Nationwide Building Society Employee Reviews about "head office"

Pros

Supportive culture and great training (plus very good pension arrangements).

Cons

Head office in Swindon, very few opportunities for progression if you didn't want to move.

Advice to Management

More opportunities available up North, immense competition for progression with current Nationwide employees resulting in many talented workers leaving

Pros

- The company seems to genuinely care about its members. - very generous benefits package, including an extremely good pension - progression within the branch network is easy if you want to go down that path - Company can be very flexible with hours and working location

Cons

- Branch staff are grossly underpaid for the work we do. This leads to a lack of morale and a very high staff turnover rate, particularly amongst Customer Representatives - Head Office out of touch with what life is like in branch, so they often make decisions without consulting those of us on the front line. - Some managers can be very inconsistent in their approach - policies...

Advice to Management

Lead by example more often.

Pros

Great facilities at Head Office - the restaurant is superb with a wide choice of meals each day,. Good low cost gym. Open plan office space which has been upgraded. Very good pension scheme

Cons

Car park can take ages to get out of in the evening. Lots of cost cutting and redundancies at the moment.

Pros

Fantastic head office in swindon, love working in this building. Feels very modern and is being updated with ne equipment and revamps of offices regularly. Amazing canteen, I could eat there everyday! Working dynamically and flexibility is encouaged and line managers are very supportive and adaptive to individual needs

Cons

Car parking can be tricky and finding a free desk can be hard if hot desking

Advice to Management

Keep up the great line management!

Pros

Genuinely cares about community and building financial inclusivity. Caring towards employees. Easy-going. Great pension offering. Can buy up to 5 extra days holiday (they promote 10 but that's not really on offer to most employees).

Cons

Can be long hours. Surprisingly disorganised for an organisation with a straightforward structure. Traffic around the head office can be very heavy meaning it can take a long time to get to work during normal commuting hours.

Advice to Management

Employ enough people to complete the work in the advertised hours. Actively encourage more remote working. Provide mobile phones to reduce the need to work in the office.

Pros

I've worked at Nationwide for just over four years now, and its fair to say that the organisation does, on the whole, have a host of really professional, friendly, approachable people I have ever worked with. Again, on the whole, this stretches across all disciplines meaning the atmosphere is one of support and "we are all in this together" - which is great. Other good things about Nationwide include: - no written rule...

Cons

The organisation is going through a large period of change at the moment, but this simply isn't managed well. What was once a great place to be, is now slowly becoming poorly managed. This is partly because Nationwide has a demographic of people being there for 20+ years in some management roles who play lip service to the changes that need to happen, but when it comes to it, have no ability at all to lead change as Nationwide...

Advice to Management

An organisation that is in risk of descending into chaos unless some real performance management of long in the tooth leaders take place. Genuinely remove the hierarchy barriers that are still there - if the CEO is reading this, don't believe what you are told. its a hard place to be for more junior members who bring external skills and experience of change to your organisation. Consider if the Swindon location is a...

Pros

Nationwide have some fantastic values that really do show they care about the customers. All of the managers are very supportive and my branch personally are like one big family. We all support each other and there is constant recognition for the hard work you put in. I love my job but i'm looking forward to getting to the next level.

Cons

Recently there has been a freeze in recruitment in branch and an increase in recruitment for head office. One main con is you are contracted 9-5 however you have to get in for around 8.30 and often stay until around 5.30 which is unpaid time you cant claim back.

Advice to Management

Invest in your people and see the business grow more. Appreciated staff will work harder.

Pros

Always well paid jobs available, good gym facility, canteen and internal training.

Cons

The majority of people are bullied. Before I was bullied I felt sad to see so many of my colleagues being bullied and then I became a target myself, I put up with it for a long time. It all started about 5 years ago when a new Executive Director started and felt NBS had too many coasting employees but it's gone way too far. I've stayed in touch and nothing has changed since I left. If I hear it's changed I'll update this...

Advice to Management

Listen to people on both sides, don't rely on what you're told.