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Simply Business

Acquired by Travelers

Engaged employer

Toxic work culture. Culture of fear. - Tech Team Simply Business Employee Review

1.0
3 Feb 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Leaving was the best thing I ever did. A few good people left who genuinely care, but they won’t last much longer at this rate.

Cons

Pay is shocking, especially if you work in the tech team. Get a promotion or payrise? Expect £5 and a mars bar. People Team are dismissive of burnout, mental health, stress and any kind of illness. They are there to protect the business, not to support or care for any employee. Most of them moved from a Learning and Development role, into a People Partner role - how that’s acceptable is beyond me. TA team removes bad reviews of the company from websites. Redundancies of core/talented people with no communication, treatment of people is appalling. No support from high level management on big technological transformational projects. Shared Services is a bullish and dictatorial place. Managers are set up to fail. Career framework has been promised in tech for years - nothing.

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Simply Business Response
1y
Thank you for sharing your detailed thoughts. We appreciate there is a lot to unpack and have taken the opportunity to address the main themes in our response below. More broadly, we would welcome a conversation on any of these topics and would encourage you to reach out to a member of our People team as we’re always looking for ways we can improve, and open, honest conversations are a great starting point for this. We’re sorry to see your thoughts on both development and reward at SB. Ensuring Simply Business is a place where everyone feels challenged, supported – and ultimately able to grow their career – has always been and continues to be a key priority, and we’re proud of our track record here. On the theme of health (either physical or mental), we take this extremely seriously and have always prioritised the wellbeing of our people in every respect. Our Mental Health First Aiders, our EAP program and our wellbeing events, materials and resources are designed to ensure SBers can feel their best at work. We’re sorry to hear your comments on ‘manufacturing’ a culture. Our culture has always, and will always, be the product of the brilliant moments where our people come together, and we see it as our role to foster and facilitate these interactions. We’re proud of the way we show up together, and recognise that the strength of our community is a unique positive – and one which we’re committed to continuing to invest in. While we are always looking for feedback on things we can do differently – and better – we’re pleased to know we’re in a good place. Our strong employee engagement scores reflect the many positives of our culture and beyond, whilst showing us the areas where we still have room to do more. Thanks again for taking the time to share your thoughts, and please do consider reaching out for a further conversation – we’d love to explore this in more depth via an open conversation.

Explore other reviews about Simply Business

5.0
29 Jun 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great people, stable company, office easily navigatable

Cons

Room for growth can be limited

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Simply Business Response
4d
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. It’s great to hear that you enjoy working with our team, value the company's stability, and appreciate having an office that's easy to navigate!
2.0
13 May 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Great work life balance and vacation time....

Cons

Many internal issues and felt like this last round of layoffs was to protect inadequate leaders vs hardworking employees. I understand companies do layoffs but this just felt like Senior management trying to protect themselves because they aren't doing an effective job. I really think there are some issues with the leadership team and it probably needs an overhaul. There was never any strategy from product outside of one small area. The rest of the business was left without any guidance or support. I really think the US/UK shared services model does not work. The UK and US just are entirely different markets and the UK at the end of the day doesn't really care about the US nor move as quickly.

3
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Simply Business Response
1mo
Thank you for sharing your feedback and perspective on your experience. We understand that organizational changes and layoffs can create frustration and uncertainty, and we appreciate you taking the time to share with us the areas where you feel we can improve. Transparency, communication, and supporting our teams continue to be important areas of focus for us.
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