Ambitious Co-Founders who have lost vision of the conditions within the grass-roots of the company. - Customer Success Associate Onfido Employee Review

Onfido sells itself as a dynamic and exciting start-up for those interested in exploring the possibility of working for the company. To say that Onfido is an 'exciting' start-up would be an great overstatement. To be specific, this is mainly aimed at the Operations/Customer Success department, where a large number of graduates work. The job role has been greatly misold to many perspective and current employees, promising great career development. However, many are instead left mindlessly entering data into a computer on a daily basis. It doesn't take a university graduate to become a 'specialist' in doing identity checks, and processing hundreds of documents a day. This job is probably more appropriate for those who have obtained A-levels as their highest qualifications. Many who join soon feel underwhelmed and disappointed, and sadly end up utilising Onfido as a platform to secure a more lucrative career elsewhere. It is therefore no surprise that the turnover rate is increasing within the company. The fact of the matter is, Onfido is losing a lot of its gifted talents to more organised and competitve firms offering better career development and training. After all, why would John Smith who has a masters degree in economics from UCL or LSE stay in a role where his primary task is data entry all day long! In terms of the salary, the standard is extremely low for London (£20,000), yet some others within the company such as some engineers are overpaid almost two times that salary only to socialise and play pool all day. One of the incentives that Onfido does offer is a share package. Even then, this means very little to the average university graduate, who would more than likely explore his/her career options, let alone stay in the same company for four years in order to fully access of his/her shares. Although the above has been raised to the attention to HR and the co-founders countless of times, the company remains inflexible in making Operations/Customer Success associates feel valued. It is true that a degree a flatline hierachy exists within the company, where you are welcome to voice your opinions and thoughts. However, this means little when you aren't renumerated for the hard work you put in. Instead you are awarded a 'shout-out' in the weekly company meetings. The values (based on four animals and their qualities) are often drilled into employees, with the expectation that your work is carried out with said animals in mind. This does not contribute to the 'funness' of the job. On the contrary, many just end up feeling patronised, having not able to just get on with work maturely. Any person with minimal work experience and a sense social awareness does not need to be told that they have to be a 'penguin' in order to be a team player, or a 'chimp' to learn from others. These are qualities that are naturally taught to us through education and work experience. To add, the structure of your trimonthly performance reviews are based on these values. Therefore if you are an intelligent and hardworking individual who does not fit into the above, look forward to a negative performance review. Finally, as much as the company vehemently denies it, there is most definitely an air of nepotism that exists within the firm. If you have certain ties with senior management (be it a family member or close friend), expect to bypass interviewing processes, and expect a much better salary. This has of course infuriated many new joiners who have worked hard and tirelessly to prove themselves, only to then be undercutted by a friend of one of the co-founders. As the Customer Success team, we are ' the very heart of the company', yet we are also at the very heart of being mismanaged and underpaid.