As a previous review mentions, the company Silverbean once was is no more. I worked for the company for 6.5 years, and I used to really enjoy working there, but over the last year or so in particular, there has been a significant decline in how they operate and treat their staff. Here are some key examples:
- The company used to pride themselves on looking after their staff and caring for team members, however they now actively ignore and dismiss people that raise mental health issues which are associated with work. I had direct experience of this as I discussed with HR about the negative impact work was having on my wellbeing, but instead of offering support I was told that I needed to work on my emotional intelligence. I also know that this same response was given to another team member who was struggling at the time
- In the last two Glassdoor responses the company have submitted, they have quoted some stats about their sickness absence rate being lower than the UK average of 5.3%. This demonstrates that they are choosing to skew stats and be blind to the actuality of the low morale and sentiment of their team. Earlier this year, there were 3 people off from the Silverbean team with work related stress within the space of 2 months. This is approximately 6% of the delivery team that were off due to stress and mental health issues caused by work
- The senior management team are completely disconnected from the wider team. The CEO used to show genuine care for their people, but now they are distancing themselves and allowing other senior team members to ruin the once great culture and atmosphere that Silverbean had. I was made redundant in June this year, and despite being the longest serving member of the affiliate team at the time, the CEO did not reach out to me with any words of thanks or even a goodbye
- The majority of the team are demoralised as they have to try and fight for minimal pay increases, whereas particular senior members of staff have had a number of promotions in the last two years. The team are told that these promotions are “thoroughly deserved” in emails, yet it is not clear what positive impact they are having. The team are often told that client performance isn’t where it needs to be or that they are not going beyond their role enough to warrant a pay rise or promotion. If that is the case for the delivery team, why is this same logic not applied to people that head up the entire team as surely they are ultimately accountable?
- As referred to in other reviews and responses on here, the company conduct an Employee Have Your Say survey every quarter. In this survey they ask employees anonymously to score the company from 1-10 based on how likely they would recommend it as a place to work, which in turn provides them with an employee net promoter score. Within my redundancy scoring criteria, this score was defined as my “colleagues’ perception” of myself and was used ultimately to push me out of the company. Employees submit this score anonymously and in good faith that the company will address concerns properly and enact improvements to the way they operate. It is completely unfair and unethical to be twisted and skewed into a method of rating someone’s performance; the survey question on which the promoter score is based on is about the company as a whole, not an individual. In the company’s last response on here, they say they take employee feedback in the survey seriously and want to improve this score. This example shows that this is fundamentally not true - the senior management team have just manipulated the survey to suit their own agenda rather than making changes to benefit the team’s sentiment and morale