Link Group Reviews

No car parking space unless you’re a senior manager. No bonus unless you’re a senior. Offices for seniors only. Laptops, flexible working and home working just for seniors. Healthcare for seniors only. Even nights out that are just for seniors. The hierarchy is sickening. Mostly you have to develop yourself as your line manager will either be too incompetent or selfish to develop you, or if it’s one of the better ones they’ll be too bogged down with trying to keep the ship afloat and the fires out The pay is appalling. Staff at the low level are on close to minimum wage. Despicable when you consider what’s expected - we’d be better off working in a supermarket. Pay increases for internal promotions are unfairly capped, so an internal person with good experience who’s shown loyalty and has put the effort in to work their way up can never earn the externally advertised salary for the job they will do. External recruits who lack relevant experience and are often of a poor caliber earn the most. This results in resentment and staff feeling devalued, so most of the talented people have been leaving in droves. All the money seems to be spent on the new system which has been coming forever but doesn’t seem to actually work. God knows how much money must have been wasted on that. The bonus structure is also limited to more senior staff, and even then I’ve heard that those who get bonuses and or commission have them unfairly slashed because whilst they may have met their targets, somewhere else in the group hasn’t and it’s all about meeting those numbers for the big wigs. They say there’s progression but what they’ve actually done is taken what little there was away. No more senior administrator role and no more team leader, so how are you supposed to progress? If you apply for the supervisor role you’re told you don’t have the right experience. It’s all designed to try to keep the workers plodding along and knowing their place. We were told in a big announcement that there would be bands or levels we could progress through and earn more money but that was ages ago and all that’s happened since is that levels were taken away. What do they expect you to do but leave? Nobody can afford to live on the administrator salaries unless they live with their parents, so you end up with a workforce of naive 18 year olds (mostly just earning a bit of money for drinking until they work out what they actually want to do with their lives, or saving up to go travelling) with anyone a bit older and wiser having to find other work so that they can make rent. Some people were working an extra bar job on the side just to cover it. Senior level management have some appallingly out-dated views and ways of behaving. They’re self serving bullies who care about nothing more than meeting targets set by group to get their big fat bonuses. There’s definitely an old boys’ club at the top, although hopefully the new CEO may be a step in the right direction towards addressing this. Possibly the people in Australia are waking up about what’s going on and that’s prompted them to hoof out the sleazy salesman cowboy that’s been running the show for far too long. Even his teeth were fake. However, he’s not the only one who needs to go, and the new CEO won’t be able to make changes with the current stuffy old (white male) board in place. A tip for you Suzan - don’t trust any of them, replace them all. There are also some incredibly lazy and useless senior individuals coasting along and doing nothing to improve business, staff wellbeing etc. It’s time for a clean out at those higher levels and to assess what each of these people is actually bringing to the table. There are some senior people who I believe do care and really work hard, but sadly they’re in the minority amongst the lazy, egotistical majority of “ManCo”. Some people have a caring line manager who wants to make a change and is bothered about their staff, but all too often their efforts are demeaned by those above, or the pay rise they’ve requested for you is denied by the FD. Managers are really just puppets for the seniors, so even the good ones can’t make a difference even when they want to, so usually they wise up quickly and jump before they’re pushed. HR is incredibly biased towards the senior management. Grievances are not dealt with fairly and many staff are too afraid to speak up because of the backlash. Recently more and more people are taking the brave step to raise a grievance but these are never heard independently, so another biased senior manager will just find a way to resolve in the company’s favour. The only real recourse for staff is to take things to a tribunal. The business only pays lip service to mental health - the number of staff going sick with stress is shocking, and nothing is done about it. Even when multiple people from the same team were being signed off with stress, the employees were blamed, rather that the business looking at the root cause. It was so sad to see friends go through it. I think it will take multiple tribunal cases before any changes are actually made. Staff at most levels are so demotivated. They’re not paid well, there’s not a clear and fair progression structure in place for them and they’re not properly valued, motivated or developed. This has led to a really terrible negative culture with high levels of absenteeism, confirmed stealing, fouling of toilets and other nefarious activities best not mentioned here. Capita was an awful company to work for, and when Link took over I think a lot of people held out hope that things would change and improve. Essentially it’s all the same, mostly because the senior management are still the same old white men with backwards attitudes to women, ethnic minorities, mental health, LGBT issues etc. I genuinely feel sorry for the staff who still work here. Leaving is the best career move I’ve ever made. I’m so much happier, more motivated and less stressed. Without exaggeration, escaping this place has changed my life for the better. I also just want to add, that many would take reviews on this site with a grain of salt and would say that there’ll always be disgruntled employees in any work place. Generally I think that’s fair, but having read through a lot of the reviews here for the Beckenham and Huddersfield offices, I can confirm that they’re a true reflection of what’s going on. The latest in the sorry saga for the people still working there is the response to COVID-19. Classing themselves an essential business and still forcing staff to turn up for work and risk infection. Oh and another slap in the face? Everyone has to give up 10 days of holiday by June so the group can make its numbers. Already taken 10 days off? That’s okay, they’ll take 10 from what you have left, or if you don’t have 10 remaining, they’ll knock it off next year. Criminal.