What is the salary like at Lifeplus?

Pros

The employee benefits, HR, covid restrictions in place in the office, the salary is quite good

Cons

Lifeplus claims to be a unique company to work for. During the first number of years working there, I really felt this was true. The emphasis was on the people, family, mental health. There used to be plenty of opportunity for progession within the company. However, the last several months there were a few changes within Senior Management who have now taken the stance that everyone is replacable, the general feeling now is that employées are just numbers and that the company no longer cares about the individual. Recently there has been several absences due to stress and gifted members of staff are leaving. This is a clear sign that the changes made by Senior Management is not working... but no improvements are being made. Internal opportunities to progress within in the company are now also becoming rare. Team Leaders are being told to work smarter, and be available to support their teams, but due to so many absences and so much pressure, this is impossible. TL's are encouraged to find faults with their team members, even if they are doing well.

Advice to Management

Remember the Lifeplus values are supposed to apply to everyone, including management. Remember that your employees are human, they have feelings, they have families, they have commitments, they should always be fairly treated and be made to feel valued and not pushed out like i did. Also, remember that decisions you make regarding an employee will have knock on effect on their families and their mental health. Dont go coorporate! There is reason why you have been losing so many good members of staff!

Pros

Nice colleagues Good salary No pressure

Cons

HR Internal management Team leadership

Pros

Everyone is really friendly and open to help with anything at any time. Being a student who has never worked in this environment before, there are lots opportunities to get involved with different things. I felt very comfortable with everyone and there is always encouragement to ask questions. Benefits are really good, free products every month. Considering I had no previous experience in this field, the pay is very good. Even though there is more remote working than office working, I am always very busy and engaged and feel included in everything so this hasn't been an issue.

Cons

I haven't experienced any cons, the only one I would say is that I wish I could go into the office more, but I do live further away and my manager is very conscious about me driving this distance most days. (But this shows she cares for my wellbeing so I feel very well looked after from this)

Pros

The pay was alright, however the new salaries being offered are about 2k lower than when I started. The peer group and the CCAs are great. HR is also great with a very caring attitude and focus on people and their wellbeing. You get three free products a month as an employee which is nice. The handling of COVID was good and work continued from home.

Cons

Fear, fear, fear. That's the way people are being managed. You are constantly wondering if you are going to lose your job, the inept management of some of the senior customer care management is laughable. When your team is performing well, you are instructed to find problems in your team. This is not right. Technical difficulties are a constant, but a few months down the line the CCA can be blamed for it and entered into a disciplinary. The paybands for the roles have all been lowered, which was not communicated and when questioning it you get lied to. Good people get overlooked as they might be a threat to the control the senior management team are trying to grab. It was such a great place to work, but the last year has been atrocious.

Advice to Management

Stop assuming the bad in people. Understand that you are working with people, not disposable tissues. Learn to get your satisfaction in another way instead of power games as it creates a breeding ground for toxicity. Take some management courses on how to inspire people, you'll see how much more effective and pleasurable it is compared to leading by fear. This type of leadership will only get you through the short term.

Pros

Free products for staff every month

Cons

Long hours, low pay, poor management

Advice to Management

Try to listen

Pros

The CSAs working here are some of the kindest, funny and most wonderful people I have had the pleasure to know and work with. They are more than happy to help out in their teams and also across teams daily and are a diverse and intelligent set of people. For new people coming in, we were always open and honest and willing to do as much as we could to help out as the onboarding can be a bit of a mind-melter. Working from home is a plus with only minimal required days needed in the office monthly, at my time of leaving it was 1 day a month but I would not be surprised if that was slowly eroded and people were forced back into the office more often for more mico-management at the behest of the higher-ups. The pay is more than the standard for contact centres but not by a large amount and starting salary has decreased since I joined there as well, so always fight for more especially if you're applying with a 2nd language.

Cons

Any clear communication from anyone above your manager is a running joke for as long as I have been at the company and will probably be the legacy they leave behind once they crumble and close. Over the years I have been here as well it is obvious that many rules and expectations for the staff and resources available are put on from the US owner's side of the company and the US working culture is slowly creeping in from the top down. IT has been limited before in trying to help implement best practice changes and upgrades with internal systems being seriously old and outdated with new systems being promised for the last 3-4 years of my career there so it should be near ready by 2025-26. Over Covid and forced working from home have helped them improve and set up new systems that will hopefully continue to allow for better conditions for all CSAs but it is not a given. If you're looking to progress your career internally look elsewhere, there are very few options to progress unless you work for years as a CSA then backfill a senior position once one leaves, then if you can stay overworked and underpaid until a team leader leaves you may have a small chance to get into that position but they would rather bring in more external people who they know won't fight as much for better conditions for the CSAs. Otherwise, there are a few cases of secondments but that's so they can save pay and not give you the rate they would to fill the position usually. If you also go above and beyond you'll most likely get a pat on the back, a thumbs up and then asked why you weren't doing this much to begin with and now you need to keep it up! The customers you will work with are a very mixed bag with some being sweet and kind and other 'associates/partners' being incredibly rude, bullying, entitled and manipulative. They prey on new staff and others who are nervous to bend the rules and policies for them and if not they will simply escalate it to the Key Accounts team who are there to break the rules as an 'exception' for them to undermine any staff who held their ground on a rule or policy before. Don't be fooled into drinking the MLM cool aid either. Before applying make sure you fully understand how close it is to pyramid schemes.

Advice to Management

Hire more people, pay everyone what they are worth, ensure their pay rise is a substantial rise in pay, actively listen to complaints, and work with staff directly to help make things better with open communication. I don't think they realise trying to hire multi-lingual people in the UK post-Brexit you need to make the job paid enough to put up with all the BS from the company and the customers we have to talk with daily. Direct team leaders are pretty nice, down to earth and will fight for your complaints and try to make things better but they are usually pushed/bullied out of the company after a couple of years and I honestly cannot blame them for leaving I would do the same in their shoes, and if that doesn't give you enough warnings then I don't know what will. Only flimsy and dismissive answers are given in excuses when groups and large sections of staff complain about new arbitrary rules and policies designed against staff just to squeeze out an extra 1% of ill-measured productivity costing worker happiness. Additionally, your terrible planning should not be at our expense if you can only let a tiny portion of people be on holiday at any given point. And be warned many longer serving staff are feeling trapped and are looking for any reason or opportunity to jump ship, it is the best idea for them as newer higher management cause more and more issues in a 'look at me and what I can do to transform this company' showboating contest at the expense of the actual workers and never to help them, feel appreciated or pay them more. Over the several years here I took an effective pay cut and missed out on extra bonuses for arbitrary rule placement that left me disconnected from others in the company.

Pros

Good pay to start and incentives to start with.

Cons

- No respect for the employees. - The business concept is very similar to a pyramidal scheme. - No respect for Bank holidays despite them being in the contract. - If mistakes are made, employees need to lie to customers and there are plenty of things that cannot be said to customers about how the company actually works. - The customer treats it more like a cult and the company encourages it and allows them to shout at you and bully you. - It plays with people's health and new customers are often bullied into buying. Career opportunities are not based on your skills and there is no real progression.

Pros

Very kind and helpful Good salary Working from home Benefits

Cons

Allot of information in your induction

Pros

Free products if you want them; Most colleagues are friendly and helpful; Good pay (NB salaries capped for all customer care admin roles, not sure about others - no further pay rises beyond the caps that haven't changed for at least 3-4 years, although you still get the end-of-year bonus).

Cons

Outdated systems - upper management have taken c. 9-10 years and counting to fix this (start 2014/5, target date 2018, then 2019, 2020, 2021... still ongoing as of September 2023); website and other system parts recently redone in a way that puts more pressure on an *ancient* (>20 years old) system that was already on its knees to begin with (new system improvements do come, but it's always two steps forward and one back AT BEST); some managers believe they have a right to insist upon an unrealistic level of productivity, social skills, etc. (above what the company expects) and then bully colleagues who don't hit the excessive target - i.e. being harrassed to hit the maximum pay rise each year (until hitting the cap - see above) = a gap between my actual earnings and theoretical maximum of c. £2-3k over 5 years - not an emergency (see pro #3), but not good for morale or feeling valued; lots of very manual and/or otherwise complicated processes - lots of scope to make mistakes and get into trouble (especially if an error has implications relating to the company's overly-strict interpretation of GDPR); the learning curve for new starters is steep and only getting steeper (see system and process points above); initiatives about wellbeing etc are trumpeted for customers and (theoretically) colleagues, but in practice they often don't seem to apply to colleagues.

Advice to Management

Focus on internal system improvement first and foremost - new ideas for changing the business can follow later; the Japanese price list shows there's an option menu for orders, general queries etc when calling - as someone else pointed out on here, it might be an idea to do this for the European offices, with new starters eased in on the easier options and then given more options to handle later on; if a colleague says they're upset about working conditions or how management treat them, take it on board - don't ignore and/or gaslight them.

Pros

-lovely introduction and start of the job -friendly people -comforting and accommodating -overtime pay -help financially with buying a desk and chair -support from other colleagues -office is wonderful -management and HR do try to make you feel welcome and support you during the beginning journey

Cons

-can be overwhelming -not much time for training sessions -pay could be better if you compare it to how much Assc. make a month. -felt lost sometimes as it is a lot to learn

Advice to Management

Reduce workload at the beginning and slowly increase. F.e. Give customers choice of numbers to press “number 1: orders , number 2: returns and so on.” Then have new starters on orders first for the first month to start with Next month add returns And so on. It’ll be better, so we are able to adjust to our workplace and won’t get overloaded with new information and new things so early on. Review pay and adjust to current climate Don’t be so harsh sometimes, people are trying otherwise it’s wonderful and I love working there. Everyone has been so supportive and I couldn’t have ask for a nicer opportunity. Sometimes it’s hard, but I feel like the reward of lifeplus is worth it and the longer you’re there the easier it gets.