Working at Grange Insurance Companies — Reviews by Employees

Well I think here as of late Grange has taken a wrong turn. The problem is no one really knows and no one is being honest as to who made that wrong turn. Bob James is the new CEO and is seeing that Grange is bloated and needs to be trimmed in order to make the company viable going forward. I see this as do so many other co-workers.
Then there is Phil Urban that led the company for almost 11 years. Is he the one that made the wrong turn ?
Phil expanded Grange and made it a Billion Dollar company. Under his tenure Grange was a stable for its employees and agents. He created a feeling of family. A sense of unity and purpose filled every Grange Employee.
There were issues with Phil's leadership. The fact that there was a gap in the way things were controlled. Purchasing, communication (Between the divisions), and in some ways direction leadership.
These issues I beleive is where the focus for Phil's leadership faultered.
Bob James seems to have zero'd in on this fault and seems to be using it to drive the changes to expense ratio numbers that seemed well within limits under Phil's tenure.
So in essence it looks as though Phil was looking through "Black" Tinted Glasses and Bob James looks through "Red" Tinted Glases.
Who is right ?

Things were going great at Grange until recently. We lost the top CEO in the business with Phil. Hopefully our new CEO will continue to carry the torch and make sure we don't end up like Nationwide or Progressive. We also recently inherited a new AVP of Claims. Hopefully his cancer will either cause him to retire or grow a heart. He suffers from a Napoleon Complex. He makes life miserable for anyone that reminds him of someone who made fun of him in high school or who wouldn't go out with him. GLT, take notice of the people who are not making changes for the better, please!

I love working for Grange. I came from Progressive and thought all Insurance Companies treated their employees like slaves. Grange respects and appreciates their employees.

Grange is a small regional carrier that has historically sold insurance products to rural and small town people in the Central Ohio area. It has recently branched out into other states and other groups of people with limited success. Pay and benefits are average for a carrier of this size and are on the decline.You will find almost no diversity here, most employees are white with just a few asian,black and hispanic faces. This is especially true in upper management. Many of the employees here have been around for many years and rely on the old boy network to hang onto jobs irregardless of competency. Given the soft insurance market regionally it is not clear that Grange has the resources or the talent pool to compete successfully with peer insurance competitors. Due to market conditions the company recently announced scaled back pay raises and other benefits for the rank and file. As with many other companies this does not apply to the CEO, Phil Urban, the Board of Directors or senior management. Work environment continues to deteriorate as Grange attempts to mold operations on Nationwide and Progressive insurance models of micro management, ever changing and escalating performance goals and layer after layer of analysts.

Pay. About average for a regional size insurance company.
Respect. Doesn't exist at the Gahanna claims branch. You are just a set of performance numbers. If your numbers fall irregardless of the reason you will be performance managed out the door . Rob Hollier, the manager, has very poor people skills and alienates many people including most of the supervisors who have left for jobs in other areas of claims operations.
Benefits. Average for the industry.
Job Security. OK for now
Work / Life Balance. No complaints.
Career Growth. Good if you are recent college grad who accepts the party line without hesitation. It doesn' t hurt to brown nose too.
Location. No complaint.
Co Worker Competence, Pretty good, Quite a lot of old timers with a lot of experience.
Work Environment. A fear and intimidation atmosphere. Heavy workload, constantly changing performance guidelines, some of which are unreasonable. Layer upon layer of job performance analysts.

GREAT place to work. Conservative company which may have some limitations while in up markets, definitely has an upside in down markets like today. I have an opportunity to make a difference and have a say. Pay is competitive. Benefits are competitive. Co-workers are great. Location is good. Free parking is great. New facilities will be state of the art. The only downside is that it is such a good place to work that there are not always formal growth opportunities, witness salary and position, because few folks leave. However, contrary to what others might say, there are distinct personal growth opportunities if you take them.

The pay is very fair in comparison to others in a similar position in Central Ohio. I am treated with respect by my peers and management. Benefits are comparable, free downtown parking is always good but medical and time-off are just average. I feel that my job is secure despite the economy and work/life balance is excellent. I'm not sure that career growth is above average, it's probably a matter of waiting for the long-timers to retire. Many of my co-workers in IT have fallen way behind the times or were not that good to begin with. I have not seen many exceptional employees hired in recently.