Personal Group Reviews

3.5

67% would recommend to a friend

(119 total reviews)
avatar

Paula Constant

78% approve of CEO

58% positive business outlook

Personal Group has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 119 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Personal Group employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Insurance industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

119 reviews
1.0
3 Jan 2018

Do Not Work Here

Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Their aren't many but I guess the people you meet is a positive.

Cons

If you enjoy the following then please apply: Being away from your friends and family every night of the week. Being tracked everywhere you go (even in your own time) by the car, phone and iPad they give you. Being sent to care homes to beg minimum wage employees to buy a health insurance product they will never use and won't pay out anyway. Being sent to bus and train stations to do the same be told you F off (and worse) by drivers and conductors every 5 minutes. Being paid less than minimum wage when you work out the hours you have to work (15-20 hours per day) If you don't you will have you manager telling you that you will be sacked. Being expected to work a full day Friday and then drive 3-7 hours home. Being expected to drive to your location on a Sunday which could be anywhere between 3-7 hours away. Staying in the most disgusting hotels every night. Going to conferences and events where you surrounded by brainwashed fellow employees that enjoy scamming people. Taught to pressure sell. Told by successful employees to missell to customers when you’re not being recorded. They will try and lure you in with all the money you can earn and all the trips you can go on etc....... its a load of rubbish. FREE STUFF … DON'T BE FOOLED!!!!!!!!!!! FREE CAR... TRACKED 24/7 FREE PHONE... TRACKED 24/7 FREE IPAD.... TRACKED 24/7 they give their favourites the best accounts (distribution) that make money, and that get you into the position to get the cars and trips. They will try and claim they don't but if you were stupid enough to take this job then you will see the same people going on every trip and making all the money. The other 90% are just sent to awful accounts in the back ends of Scotland and Wales to beg people to buy insurance. GO FIND A CAREER WHERE LONG TERM YOU WILL EARN SO MUCH MORE AND THEN YOU CAN BUY ALL THE CARS YOU WANT AND GO ON ALL THE HOLIDAYS YOU WANT. This isn't a career and its not even a job... its slave labour. I worked this job a year as I was desperate for money and it was the worst year of my life. I was lured in like everybody else, and blinded by the potential earnings, cars and holidays and please learn from BIG mistake. even if only one person doesn't take this job from my post then I will be more than satisfied knowing I have saved one person from the hell I went through.

avatar
Personal Group Response
8y
Thank you for your feedback, we appreciate that this role isn’t for everyone and I’m sorry to hear you didn’t enjoy the role for the year you worked for us. You are right the role is hard work, there is a lot of travelling and our Employee Engagement Executives do spend a lot of time away from home. We are really clear about this during the recruitment process but we will look at how we can further clarify these points. Our priority is always staff safety, and it is proven that educating people on their driving behaviour improves their safety. Since introducing the car software system our average driving percentage is 94%, an excellent score which we believe we have achieved through drivers getting feedback on their driving habits. At no point is the system used to track employees, only to monitor driving habits. You talk about pressure selling – This is a serious accusation and something we take very seriously. As well as having a field based monitoring team and an audio recording system - activated when you are presenting to customers - to monitor sales activity, we have various quality standards centred around the customer experience. We monitor these standards very closely and conduct regular training to ensure our sales team are equipped to achieve the standards set. We are regulated by the FCA and the PRA and conduct regular training to ensure we always maintain the high standards required by the relevant regulatory authorities. We do have a Whistleblowing policy should you feel the need to raise concerns about how we operate. The Employee Engagement Executive role can be difficult, and the lifestyle has highs and lows, so it isn’t right for everyone. For those that do enjoy the role it offers a great career path and people from within this team have been promoted into other roles such as sales management, business development, account management and various operational positions within Personal Group. We’re really proud of our culture at Personal Group and our employee engagement scores, which have us in the upper quartile compared to other companies, show that our team feel the same. We hope you find a role that is more suited to your working ethos and wish you luck for the future.
1.0
21 Feb 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

QSM's are good that is it to be honest

Cons

Car is on it's last legs, very low wage, you don't earn commission straight away like they tell you in interview. U make the business money without getting anything in return. Unrealistic targets, have to over achieve before you can get signed off commission which is fine however you still don't get paid anything from that month or previous months, then you have to do even more than that target to get a pathetic 75% of 5% commission. You work away from home all the time and they give you an allowance of £10-£15 per night however that is to pay for 3 meals a day in London... they put you in horrible hotels, you are expected to do night shifts i.e. 11pm-7am then back in for midday.. a lot of faveroutism, I have witnesses mis selling from "top execs" in my first week I worked over 60 hours and didn't get paid the commission. It's an exhausting job with very little down time as you only get Friday night and Saturday to yourself as they expect you to drive to work on a Sunday which you don't get paid extra for. Overall I'd say don't listen to what they say in an interview because unless you are willing to work stupid hours and arselick management you won't get your "free holidays" as they won't put you on the best locations.

avatar
Personal Group Response
9y
Thanks for the review on your time at Personal Group. We understand that the Employee Engagement Executive role can be challenging and appreciate the feedback. You’ve mentioned quite a few areas and I wanted to clarify a few of your points. A number of the Executives company cars are coming to the end of their contracts and based on employee feedback we will be replacing them this year. Quality is our priority over anything else and want our Execs to learn our products and services and to perfect their presentation, so we set early targets around number and quality of sales presentations rather than sales revenue. However we recognise that commission motivates people and we have clear criteria an Exec needs to meet to qualify for commission. Every Exec takes a different amount of time to do this and the more committed and successful ones qualify more quickly. Our commission structure is designed to motivate high performance and increases in line with performance. You are correct our meal allowance is £15 for your evening meal as breakfast is always included in the hotels we select for staff. We would never expect £15 to cover 3 meals per day, only your evening meal. To address two of the more serious points in your review, unreasonable hours and mis-selling, Personal Group are committed to the wellbeing of our staff and provide Employee Engagement Executives with the ability to manage their own working time commitments. Evening or night site visits are necessary to coincide with our clients shift patterns but are balanced out with additional down time during the rest of the week. Travelling on a Sunday does happen on occasion because of where our clients are based however we limit this as much as possible. Mis-selling is a serious allegation and we would really like to discuss this further with you. Please can you contact our HR team in confidence? We have a rigorous system in place to ensure that all regulations are strictly adhered too, including recording of all trainee presentations and regular, randomised spot checks of all staff. Thanks again for taking the time to leave feedback
1.0
26 Nov 2022

Avoid At All Costs - Deeply Chaotic Organisation That's Fundamentally Broken

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The central location, ease of access to the centre.

Cons

A deeply chaotic organisation that's entirely unwilling to change or evolve in any discernible way. From the moment people start, they are set up to fail resulting in high turnover across the business. They offer a 'good' benefits package, but it's not all that competitive. They do not care about employee wellbeing - don't be fooled. There are pockets of goodness, and some people are friendly. Unfortunately, conniving, manipulative behaviour is often rewarded, leading to ineffective and poorly skilled management. Many people have been there a long and are resigned to the situation. They are miserable and will not help you to make positive changes as they are simply winding down the clock. To be clear, this is coming from an employee who left on their own accord. This is just the review I wish I'd seen when reading this page. I would have headed the warning. Avoid at all costs. You'll soon realise why they want you to start so quickly.

avatar
Personal Group Response
3y
We appreciate you taking the time to share your thoughts and feedback we are very sorry to hear about your experience at Personal Group. As a business we understand the need to continually upskill our colleagues and leaders, our people team are working on accessible development plans and toolkits to assist with colleague progression and support them in their roles. We are on, and will remain on, a continuous journey of improvement, in all aspects of employee engagement and experience. We are working closely with our business leaders to address negative behavior's, alongside increasing our channels of colleague feedback to identify and proactively tackle any concerns. We understand that while we strive for improvement this will not always be comfortable for everyone as we continuously embed new ways of working. We have appointed a new Engagement and Wellbeing Partner for 2023 to drive, shape and enhance an environment where colleagues are at the forefront of the business. Our great benefit offering will continually be assessed to make sure that we are including the things we believe matter most to people at the moment.
Viewing 1 - 3 of 119 Reviews

Glassdoor has 125 Personal Group reviews submitted anonymously by Personal Group employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Personal Group is right for you.