underwriter

senior claims specialist

claims specialist

risk management consultant

underwriter trainee

Utica National Insurance Group

Unfortunately, Utica does not offer a work environment that is conducive to work/life balance.  The technology is very outdated (can only access one screen in the claims system) and several job functions are expected of the adjusters instead of having departments that divide the tasks evenly (i.e. subrogation, total loss, customer service/claims assistant for roll-over calls, etc). 

Management does not have the states evenly segmented for each region; therefore, one region handles more states than should be required, making an extreme workload in the Atlanta office.  The tasks that are required of the adjusters causes an extremely heavy workload and management's resolution is to blame the adjuster and threaten termination instead of creating the necessary protocol for the work to be distributed properly in order for the adjusters to do their jobs effectively.  

The company's policies and procedures do not allow for success of the employees.  An adjuster should be able to investigate the claim properly and Utica's procedures does not allow this to happen. In addition to being the adjuster, you are required to answer roll-over calls; there is no customer service team that can truly answer the caller's question (something as simple as when a payment was issued). There is a 4-day first contact requirement, which means the new assignments will snowball if the adjuster is not able to make contact with the claimant or insured. If there is a multi-vehicle loss, this can be very time-consuming; thus, causing the adjuster to handle new losses all day...the current and the previous days; and this can happen for days on end.  As a result, the adjuster cannot properly address the calendars/diaries, investigate the claim fully, return phone calls timely, etc. 

The salary is competitive, however, if the stress level is extreme, no amount of money will be viable compensation.  Overall, the company could be great if it had the proper protocol, technology and management in place; and upper management has made it very clear that technology is not a priority.   As a result, there is a VERY high turnover of experienced adjusters (staying less than a year) because Utica's protocol creates an extremely stressful environment, which ultimately affects their customer base.  If Utica does not make significant/immediate changes, it will lose its customer satisfaction, which will cause it to go out of business.

New rating system aims to remove workers management doesn’t like so they can instead hire their friends. Management lies all the time and then hold employees accountable on a bed of lies.

New performance rating scale 1-5 aimed to weed out whoever management decides they don’t like. Management said publicly to the team a 2 out of 5 rating is great. 2 rating is not great when lowest score is a 1. Competitor companies rate you between a 3 and 4 when doing great, they don’t rate you a 2.  I also have too many unachievable goals that don’t reflect what I do on a daily basis and I am forced to deliver on projects months ahead of deadline as management constantly change goal deadlines. 

Time tracking doesn’t account for all of my daily work. New workers allowed to time track differently and get away with minimal low quality work completed each day. 

Managers make up low production numbers to remove workers they don’t want, make them train their replacements who also have no work and then instead place them in dissolving jobs to get rid of them. Some workers are allowed to process certain work with no backup while others are not allowed to process the same work even when they ask if they can. Management takes away work from others when production is low and don’t even replace with new or more work. Company also keeps newly hired fully remote workers over seasoned hybrid workers that live local to company. 

The company’s upper level management is very disconnected to the amount of little work lower level managers do or make others do on their behalf and what little value they add to the company. Upper level management also doesn’t care that lower level managers treat workers unprofessional even after multiple complaints are made by many across several departments. Upper level management doesn’t keep lower level management in check at all. Upper management is unapproachable and will get you in trouble if you go to them seeking help. 

My area also strongly discourages taking the company’s free linkedin courses which doesn’t help with professional growth.

Horrible IT Management /Workplace/Small office 
Cons
Micromanaged with a VERY unrealistic goal mindset/Poor Leaders/Horrible Management
Management has no experience. People are promoted into leadership roles based on favoritism with no leadership quality. THE Manager IT director are very rude, annoying, and harassing. HR is not an independent body and people are very rude, they don’t listen to your side of the story always listen to the manger. The salary is not on par with what other companies offer and neither is the bonus structure... The systems are outdated. The PTO and federal holidays offer are not comparable to other companies either. The work-life balance is horrible. Expensive health Premium as an individual/family. They will give you a Lead title with no team members to lead and expectations are to do all work by yourself and the pay with these skills compare to market is very low almost $45000 a year lesser... within a year you will learn your lesson. Please do yourself a favor and think twice before accepting an offer.
Management does not help you develop skills, the company will not provide any training to upgrade skills unless you are in the inside circle. IT director and IT managers play favoritism role. Small startup companies are a million times better than Utica National Insurance. Imagine why it took 104 years to become a billion-dollar company when small startup companies become a multibillion-dollar within a short span of time so please do your research about the company, management before you make the decision.
Moreover, no growth within the company.




Advice to Higher Management
Invest in your people give them the tools they need to be effective and efficient in the 21st century. Train them. Empower them. Keep the open-door policy.

Micromanaged with a VERY unrealistic goal mindset/Poor Leaders/Horrible Management
Management has no experience. People are promoted into leadership roles on the basis of favoritism with no leadership experience. The Manager IT director are very rude, annoying, and harassing.
HR people are very rude, they don’t listen to your side of the story always listen to a manger.
 The salary is not on par with what other companies offer and neither is the bonus structure... The systems are outdated. The PTO and federal holidays offer are not comparable to other companies either. The work-life balance is horrible. Expensive health Premium as an individual/family.
They will give you a Lead title with no team members to lead and expectations are to do all work by yourself and the pay with these skills compare to market is very low almost $45000 a year lesser... within a year you will learn your lesson. Please do yourself a favor and do not work here. Management does not help you develop skills, the company will not provide any training to upgrade skills unless you are in the inside circle, IT director and IT managers play favoritism role.
Small startup companies are a million times better than Utica National Insurance.
Imagine why it took 104 years to become a billion-dollar company when a small startup company becomes a multibillion-dollar within a short span of time so please do your research about the company, management before you make the decision.

Moreover, no growth within the company.

Advice to Higher Management
Invest in your people give them the tools they need to be effective and efficient in the 21st century. Train them. Empower them.

I wouldn’t recommend this company unless you need something short term for income. The interview process was misleading regarding pay, benefits, and advancement opportunities. You won’t advance in the company based on experience and skill rather tenure which is an outdated mindset and business practice which explains why there are people in management who have no business being in those positions, including upper management. Inexperienced middle managers who would not be managers at other organizations and were only promoted because they stuck around long enough to get the position. DEI is non-existent. Total lack of appropriate resources to facilitate and support employees. Outdated training and systems. Lots of company lifers who lack any sort of perspective and are simply too comfortable in their roles. Drown you in work to the point where you’re so overwhelmed that you just leave before you become trapped. Managers bring in terrible hires and expect the more advanced people to pick up the slack while the incompetent employees engulf themselves in petty drama and take up space. Fast Track department is the worst of all.

In the nearly 8 years I have been with Utica National, the most consistent theme has been the steadiness of Senior Leadership to navigate the company through some challenging years and still coming out the other end profitable and outperforming much of the Industry. While Company performance is certainly important, there has also been a clear focus on the employees. Utica has done a great job investing in employees by addressing and offering Training/Learning Resources and overall Compensation and Benefits including adding many benefit offerings to address mental health and family services. While I do recognize not everything can be ideal, such as overall workload, technology/systems, the company also understands these opportunities and has been addressing them. Overall, you can never expect any employer to be perfect but Utica National is definitely a company that has proven over the last few years that the Leadership, Strategy and Direction works and I expect that to continue moving forward.

If you want a job that offers livable wages with a good work/life balance, do not apply. The company itself occasionally offers nice perks/rewards for excellent company performance but on an individual level, employees are underpaid, overworked, not appreciated, and stressed, especially in the finance departments. The company does front load PTO, which is nice for flexibility. However, that backfires if you use more than you actually earned and then leave the company (you will owe for any PTO taken but not earned). There are many management changes happening with multiple executives having left without notice. Everything is kept hush hush until they bombard employees with massive structural overhauls. Overall, working here destroyed my mental health and I do not recommend the company to anyone. 

Utica National was a good company to work for, it had it's ups, and downs just like any other job. The people were friendly, it had a laid back environment, which I enjoyed. The hardest part of the job was; there were only two of us working an entire department. Trying to keep the department running, and learning a new system at the same time was a bit tricky, but I made it through. A typical day at Utica was constant phone calls, Expense Reporting, paying invoices, making sure claims cash made it to the bank on time, passing out mail to the departments, filing, scanning, copying, daily reports, daily balancing. I learned application at Utica National. I have always been a hands on learner. I was finally able to apply what I had learned in college, and past life experiences. Since working at Utica National, I have gained more confidence in myself, and my abilities. I have picked up on more business terminology, and generally have a better understanding of Corporate life.

I went from on the road Senior Claim Specialist to in-house Senior
Claim Specialist with this job. All inspections of property and physical damage was accomplished by third party investigators for the company. I did the initial telephone recording for record with all parties. I determined the loss values and made settlements. With physical damage of persons, if they were represented by counsel I in turn hired out our counsel of choice to represent the company. When the cases reached agreement in terms I made settlements by total payouts or by annual annuity payments.
My co-workers were very nice and enjoyed their company. Management was very terse in their engagement with the workers.
The hardest part of the job was the continual visual looking at the
computer screen and the typing of many reports, but was able to take breaks to relieve the stress. The company insured personal property, auto, commercial lines and many school districts.

I was a claims specialist. I handled several different lines of business. My typical day would depend on which files were on diary and the amount of new claims received. Upon receipt of a new claim I would do a policy review to determine coverage, complete an investigation, all leading to various conclusions. Starting out over 11 years ago in the insurance industry I learned every aspect of claims handling.  My supervisor and manager were both intelligent, kind, and  excellent resources. I got along great with my co-workers we all still keep in touch.  I think the hardest part of my job was also the most enjoyable.  In the field of claims you are dealing with insureds and claimants that may have had a tramatic event take place in their lives; you feel bad for what they are going through.  The enjoyable part is that you are the one that is able to walk the customer through the process and assist them in anyway you can.

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