Not what it used to be - Anonymous employee COUNTRY Financial Employee Review

1.0
26 May 2015
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The only positive now is the regular paycheck and the half way decent benefits. Also there are some very good people that work there, but you will find that in any company.

Cons

I regret very much to say that this is a company that has forgot the importance of it's people. Ten years ago, as an employee I was told that the employees are more important than the policy holders. The company believed that if they took good care of their people, the people would take care of the policy holders. The former CEO, John Blackburn, told a small group meeting that I was in that he was most proud of the fact that he never layed off anyone. That changed dramatically when the new CEO came in. He layed off 1/3 of the staff at the Arden Hills facility not long after took over. The lay offs have continued, especially with the hiring of the new CIO from Target, Therace Risch. The implementation of the new IT systems is not going well, in spite of the glowing status reports from the management that is either not in touch with reality at best or dishonest at worst. Country has now layed off all the expertise for their core mainframe systems that they need to continue their business until the new systems can be in place. They have replaced these people with off shore contracted help at much lower pay rates. This is just poor management! There will be a price to pay in lost business because of the inability to maintain the core IT systems until they can be replaced with the new systems.

Explore other reviews about COUNTRY Financial

5.0
22 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Best I experience with a company that I ever had

Cons

I have nothing bad to say about the company

2.0
22 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The people are the strength for COUNTRY Financial. The comradery and collaboration are excellent

Cons

IT management maturity and executive leadership are severely lacking. The current CIO has limited to no experience in IT Operations practices nor methodologies. The decision making appears to be strictly in how to please the CIO without regard to industry norms or best practices.

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