Safeco Insurance Employer Profile
Talent Acquisition

Safeco Insurance is a Washington state corporation headquartered in Seattle.  Employing over 7000 people in several locations across the country, Safeco is a Fortune 500 company traded on the NYSE (SAF).  We have been in business since 1923 serving the insurance needs of drivers, home owners and small- and mid-sized businesses.  In addition, Safeco is a top-tier surety carrier.  Our business helps people protect what they value and deal with the unexpected.

As a customer-focused property and casualty (P&C) company, we are intent on offering a competitive mix of insurance products and fulfilling our promise of indemnity when a loss occurs.  In recent years, we’ve extended our market reach by expanding the number of price segments for our products and our geographic presence.  We sell our insurance products exclusively through a national network of independent agents and brokers who give consumers choice and advice.  We motivate our agents by giving them more to sell, making it easier for them to sell, and by helping them make more money selling our products.

Safeco took a major step in geographic and product diversification in 1997 with our acquisition of American States Financial Corporation.  The combination doubled our independent agency distribution force, increased our presence east of the Rockies, and, through our American States Business Insurance product line, the company became a leading writer of business insurance for small- to mid-sized businesses.  Safeco further increased its national presence in 1998, when we purchased the naming rights to the Seattle Mariner’s ballpark.

After a period of declining earnings starting in the late 1990’s, Safeco turned around its fortunes and rebounded from a loss of nearly $1 billion in 2001 to profits of more than $300 million in 2002.  The company has since continued to grow profitably and posted our best-ever net income result of $880 million in 2006.  During this period, Safeco made significant progress in becoming a low-cost carrier, deploying our capital to provide meaningful returns to shareholders for the long run, and building infrastructure and technical capability to a best-in-class standard.

Our vision is to be the indispensable choice for customers and agents through excellence in the solutions we provide, the ease of doing business with us, and the competitiveness of our products.  We aim to achieve industry-leading profitable growth, build a sustainable competitive advantage, and create long-term shareholder value.  Our strategy centers on developing long-term customers through customer-centric insurance solutions.  We focus on the personal and commercial insurance products purchased by the vast majority of U.S. consumers.  We continually work to refine our pricing models and accurately match rate to risk for each customer segment.

Safeco performs for our owners by growing our policies-in-force at a rate greater than the industry average, without sacrificing profitability.  We build continuous improvement as a mindset, improving our business processes to deliver higher quality services for our customers and agent partners at a lower cost.  We make the customer the prism through which we build differentiated products, and we satisfy a diverse public whose expectations of excellence continue to rise.  Safeco is continuing to build tools for the future by developing our agents and employees, and investing in technology and research.