CRISP Reviews

In 2020 new senior leadership appointments were made within the threat team. Wholesale ( negative)changes to the Crisp Culture and team dynamics occurred which led to a significant attrition of highly experienced staff throughout 2021. This was concerning as previously to this, staff retention was not an issue, and morale was high.  During 2021 ( as mentioned above) the digital threat team lost a whole host of valuable and highly intelligent operatives. This included a well regarded former senior polIce officer ( child endangerment expert) and a raft of digital threat analysts ( polyglots) who specialised in niche areas such as terrorism, child endangerment etc.  During 2021, Crisp's Crisis Team lost a whole middle management detail due to the toxic culture and bullying from account managers, and disturbingly the head of assurance. This behaviour had a significant impact on these staff from a welfare and mental wellbeing perspective. HR were simply not robust enough in dealing with multiple complaints due to be senior Crisp members being involved.  Account managers / head of assurance closed ranks with the assistance of the chief experience officer, and continued to bully and mistreat members of the Crisis management team. Such was this behaviour, it led to to 2 x former British Army Intelligence officers to resign, followed by a hugely experienced security expert / former legionnaire, along with a former National Crime Agency senior Officer- a significant loss of experience and expertise literally all within a few months of each other due to inaction from HR / SLT.  Honesty and integrity- On many occasions the Crisp sales team & account managers would fabricate or overstate Crisp's capabilities. This was particularly evident in the area of human translation offerings, when in fact machine translation was used. AI capabilities are overstated/ embellished along with collection methodology. There are many other examples of Crisp "writing cheques that could not be cashed" when selling products to clients.  Wellbeing- Crisp actually excel in this area for current staff, however for staff which have moved on there is no aftercare.  Pay- there is a disparity between peer salaries, this has been partially addressed, but still exists.  Crisp has actively tried to not pay staff the market rate even when confronted about this issue. Crisp try and make staff work overtime and outside of their contracted days for no extra pay. Staff at Crisp ( digital threat) are subject to viewing the most egregious of material out there. Images and videos containing brutal deaths, injuries, CSAM, suicides, terrorism, extremists etc.. from a PTSD perspective, Crisp offer no aftercare service to former staff, and appear to discharge any duty of care once they leave. Crisp HR proactively ask staff to leave glowing reviews, or create fake reviews in respect of the company- this is an unacceptable practice, and it lowers the credibility of genuine reviews.  Crisp has sought to remove negative reviews as well, citing legalities or NDA breaches- this is also an unacceptable practice if the rationale is dishonest.

Terrible management within the human Intelligence team which has actually led to loss of revenue. A lot of this could be avoided by hiring more experienced senior managers who actually understand the nature of the work and have at least a semblance of respect for their staff. The head of the human Intelligence team has made it clear that they have very little regard for the team and has thus failed to even ensure secure working for remote staff. Crisp only considers those from particular ethnic and professional backgrounds for managerial positions; almost all line managers in HI are from the same ethnic and military or police background, and those who are from non-English backgrounds immensely struggle to obtain any professional development at Crisp, regardless of qualifications. Not only does this prevent various talented individuals from being able to contribute at a higher level, it also leaves management of critical work at the hands of under-qualified individuals whose relevant 'intelligence experience' is a couple of tours in Iraq (which is hardly useful for the nature of the work). As a result the company hosts a culture where management are so used to individuals simply following orders they are genuinely confused by the concept of questions and discussion, instead you are expected to simply do as told regardless of perhaps having useful suggestions or ideas. This environment will likely only continue as more and more diverse analysts leave and management push to hire more individuals more like themselves in the hope they will stay loyal and follow orders. It is not a place to actually work intelligently, develop skills or grow professionally. Almost no training is given, and self-taught skills get you through everything, which is good if you want something easy but not at all good for career development and a long term profession. Salary is not competitive, especially for expectations of weekend/Bank Holiday working.