Vanquis Bank Reviews

Pros

A smart motivated team committed to doing its best for its customers. Strong focus on digital for customer acquisition and customer management. For a marketer, the ability to work across a broad range of channels and opportunities.

Cons

The company has grown very fast from a handful of employees to over 1,800 in the past 15 years, so there are some growing pains!

Pros

The co-workers are generally nice people to work with.

Cons

The management. It's cost cutting at all costs without any regard to the actual requirements of the business or any forethought. There also tends to be a complete disconnect and lack of communication from the senior level downwards. Expect very little guidance and help beyond the pointless mantra of the blueprint. "Put the customer on the team", "put the customer on a path to a better life"... How about... actually look at the what the business needs to succeed and make a decision on how to get there? Don't expect anything from a role in IT beyond constant firefighting due to the poor decisions of the day before.

Advice to Management

How about actually thinking about what you're doing and listening to your staff? If your staff are all telling you that option A is a bad idea and you always choose option B, why hire them to begin with? Surround yourself with good people and then listen to them.

Pros

Great people, on occasion good opportunities to progress within

Cons

Money could be better for people that progress internally

Pros

pay is decent for call centre and monthly bonus

Cons

constant call ques, thick customers and thick bossy managers, always adding to the job no progression its all favouritism. Its basically Bradford college in this place

Pros

Good location with good transport links. The people are great - built some great friendships

Cons

New Management has changed the dynamic of the company. Restructures have forced a lot of good people out of the company. Lack of benchmarking on salaries - always being told that benchmarking happens but no transparency on the results eg who were reviewed, what was the outcomes. Lots of companies locally paying more but Vanquis salaries do not correlate. Lack of transparency on internal promotions - staff get... promoted without roles being advertised, or interviews. No communication on promotion ie why it happened and why that person got promoted. Lower grade roles (agent level) become monotonous, low paid and lost its 'fun element'. All about taking as many calls as possible with limited respite. Significant lack of incentives for loyalty and longevity. Annual bonuses have been cut in recent years. 2018 bonus was halved due to conditions that were not communicated not being met Share schemes have failed to pay out once and have since been cancelled.

Advice to Management

Review salaries - pay people adequately. Review long term incentives Be more transparent on HR processes (pat reviews and promotions)

Pros

Free fruit Subsidised canteen Close to my home

Cons

Oh dear where should I start? I have been working for a variety of organisations over 20 years and this is by far the worse job I have ever had. Apart from the nature of the job which is endless calls you are treated like a machine. No concern for your welfare at all. I was reprimanded for taking an 8 minute toilet break. I was on my period at the time and had severe bleeding so you can imagine how that made me... feel. Also zero tolerance for any issues you might have outside of work. I had a gas scare before my shift and called in to let them know. Luckily British Gas got there straightaway so I was still able to get into work but I was an hour late. Despite explaining this to my line manager I was made to feel guilty and made to fill in a late form. Training is terrible and I kept getting conflicting information from different team leaders and floor walkers. The team leaders seem to lack basic HR knowledge - I was off ill for four days due to a mouth ulcer and was told by my line manager I could not return to work unless I had illness certificate. GPs do NOT issue illness certificates unless you have been off ill for at least a week. I stated this to my line manager but she did not pay any attention. It was only when she went to HR that it was resolved. I found a lot of senior members of staff really unprofessional because they only seemed to help the people they liked and if you were not one of them you were left on your own and with no support. I worked for Vanquis for 8 months and lets say when I received a job offer from another bank it was one of the best feelings of my life.

Advice to Management

Train your managers so they know how to motivate their staff, act professionally and do their jobs properly. Hire people who have basic skills such as being able to construct a sentence. Try and think outside of the box and think about employing a more diverse workforce in terms of age and race. You never know what you might learn.

Pros

An easy transition from school to work, which helps at 17 but not at 27 when your stuck and the best answer to your issues is "you can always leave"

Cons

Where to begin - Constant lies from Management, every 3 years they try a new initiative in making employees feel wanted and then just recycle it knowing that the bulk of employees will leave band not see the new initiative, the entire infrastructure is littered with errors, the mantra at Vanquis is patch rather than fix. I don't know a single agent who wants to stay.

Advice to Management

Treat your employees with respect. Do not lie to them about a new 'pay structure' increases your total possible pay by thousands and then give payrises of 0.17p an hour each year. Just stop lying.

Pros

Progression is there for people with talent. Salaries broadly competitive. Trying to get the culture right.

Cons

Short and long term variable comp hardly paid over the last 2 years, making overall comp disappointing. Business plan meek with a lack of aspiration. Disunity amongst senior leadership and an MD who divides opinion.

Advice to Management

Need to make the purpose sing and follow through on culture.