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Kennington Creative Group

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Kennington Creative Group Reviews

2.7

44% would recommend to a friend

(26 total reviews)

40% positive business outlook

Kennington Creative Group has an employee rating of 2.7 out of 5 stars, based on 26 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an average working experience there.

Reviews by job title

26 reviews
1.0
19 Sept 2018

SIMPLY AVOID AT ALL COSTS!!!

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- You'll meet some nice and talented people.......but soon realise they are all unhappy and they will leave within months of you starting. - Building is nice, but should have moved somewhere within their means. - erm.......

Cons

Where to begin...... - Freelancers and Talent are NEVER paid on time, often waiting months and sometimes years to get paid. It's embarrassing. - Finances are in disarray. Gotten so bad they have not paid employees wages on time. - Terrible work/life balance - Studio is a bit of a wreck tbh. - Unrealistic expectations - Understaffed. Will often hire inexperienced people and expect miracles. - Annoy clients by aggressively chasing and demanding money, often that isn't even due yet. - Some of the management show little real knowledge of the media or film industry, with some of them never having worked at any other media organisation and it shows. But they are keen to tell everyone how it should be done - no questions asked. Some are not approachable and take any company feedback or criticism far too personally. - Sexist, xenophobic and racist comments are commonplace often coming from the most senior of management.

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Kennington Creative Group Response
7y
Here at Spectrecom we have 60 plus staff, and most are very happy. Our current length of service average to September 30th 2018, is 2 years 7months. Regarding freelancers the company accepts and apologises for letting down a number of suppliers with overdue payments. The company has worked hard to address this over recent months as the business continues to grow, and now payments (October 2018) are almost all paid or in terms. Furthermore, and in contrast to some other media companies, our payment terms are 30 days as opposed to 60 or even 90. As for our own clients we will never chase money that isn’t invoiced and contractually due for payment. All employees have always been paid within the terms of their employment contracts. In response to working hours; it is the nature of our industry that shoots and projects can incur long hours of work at a stretch. We appreciate the toll this can take on some departments and for many years the company has voluntarily operated a TOIL system for giving employees hours worked overtime back in lieu. Recently we have also introduced an office lock up time of 7.30pm to help prevent late working. We are very proud of our policy of equal opportunity and encourage all staff to achieve their full potential. We have female representation on both the Management Team and the Board, any prospective employees should visit our website for more information on the Management’s respective industry experience. We also offer young people the chance to start a career in the media by offering many entry-level positions and working hard on our training plans. Many people have therefore joined the company as trainees and left to work elsewhere in the industry as accomplished professionals' years later. There have never been reports of sexist, racist or homophobic comments being made, written or otherwise. We have systems in place for all employees’ wellbeing and safeguarding as outlined in our Employee Handbook and supervised by departmental Line Management. There is also an open desk policy up to board level, where both male and female Directors sit, for people to come directly to report any serious issues, or any grievances at all.
1.0
30 Jul 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Lower level employees were some of the best people I’ve ever met, personally but also professionally. Nearly all of the talented people have now left. - Opportunities to progress quickly, as so many people walked away from this toxic ‘business’.

Cons

- Management that had no respect for their employees or suppliers. - A toxic atmosphere to work in that made you doubt your own abilities, even when staff had usually done a great job on no time or money. - Bad and under-qualified management that worked the staff into the ground. The work/life balance didn't exist - if you weren't working (which is rare as people were expected to work days, nights and weekends, sometimes for weeks without a day off), your body was too ruined to do anything but sleep and recover. - Management wasted thousands of pounds on pointless parties for clients (that clients rarely came to more than once) and pro bono work for a large charity (giving that specific charity free films year after year, right up to the present day!), despite owing HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS OF POUNDS to suppliers. - Poor facilities to work in (airflow/daylight etc - a massive lack of). - You got a ‘promotion’ after working yourself into the ground (and begging for MONTHS for the promotion), but didn’t actually get the pay rise until you ‘proved yourself’ in your new role for a year to management - this is purely so they don't have to give you the pay rise that you've earned for as long as possible. - Even if you proved yourself, you then had to pass a LUDICROUS ‘exam’ about the company, that the management had written themselves. If you failed that exam you had to wait MONTHS before you were allowed to take it again, thus delaying your well earned pay rise further. - They didn’t pay freelancers unless they threaten legal action - EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. - It was a boys club at management level - women weren't respected by management. - They used staff (particularly filmmakers/producers) as their own private bank overdraft, and expected staff to spend their own money to facilitate shoots, then didn’t pay back the staff for MONTHS for those expenses. As a result, you never actually received your full PITTANCE of a monthly salary. - The ‘Finance department’ (who are completely under-qualified) are aggressive to suppliers and freelancers when they queried late payment. - They expected filmmakers to drive a company van that was WAY past its sell by date - it often broke down, miles away from London, causing huge grief for staff to deal with themselves. - Management is obsessed with James Bond (hence the terrible company name) - their dated attitudes to women reflected their Bond obsession. - The toilets would often overflow due to poor maintenance. - There was NO staff room for lunch and breaks.

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Kennington Creative Group Response
7y
We are sorry that this reviewer has such poor memories from their time at the company; we work hard to ensure employees have a positive experience and grow professionally in line with the business. For this person to stay in their role for three years proves that a lot was in fact done right. However we appreciate that for some people there is a natural time to move on to new challenges. We wish you the best for your future endeavours. In the words of this reviewer - we do have some of the best people you’ll ever meet helping drive us forward, and make use of the opportunities that we offer here. The current staff of 60 plus talented individuals working at our new building complete with staff room, and even the new vans are enjoying a new, dynamic era at Spectrecom.
1.0
30 Aug 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Good clients and good content opportunities. Most of the work force are great to work with, talented and kind to each other. Friendships in and out of work. For some teams, there is an encouragement to conduct training to improve skillsets, and also a training plan to think about your progression - though I would add this rarely seems to be recognised when looking for pay rises even though there is a promise that it will.

Cons

Its clear from other reviews that the cons of working for this business are common and felt by a heavy proportion of former and current staff. The cons far outweigh the pro's and make it a difficult place to work and progress a career for some. - The average wage is far below the industry standard and also what is expected of people. Pay rises are very hard to get, even after completing pointless skillset documents. - Long working hours are inevitable because they refuse to resource with additional staff to manage the project load. - Work is taken on at an alarming rate to fill gaps in cash flow at the expensive of staffs health and happiness. - They have an appalling reputation in the industry for paying low rates for freelances and and then not paying them at all. They cannot hide from the fact that everyone in the industry knows they don't pay and therefore this usually affects the quality of freelancers that agree to work for them. - The accounts department are under-qualified and have no procedure for dealing with late payments and communicating with freelancers, so they usually ignore their calls and emails. As many have stated, freelancers chase for sometimes years to get paid. - The owner of the business is not only completely out of touch with the industry; refusing to consider new ways of doing things to drive his business in a positive direction, but has been witnessed making sexist and inappropriate comments towards staff. - They forced staff to drive faulty vehicles to save having to pay for safe vehicles.

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Kennington Creative Group Response
7y
We offer competitive salaries depending on people’s skills and experience, and offer detailed tailored training plans for personal development. Skillset documents are part of the appraisal system, and important milestones as people progress their careers. We review the departmental resource requirement on a monthly basis, and we have recruited many new staff over the past year, adding around 15 new roles. The company accepts that it has let down a significant number of freelance suppliers with overdue payments. The company has worked hard to address this over recent months as the business continues to grow, and now payments (October 2018) are almost all paid or in terms. Furthermore, and in contrast to some other media companies, our payment terms are 30 days as opposed to 60 or even 90. Obviously everyone gets paid. It is true that the Finance department has been under-staffed for some time but a third person is now in place to help out. Moreover, the company has sought external professional services to help implement better systems and procedures. We acknowledge that we had two older vehicles that broke down too many times. However, the vehicles were routinely checked and were always safe; as employers we have a moral and legal responsibility governing the safety of our staff that we uphold rigorously. In any event the company now has two brand new vehicles. We encourage any prospective employees to visit our website for more information on the Management’s respective industry experience. There haven’t been any reports or complaints of inappropriate comments to staff.
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Glassdoor has 54 Kennington Creative Group reviews submitted anonymously by Kennington Creative Group employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Kennington Creative Group is right for you.