Holiday Extras Employee Reviews about "call centre"

Pros

the only pro of working here was leaving at the end of the day

Cons

When offered the job we were told you would only work one weekend a month, what they mean is you'll work every weekend except one, you never get two days off together (except on your one weekend off a month), it's a stressful environment to work if and only being allowed one day off at a time allows no relaxation or downtime. The management team in the insurance cc are snakes, the will be nice to you face and stab you in the back, whilst discussing you and your private business with other colleagues( non-management ones). The goal post is consistently moved and you are expected to answer calls for two other insurance companies ( good to go insurance and white horse) whilst getting no extra benefit for it( these do not count towards your monthly sales target). The insurance cc is highly regulated, and you have to jump through hoops whilst being paid a basic salary the same as members in the airport cc who have no legal statements to make and also have a much easier job. Insurance staff are treated like 3rd class citizens, you are sold this fallacy that this company offers you so many extras, when the reality is you are excluded from taking part in 95% of everything because you work in a call centre. No career progression opportunity unless your friends with the right people or sleeping with the right person

Pros

Work from home and profit share

Cons

Call centre not appreciated and treated different from rest of company

Pros

You get paid a ‘living wage’ Profit share

Cons

Work in the call centre and the entire business looks down on you. The way the call centre is run is a very negative environment, but speak out about ways to improve, and it’s like your forming a coup and they gang up on you. Staff favouritism. They claim to look after their staff and pride themselves on being a times top 100 company to work for, yet when it comes to putting their money where their mouth is, they’d rather keep it than pay you a respectable redundancy. They claim to have a ‘family vibe’ but in reality you have to be popular to get into the ‘family vibe’ to even consider being treated fairly.

Pros

Amazing company, lots of benefits, profit share, free bbqs, parties, well being week, Christmas and Halloween dress up, birthday off as paid

Cons

Call centre very separate to the rest of the company

Pros

HX really do have a lot of things right as a company, from equipping and trusting everyone with Apple Macbook laptops that can be used at home for personal use as well as work to spontaneous summer BBQ's to amazing fireworks displays offering free food and beverages for all staff members and their families. The training is second-to-none, quite possibly the best I've had going into any new job, the trainers really care and the setup/methods used really installed confidence before going on the phones. Finally the people are really what makes HX the place it is, the people I have met in all job roles from CC(contact centre) staff to the CEO himself are friendly, fun and really great people, I honestly cannot name or think of one person I dislike.

Cons

Now for the not so goods, and there are a few I'm sad to say. Firstly, there is an apparent divide between the majority of the company and the CC. There are many fun things that go on that often CC staff find ourselves the only ones that cant participate as we mustn't leave our post on the phones. Almost all areas seem to have an hour lunch where they can partake once again in several activities, we are limited to just half an hour. I personally don't mind the half an hour lunch break, but fail to understand why there are different standards between different areas. Working hours - now this really is an issue that I and 90% of CC staff I speak to are unhappy with. Up until recently we worked a standard 8 hour day 5 days per week as full time members which seems quite common in call centre work, no issues there, however now we are expected to work 8 hours and 45 mins for 4 days, whilst having one "half day" usually in the afternoon which throws a lot of peoples daily chores/plans after work out the window. Whilst 45 minutes may seem somewhat trivial, there was no real communication down to CC staff other than receiving our weekly rota with the new shifts in place. CC staff are the only ones expected to work these shifts whilst managers, the planning team and all other roles in the hierarchy remain on the same shifts as before, a classic case of expecting the bottom rung to do things that they wont themselves. Finally I have seen MANY people leave recently, people who were long term fixtures in HX as a result of many of the points already stated, quite simply they had enough. Other members are actively looking to leave, with myself also looking down avenues away from HX. When I started at HX I was sold on the fact they pride themselves as a company on staff progression and work/life balance, but as far as progression goes, I see a LOT of "external appointments" over people who have given everything for the company because obviously externals better right? And the work/life balance, it was great but small things are slowly taking away from this and it saddens me to write this as I genuinely loved the workplace when I first started.

Pros

The other travel consultants! I made a lot of friends. Shame most of them have left now. Bbqs, firework displays, parties, hx xmas day, not that the contact centre gets to attend any of these things.

Cons

So being in the CC ( contact centre) you are bottom rung in HX, and they make you feel it! The CC miss out most of the " fun Hx experience" because the organ grinder won't let anyone have time off the phones. HX have lost a shed load of fantastic talent within a year just because of poor management! I actually cannot count how many good team players who have been at HX for a number of years all jacked it in. The travel consultants are over worked and under valued. The targets are a joke and customer service has slipped. HX are very good at training you up to go for a job thats coming up, then going with a complete outsider, many people have fallen for this! Leaving people feeling deflated and unappreciated. It used to be such a lovely place to work and I used to love it; but no one seems to be questioning why they are losing staff? Why are they losing key players and big personalities? Because CC management changing has made people hate coming to work... Why would you get rid of whole team from the call centre? One minute they saying we should really push car hire and transfer, the next the whole team has been disbanded! Its safe to say they all left the company rather then go back to airport. The CC now feels tired, lifeless, its a sad place,where people are constantly worried about the safety of their jobs, forced to work ridiculous hours for an average pay. Where favouritism and bullying are rife!! Its very sad. Lets just say that the HX values and ideals are a fairytale, nothing more. Apart from the villians because they are quite a few of those!

Pros

Get given an Apple Mac laptop, give good pay and good benefits. Luckily I had lovely people on my team. Shame the jobs AWFUL

Cons

If you work in the call centre your treated horrifically in every way... if you have an angry customer there is a department trained to take those calls yet they tell you to deal with it yourself! Clearly don’t do they’re job properly... unrealistic targets and awful one to one training. ( if you actually got the once a week/ once a month training they say your meant to) They don’t care about you as long as they’re making money. Very unsociable hours. Had the worst time working there and would not recommend it in the slightest