SmileyWorld Reviews

3.5

63% would recommend to a friend

(31 total reviews)

Nicolas Loufrani

75% approve of CEO

61% positive business outlook

SmileyWorld has an employee rating of 3.5 out of 5 stars, based on 31 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The SmileyWorld employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Retail and wholesale industry (3.5 stars).

Reviews by job title

31 reviews
4.0
27 Jun 2019

Software engineer

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Very good company. Transparent and encouraging

Cons

No cons for this one

1.0
10 Oct 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Lovely open office space with lots of windows A cool brand and the brand has a lot of potential

Cons

I have worked at a number of companies - corporate and family-run businesses and I have never experienced such an unpleasant atmosphere in an office environment. A number of people in the senior management team create a horrible, toxic working environment for everyone else. This has a negative effect on everyone in the office. This could be a lovely place to work but these people ruin the atmosphere for everyone. There is no HR department! The lack of a HR department means that your concerns and complaints are rarely resolved. Some members of the management team are approachable, kind, professional, supportive and try their best to help but without a HR department, there is little they can do to help raise or resolve issues. I was made to feel upset, undervalued and worthless on a regular basis by my boss. I spent a lot of time crying at work and this led to feeling depressed and anxious. I raised these issues with the senior management however nothing much was done to resolve the issues due to a lack of a HR department. When nothing was done I raised my concerns directly with my boss, however there was no understanding of my concerns or suggestion on how we could improve our working relationship. Lots of people leave without other jobs to go to because they feel victimised and bullied. My pension contributions and the employer contributions were not paid into my pension scheme for over a year. I received a letter from my pension provider informing me that my pension balance was at £0. This affected nearly everyone in the business. I followed this up with the finance team at Smiley and it was resolved. However, if I hadn’t of complained and followed this up my pension would most definitely still be at £0 after 2 years of paying into it! This caused unnecessary stress and this is unbelievably immoral behaviour from Smiley. Taking our money and keeping it for themselves. Due to there being no HR department this wasn’t resolved in the correct manner - extremely unprofessional. A very untrusting and inflexible company. Working from home is not allowed under any circumstance, unless you are in the senior management team then you can rock up and leave work as and when you please. Unfortunately, I wouldn't recommend this company to anyone.

1.0
1 Feb 2019

A traumatic experience

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

You get paid. Sometimes it can happen on time; sometimes you're just expecting things to happen when they can. The people were nice, but they kept on leaving, so that's not going to be a pro anytime soon.

Cons

It's too chaotic and unpredictable even for people who come in with the most positive attitude eve and think their nerves are prepared for everything that can be thrown at them. Weird things happen behind closed doors, and there's always fear and panic in the air. There's no clear direction on things, and the high staff turnover doesn't help in that sense anyway. No career progression at all, titles don't reflect the work, and the pay doesn't reflect the work in return as well. The upper management hires creative people to make them execute things without listening to an external input, which can be incredibly frustrating at times. There's no continuity or logic for the work you're doing; you're always asked to chase things that only make sense for upper management. At times, it was a discriminatory environment for many people on all levels, and we had a fair share of weird showdowns and name calling in the office, which I hope I will never have to see anywhere else in a professional environment.

avatar
SmileyWorld Response
7y
Dear Contributor, Thank you for your feedback. We always try to hire creative people with a long and successful experience in category specific industries instead of people coming from a licensing background. This is because we believe that category expertise takes decades of passion and hard work while understanding the metrics of a licensing collaboration is relatively straight forward. Unfortunately, however, it can be more of a challenge for some. There have been a few examples over the past 20 years, as in your case, where our operating model was outside their comfort zone and abilities despite your many talents and expertise. As a company, we are truly sorry if our collaboration was not fruitful, we can assure you we have learnt from this experience. However we must clarify the following to you: We are not a discriminatory environment, during your time, 4 of our 5 in the senior management team were women, with the highest salaries in the company. 66% of our team is comprised of women, we have staff from 8 nationalities, we respect all sexual orientations and staff have never been refused requests to take a religious holiday or deal with private family matters, even when this has happened during our two most important trade shows. The payment of salaries has never ever been delayed! People can and do progress their career at Smiley. Over the past four years, there has been an average of 18% increase and up to 155% in our employees salaries, they also have better positions and titles. We even have a case of someone who started as a designer and who is now one of our top performers in new business development. Unfortunately, like in many small companies, there is a point where some cannot progress internally anymore and they depart. We are still in touch with many of them who have found great jobs and have higher salaries after leaving us, and are very proud to have mentored some of them. Nothing weird happens behind closed doors, we are actually working in a big open space, Offices and conference rooms have windows and staff working in front of them who can see everything at all times. All key decisions are being discussed during monthly Senior Management Team meetings. We conduct yearly appraisals, and answer all staff questions within 24 hours. Bullying is never tolerated in our company. This is something we constantly monitor and every instance of aggressive behaviour that has come to our attention has always been dealt with immediately. Yours sincerely, SmileyWorld Ltd
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Glassdoor has 36 SmileyWorld reviews submitted anonymously by SmileyWorld employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if SmileyWorld is right for you.