Grovelands Reviews

3.4

67% would recommend to a friend

(50 total reviews)
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Ben Wilson

72% approve of CEO

53% positive business outlook

Grovelands has an employee rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 50 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Grovelands employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Human resources and staffing industry (3.8 stars).

Reviews by job title

50 reviews
1.0
8 Jan 2018

Damaging and degrading.

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

There were a handful of people who worked there when I did who could also recognise how horrendous it was. Unfortunately these people experienced similar things that I did (detailed below), so I wouldn't really call this a pro.

Cons

Throughout my time at Grovelands I was made to feel worthless. Most of the time ignored, my skills were overlooked, and was only spoken to by upper management when they had been too disorganised to sort their own workload out and were desperate for help. Oh, and to make inappropriate sexual comments, of course. How could I possibly forget about a certain director and his sidekick's regular comments about my body shape and sex life? The culture there was toxic, childish, and incredibly unprofessional. It was like being in high school again; if you weren't sickeningly nice to the inner circle (and in some cases, even if you were and they just didn't like the way you looked or dressed) you'd be casted out. You'd receive no help, support or recognition. And if they didn't find a way to get rid of you, your life would be made so miserable that you'd be left with no choice but to leave. But believe it or not, the sexual harassment, bullying, and egotistical managers were not the worst things about working at Grovelands. And it's this experience that has prompted me to write this review. No one should ever have to go through what I did. The toxic and nasty environment made me feel worthless. The comments and actions made by the executive team left me feeling incredibly depressed, and I honestly felt like I wasn't good enough to find another role. The pressure of having to please the directors left me feeling so stressed and anxious that I had to be signed off work by the doctor for a couple of weeks. Now you'd think that maybe this would make the CEO and his team of directors take a look at how the company is being run, or maybe prompt them into making some positive culture changes (after all, I wasn't the first person to be signed off with anxiety and stress). But no, unfortunately the CEO saw this as an opportunity to publicly degrade me in front of my peers. My time off was supposed to be confidential. The CEO, however, decided to use it as a piece of gossip he could share with those around him. He not only told people that I had been signed off work for anxiety, but continued to slander me, declaring that i was "crazy" and "mentally unhinged". I cannot even begin to describe how damaging this was. To have the CEO of the company you had dedicated over 2 years of your life working at, use confidential information to make derogatory comments about you to your peers is just horrendous. It's taken me almost 2 years to feel strong enough to share this. And I fully expect my comments to be taken down/ignored/or to be mocked further. But I feel it's incredibly important that people are aware of what it's actually like to work at Grovelands.

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Grovelands Response
8y
I am deeply sorry that you felt this way whilst at Grovelands and this was your experience working here over 2 years ago. I would never want to inflict the behaviour and actions you describe on anyone, especially in an employment environment where you are meant to be supported, encouraged and empowered. The points you have raised are serious ones and I will repeat the offer I made to you personally to come in and talk them through with me and understand the environment we have in Grovelands today. I genuinely believe that the business has moved on an awful lot over the last 20 months and is now a much more straightforward and supportive place to be. But I know that is not the experience you had and I really regret that. In the last couple of years we have really matured as a business and a management team and I’m confident we now have a open-door culture so any concerns staff have can be raised to any one of the current management team and HR department. The new structure of the company means that employees are a lot more accountable and contributions from all staff are regularly acknowledged. Alongside this we have partnered in the past with Sussex Oakleaf, a mental health awareness charity, to support their initiatives and to train and raise awareness of mental health throughout the business. We will continue to have refresher training and seek other ways to highlight areas where we can best support staff. I would value a conversation with you to hear how it was for you and make sure I have taken from this the lessons that need to be learnt. I do want to assure you that I thought very hard about your feedback, and your experience will never ever be replicated Ben Wilson - CEO
1.0
15 Nov 2017
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Slightly above average commission and made some good friends. Office dog was also nice to take your mind off work. It helped me to save up enough to take some time off and find a better place.

Cons

Total lack of direction and management. They don't really know what to do to make the company grow so time is spent on weird internal things, pointless meetings, KPI bashing or making podcasts. There is way too much back stabbing and scapegoating whilst also turning a blind eye to some of the underhand things that happen. If you need a job its fine, if you want a career & to develop its the wrong place for you.

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Grovelands Response
8y
I value and consider all feedback so I would like to thank you for your comments and address a couple of the specific issues you raise. One of the things I spend a lot of time thinking about is how I and the business communicate effectively as we grow and adapt to our changing markets. I think we are continuously improving in this area through our team meetings, strategy and planning sessions as well as the day-today sharing of information that happens around the office. But I’m sorry that our efforts did not give you the context you needed to understand the business direction. Second, we have tried hard to build a fun, dynamic and caring environment that works for all our stakeholders – our clients, our candidates and each other. This is really important to me and I’d welcome the opportunity to discuss with you where you feel we miss the mark on this and understand why it wasn’t possible to give this feedback whilst you were with the company or during the leaving process. Thanks again for sharing your opinion so that I and others can reflect on it and think about ways we can adapt and improve. I genuinely care about the company, our team, our clients and candidates and I truly believe we are set up to thrive. Ben Wilson - CEO
1.0
10 Apr 2018
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

A dreadful company likely to set back careers

Cons

Run by a bunch of uncaring nutters that have overly convinced themselves that they are competent businessmen look under the surface and all you get is void and nasty recrimination for any candidate or client that even queries their outrageous billing practises

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Grovelands Response
8y
We will not be giving this review any credence due to the false and inaccurate information. At Grovelands we are proud of our stable and long serving director base of whom are solely based in Brighton. At no time have we had a director in London, this confirms the dishonesty in this review. Ben Wilson - CEO
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Glassdoor has 57 Grovelands reviews submitted anonymously by Grovelands employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Grovelands is right for you.