THG - Also known as the place where brands go to die.
As I’ve just finished off my last week after nearly 2 years with the company it seems right to share my experiences as a The Hut Group review.
If you don't know, THG is heavily backed by capital. So savvy 'previous owners' of brands see an opportune time to flog their successful business onto THG, leaving Hut Group to strip of assets, culture and values.
THG is run at the top by two founders experienced in finance, sadly not experienced in building brands. So they very quick to flash the cash to acquire companies - terrible at spending money to maintain or drive them.
The Hut Group biggest period of growth has been while customers have been more affluent these last 4-6 years, though I bet if we wait till the next recession, all these businesses + a unified lack of customer spending + maintenance costs in running multiple brands (people/tech) = disaster.
The CEO prides himself on ‘not slowing down’ as mentioned on many company party’s, and to be fair the acquisition team are pulling in many new brands. However, this is all oblivious to the fact of what resource, talent, hours, process make up running a successful brand. What’s happening in reality is a huge gulf between what the business is going after, versus what it can actually deliver. The end result is people extremely overstretched. I’d love to be a fly on the wall during HR conversations - antidepressants anyone?? (soon to be stocked in the office vending machine!).
Communication is extremely poor and rarely ever cascaded down through the business. The most common thing you overhear from people during conversations with each other is “oh, erm so since when did this happen?”
There are people in their mid-20’s as “GM” or “Head of” overseeing many people. I've got nothing against exceptional performers, but these were people that just hung around long enough. These people are both ineffective manager's and unnecessarily arrogant at be same time - quite a paradox.
No doubt you've seen the comments about terrible parking. I'm afraid to say the move to Voyager House in Manchester is just a decoy to get people off the 'parking' scent. Even then, when the office moves we’ll still need to be parking miles away and getting shuttle busses in. Fear not, as of course there are enough spaces for the Execs to park their fancy cars
It's important to read your contract carefully before joining. You will read that you have to waive your rights to legal working hours per week. So frustratingly when you have to get a car park space at 7:30 am and you’re still there gone 6 pm. The toilets are always busy as people hide out in cubicles just to get some downtime! In other news, the contract has poor benefits and a pitiful 21 days is your holiday allowance.
Last summer the CEO gave some terrible speech about how much the party costs, and how he’s had to put up with people’s personal hygiene at his office - excuse me while I get my violin out - I’m sure your commute home in your choice of Bentley or Rolls Royce makes up for it.
The Northwich offices and general facilities are grim, stinky and extremely untidy. It can feel like working in a teenager's bedroom. It can be swelteringly hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter - last week we were all sat at our desks wearing our jackets.
Only in Exec desks (or candidate interviewing!) areas do you see that they’ve spent money on creating an environment. PS. On this point, prepare for having an 2-3 hour interview in the local coffee shop or reception - they do not want you to see the REAL working environment.
There are no meeting rooms so you are having sensitive conversations with your team in the hallways . You will also see that there are CCTV cameras everywhere (likely because of CEO’s paranoia/OCD about security, you literally find yourself working with a camera pointed directly at your face).
I will say that there are some decent people, though everyone is so glum and have heavy shoulders from the weight of all the pressures (see all the points above). My friends are all smart people, but everyone defaults to a headless chicken approach when it comes to work. All chasing sales and no smart thinking. There’s only so much ‘motivational’ chat or videos the Execs can keep sharing around before people realise there isn’t much positive substance.
It’s the Talent (recruitment) team I feel sorry for the most. They spend so much time and energy ‘selling in’ THG to potential candidates, only to find they didn’t last longer than a few months. The marketing of the company from the outside-in is pretty decent enough, well exactly for that ‘heroes wanted’ tripe - (Google it) talk about cringe.
If you’re a grad living in Northwich whom walks to work and looking for a stop-gap for a few months - then this is for you. For anyone else (ie. with wife/husband/kids/outside passions) then definately not. If you are someone whom has these kind out responsibilities/dependencies outside of work then do yourself a favour and join a company with a more robust (and kind) employee benefits and HR approach.
It’s widely agreed that THG has inevitable failings in its DNA.
