State Farm CEO Discusses Workforce Issues

Oct. 26--BLOOMINGTON -- While addressing more than 600 people Tuesday night, State Farm CEO Michael Tipsord indicated Bloomington's workforce of about 15,000 employees will not be increasing.

"This presence will exist. This is by far our largest concentration and it's in a community that has limited resources," said Tipsord during the Bloomington-Normal Economic Development Council's Community Leaders Dinner at DoubleTree by Hilton in Bloomington.

"The decision that I made was we weren't going to increase our concentration (in Bloomington)," he said.

Instead, the company also will employ a workforce of about 10,000 in each of its fast-growing hubs in Atlanta, Ga., Phoenix and Dallas metro areas, he said.

While its 18,500 agents need to remain geographically dispersed so that they can be closest to the people that they serve, other jobs, given the technological advancements, do not.

"We looked at a multitude of factors in terms of different metropolitan areas and the characteristics that existed -- cost of living, stability, sources of labor, education of that labor force, access to mass transit," said Tipsord.

"The next layer that we looked at is where do we already have existing workforces. We had strong workforces already in Phoenix, Atlanta and Dallas.

"When we think about the benefits to the scale of this organization it all led to this conclusion that we should increase our presence in those three locations that I identified, taking advantage of where a majority of our workforce already is resident."

He addressed the question about the role Bloomington will play in the insurance giant's future during an on-stage interview with B-N EDC CEO Kyle Ham and later with the media after the dinner.

It was Tipsord's first local public speaking engagement since succeeding Ed Rust Jr. as CEO in September 2015. Tipsord was elected chairman of the board of State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. in June.

Rust referred to Bloomington as the company's "mother hub."

"I'm not exactly sure what 'mother hub' would apply to, so I look at the numbers," said Tipsord. "In terms of the largest aggregation of our workforce in any single location, it will continue to be Bloomington."

Tipsord said one of his biggest challenges is living up to the company's enormous growth during Rust's 30-year tenure and the impact his decisions could have on the company's employees.

Bloomington facilities include Corporate North and Corporate South campuses, company research and training facilities, a centralized shipping and services center, and the original State Farm headquarters building in the heart of downtown. The Illinois Operations Center is also located in Bloomington, near the Corporate South campus.

Follow Maria Nagle on Twitter: @pg_nagle

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