PeopleCert Reviews

Top-down management approach disempowers staff. The CEO and his team in this family-run business are constantly micro-managing your work and make it unnecessarily difficult to influence anything or actually get your work done. Lack of opportunities for promotion and development (unless you are very close to the family at the top). No objectives or personal development plans set, no information about training & development. Incredibly low morale and toxic working environment. No clarity from management about strategy and often kept in the dark on key decisions, which creates a rapid moving environment in which no one is properly planning ahead. Insulting, patronising and aggressive behaviour from management. Targets/deadlines are unrealistic and are not up for discussion. Often you are shutdown when you politely challenge something even though you are just doing your job and trying to check that everything has been thought through. An insane level of bureaucracy combined with lack of processes/procedures and rapidly shifting goalposts creates a chaotic environment in which no one knows what they're supposed to be doing or how they can achieve it using the available information and systems. Reporting lines/org chart often left unclarified resulting in total confusion. Expectation for all employees to work way beyond their contracted hours, no interest in wellbeing or a healthy work/life balance. Constant last-minute requests from people who had plenty of time to ask for things earlier, often with very unclear briefs and aggressive deadlines that don't fit into unnecessarily meeting-heavy schedules (because you are constantly reporting everything in different ways to different levels of management because they won't leave you in peace for a few minutes to complete your work) Forced to come into office facilities that often don't have basic equipment and there are strict rules around what rooms can be used by certain members of staff, bikes aren't allowed etc. Very uncompetitive benefits package. Things like 'Work in an international, dynamic and fun atmosphere' & 'Complimentary coffee and tea in all our premises' aren't exactly benefits worth boasting about because they are expected as a minimum, and it's not a dynamic/fun atmosphere anyway. Nobody seems to be listening to try and make it better. You will be shutdown if you try and question the culture. Poor retention of staff due the reasons above and more

- Lack of empowerment (budgets, decisions, ideas, etc sit at the top). - Team morale and motivation is very low - Unrealistic targets that are decided by the top executives who have very limited knowledge of market dynamics. No engagement or consultation with people in markets to validate targets. - It is expected for people to work hard (which is not a problem). However, the definition of "work hard" for top management is "work longer". Top management expect employees to attend meetings on the weekends, on annual leave, early in the morning, etc. - Lack of empathy. It feels like a dictatorship (top management ego goes first) - Some not capable people at top management with limited experience, lack of charisma, etc. - Super high employee turnover