate with all its resources is undoubtedly the worst, not disgruntled just disappointed and can't wait to resign which will be soon. Every time I tell a customer they are in "Good Hands", I feel like I'm lying.

I worked at the Cheyenne Express Claims Center in WY, but I've talked with people in other Express centers and it's the same nationwide.

Do not take this job if you don't respond well to pressure - you'll be under constant scrutiny. They measure performance quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily, and (I'm not kidding) hourly.

Your advancement and salary/benefits will be contingent upon your performance on a daily basis.

The company philosophy is an exercise in doublethink - they stress customer centric, and everything you do as a customer service rep will be bent toward that end, every minute of every shift.

But ultimately their satisfaction is entirely out of your hands because most of the customer service is not claims related, their prices are too high, and they don't actually pay claims fairly according to the policies purchased.

There's a reason the CSRs have to try so desperately to please the customers - because the company itself won't. Their premiums are outrageously high compared to industry standard, and most of their customer service is non-existent because it's outsourced in India.

The only customer service aspect handled in the U.S. is claims handling, which is done almost entirely through Express centers. What they are are factories for moving employees in and out, for the purpose of not actually having trained claims adjusters. Years back they fired the majority of their licensed, trained claims adjusters, and found a way to skirt the law to do the work with unlicensed "claims processing specialists" - essentially CSRs using an automated claims adjustment system.

They're just as happy to lose an employee as they are to hire one, because the new employee starts at a wage way below the standard for the industry. You have to "earn" your way to a wage comparable to a claims adjuster in any other company through many years of very hard work with no mistakes.

Keep in mind you'll have a chance to interact with customers and try to assist them through very tough times, and for a while you'll feel like you're succeeding. But as you grasp Allstate's claims organization more thoroughly, you'll realize that it is all designed to result in the lowest possible payout and the least possible return for the customer on their premium investment.

There's very little you can do to avoid having the customer end up with a lowball offer for their car accident that leaves them high and dry.

And for property insurance (which you'll also handle) - forget it. Any possible excuse will be given to avoid paying property claims. They'll be lucky to even have an adjuster look at the damage. Average settlement is probably 1/2 or less of the actual cost of damages.

Only real upsides are that their benefits package (other than wages) is slightly better than industry standard and it's an office job so you're only going to be straining your mind not your back.

Also with all of the drama going on (other reviewers are not wrong when they tell you the micro-managing and competition between coworkers takes you back to high school) you can charitably say that "it's cheaper than a movie and there's free coffee."

DISCLOSURE: This is for an allstate agency, not corporate Allstate.
Where to begin....
First, the job post is very inaccurate. It states
"90 day training with the ability to advance into a commissionable sales position".
What a JOKE!  If you're expecting comprehensive training (from their policy info, to navigating the system, etc) in a classroom-type environment you are in for a surprise.  You are allowed 2 hours at the beginning of your shift to study for the Personal Lines and Code of Ethics tests that you will have to take if you don't already have your license.  The rest of the day, you are listening to other associates speak to customers, but there is no setup where you hear the ACTUAL conversation.  Kinda pointless.
Even when if you could hear the conversation, you have to get in real close to see the screen that the associate is using, which, during a pandemic....not a good idea.  EVEN if you see their screen, it's really difficult for the associate to guide you in navigating all of their systems. (The associates I worked with were great, no complaint about them whatsoever).  
Then there's the compensation.  They paint a beautiful picture of "uncapped monthly bonuses and quarterly incentives," but the truth is, even if you reach what is considered close to top tier, it comes down to a pretty bad hourly wage (The minimum compensation they show you assumes you are a TOP seller, which if you can do it, awesome)..  But again, when averaged out, incentive + hourly base pay if terrible.  There are so many other companies that will start you at a MUCH better base pay AND incentive/bonuses on top of that.  

Finally, the expectation of reliability.  I was let go (after 4 days and 3 hours), because I was shown to be "unreliable".  
Here's why:
On my first day, I had a severe migraine headache the second half of the day (to the point where I nearly had to vomit) and asked to leave 1 hour early (medical reason).  Again, there was no "training" going on besides listening to some calls.
2nd, had informed them that due to a last minute emergency (medical, involving my parents) I would be half hour late to work.  Again, NO major impact because I was not "training" yet (also, no access to any of their systems).
3rd.  I had informed that the following week, I would have to take part of the day off for a pre-set appointment to get my second COVID vaccine.  Only part of the day.  I didn't ask to be compensated for gas, miles or anything.  Just to step out, drive 19 miles (each way) to get an important vaccine, and then head back to work.  The expectation that I would NOT be paid/compensated for the time away from the office.

Because of these 3 incidents, I was told I was too "unreliable" and that I was missing "critical training".  

This company does NOT care for their employees.  For their success or personal health. Period.  Maybe it's different through corporate, but seriously, stay away from these small, independently owned agency's.  You're honestly better compensated by working at a fast-food restaurant. 


An average day at the Allstate call center is like any other call center, you take calls and that is about it. If you are a supervisor at the call center, then it is a great place to work because it involves being on the phones very seldom, you get to talk to other supervisors all day, walk around the center aimlessly, and if someone has a question you just tell them to check Rio and disappear.  The management there seems to be great until you need help.

One of the things I learned is how valuable education is so that you can escape the high school drama, micromanagement, and spineless management of the call center.  

The hardest part of the job was knowing that to the company you were merely one of a few hundred head of cattle and that is basically how you can expect to be treated.  Another unpleasant part of working there was how often you were given generic and vague answers to specific questions (i.e. schedule changes, pay changes, policy changes. The usual answer was ‘things can change’) because the center lacks transparency to most employees due to corporate bureaucracy.  Also frustrating was consistently being told how important it is to be there on the weekends, yet when you arrive at the center you will notice  about only half the people there during the week are working on the weekend (some of this is due to training classes, but the optics of it are not good). You will also likely have your schedule set up so that you have split days off, one being Sunday, and as a result will not receive any differential pay for the weekend (weekend differential is 30-35% of additional pay for those two days), thus making it more frustrating to work during the weekend. You will also have a very difficult time using vacation days due to very limited availability.

The most enjoyable part of the job was logging off the phone every day to leave. By far, the happiest people there were the people not taking phone calls.  Do not expect to be happy for long if you do not land a non-phone job. Some of the co-workers were awesome, but most have not matured since they turned 13.

There are some opportunities to advance in the company, but most are merely to other phone jobs such as sales, licensed service, or extra hands. I would say to not expect you will be off the phones in under a year or even two years. Most of the original hires from when the center opened have the good jobs at the call center. If you decide to move up to another position from unlicensed service do not stress about the licensing exam, it is basically a literacy test and easy to pass on the first attempt.

Overall, the pay is decent, but if you currently are in a job that pays $10 an hour or more and your hours are during the week, I would strongly recommend staying with your current employer. However, if you are making below that and need some funds, it’s a decent place to work while you are looking for opportunities elsewhere

I've been in this location since 2018. I transferred from California, (my former office closed in September of 2019, and the last office is slated for closure in July of this year). Apparently, the company is removing most of their footprint in California, with an increased presence in Arizona and Texas. Also, this company outsources a lot of their work (total loss, being one of them)

The work is fast paced. What makes things so time consuming is the number of processes and tasks that have been implemented into the work flow. I understand the importance of some as they are to satisfy the codes of the California Department of Insurance, or state law. 
However, some of the tasks are seemingly implemented by some process expert or metrics analyst. Clearly, the architects of these processes have never worked a claim or been involved with assisting customers. If they did, our processes wouldn't be so bloated. 

Case in point, our total loss process was outsourced overseas, which we have been instructed to not transfer calls to this group and to handle from our end. Or as we're told "own the call". I'm not a total loss adjuster, nor am I trained in the nuances of handling a total loss, explaining valuations, etc. So, then where is the training for us to better assist? 

Added to the processes, we have an overabundance of work groups, which lends an air of bureaucracy to the claim handling process. It makes things more frustrating for customers and employees alike, when we have to transfer them to another group for further assistance. 

Training, it depends on your leader. There are situations where changes haven't been communicated with consistency by the leadership. Again, this negatively impacts our customer service. 

One of the things that Allstate is doing, as of late, they are constantly shifting leaders around, so it is hard to have a rapport with your manager. Also, some of the managers aren't at all seasoned which concerns me, as they aren't experienced with some of the more intricate segments (major represented or litigated claim handling). 
My interactions with my colleagues and leaders is positive. The people that I work with, have been great in terms of support and working with day to day. 
Aside from the processes and workgroups, I feel there is an immense amount of pressure to donate during the "Bring Out the Good Month". The emails are relentless as are the meetings, and then the headhunters will go from desk to desk "encouraging" participation. I already make donations to my Church and charities of my own choosing. Yet, when I bring that to the powers that be's attention, I'm told that it looks good for the whole unit when there is 100% participation. 

Finally, I'm a bit unnerved by the behavior of some of the managers here. There were three well known incidents dealing with obvious harassment and neither of them were held accountable.

I was unable to meet expected goals and even though I tried to explain multiple times that due to not being given enough numbers to call or leads I was unable to meet said goals. Therefore the fault was not entirely mine.
 I was also given tasks that were expected to be complete under a certain timeframe, and though I understand this, I was still given work that seemed impossible for me to complete all in one day. 
Other older employees in the office were also not entirely making goals but because I was new I was made a scapegoat for the cumulative failings of everyone else in the office. It is my belief that the goals expected were unreachable for everyone in the area we were living in and it became stressful once I felt my job was on the line because of this.
 It seemed as well that they had a short time limit for me to "learn the job" and once that time was up my hours were also up. It was an unwinnable situation for me.
All in all, I feel as if they could have helped me more as I spent a lot of my precious time and money to be certified for this position only to be let down almost immediately. If I had realized it would be like this I would not have turned down other jobs I was being offered at the time. The decision to go with Allstate put me in a bad position, one which I hope not to make again going forward.

Pros:
If you are a sales type person, (who loves to push people into spending their money under the guise that they have better customer service, that's why they're more expensive than other companies)… 
Then you may thrive as an insurance agent as they say the sales bonuses can be pretty good, although i sold three policies i didn't see any bonuses and in fact they advertised my start up bonus as $1500 although i probably saw only $800 of it due to taxes. not something any of us can help, but its cute how they say you'll get a certain amount of money back after spending out of pocket to get certified but really its much less.

Cons:
Unless you smash it you wont get that much money in bonuses,
They say they'll train you but in reality they want someone experienced or someone with the learning capacity of a 10 year old Japanese prodigy,
Like any office, they're super nice to your face but talk smack behind your back,
If you go for this job I hope you feel like you can do it because otherwise get some backups, they will cut you loose fast.

My review and comments are based solely on my personal experience at one particular agency in one city.
Allstate has many different agencies owned by different people and others may operate differently.

I have been working here for 4 years. It started off great with amazing benefits, fair wages, and a wonderful support system with endless advancement opportunities. This company has quickly become the opposite. Most jobs and departments are going to India, the company isn't making money, the managers don't care (they're in the same boat) and the pay is decreasing. The only jobs left are call centers where they don't train and expect you to answer complex questions with an angry customer on the other side, simple task orientated work with unrealistic expectations, law positions, or adjusters. Which means if you fall into the entry level side, you're only choice for advancement is being an adjuster. I was working in a department with a band (pay level) that was too low for it's responsibilities. It was a newer role created and they weren't aware of all the duties the department would take over and  because I was very good at it, I received the best raises possible. That position went to India. I created a curriculum from scratch, revised/updated all processes into a more user friendly way, and fully trained them several weeks early. This prevented me from finding my own position but I was "fortunate" that they moved into another department. I had no idea what it was/where I was going until a few hours before the end of my final shift of the previous position. It was a job with a higher band and I was informed it should come with a raise. Unfortunately, because I was getting paid in the medium-high range of the previous band, they raised my band WITHOUT a pay increase and WITHOUT informing me. When I found out on my own, I was told that it was due to already being paid the minimum amount of the new band. Literally all my hard work and efforts were washed in a matter of a few key strokes. Everyone else got a raise - we talked, that's not illegal, don't let anyone fool you. Apparently, Allstate will not provide raises to well performing employees. It's such a shame that this once well respected company has turned sour in a short amount of time. I was so excited and proud when I first started. They had competitive wages, and their benefits and PTO were above average. It saddens me to see my fellow coworkers retire early because they can't continue to work for this company but they don't have it in them to work somewhere else. I certainly thought I was going retire from here. My fellow coworkers and I all agree that this place was once amazing is starting to burn. I wish it were different.

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