Abandon Hope All Ye Who Enter Here - Skills Coach GP Strategies Limited Employee Review

IF you enjoy being bullied, a name shame and blame culture, favouritism, fraudulent activity, professional jealousy, woeful management, inept senior management, compulsive lying, constant threats of job loss, being made to feel worthless and generally having your soul destroyed, then this is definitely the place to be. To begin with, there is no specific job training, this was abandoned as it cost too much money to group people together and pay for them to stay in Stockport for a few days. Rather, targets are instantaneously assigned and demands made to hit them, or the road. Be prepared to complete pointless modules of training, that has nothing to do with your job. There is a four-week employee induction plan, which is a complete farce. From the word go, you are on your own to work it out with the most minimal assistance. This is not an exaggeration, more an honest and impartial insight to a company that is hideously poor at onboarding. There is a concept of shadowing experienced colleagues, however this very quickly turns into counselling sessions and opportunities to identify deep rooted issues, oh and bad practice to help you "get by" You can't help but feel desperately sorry for colleagues that have been assigned to look after you, as its clearly stopping them from achieving their own targets. Once you have grasped the concept (and lucky enough to not be on a PIP or warning for not hitting targets) and experienced a few meetings. It is at this point when it is truly apparent that you have made a massive mistake by joining this company. Trust is a huge issue, you will be micromanaged and your daily activity will be challenged constantly, only to be told you are lying and not doing your job and considered a liability. Be prepared to be constantly lied to. An example of this is being asked to complete certain tasks with confirmation that they will count towards personal targets, then of course senior management denying this conversation ever happened, as their boss is curious about how certain numbers have been achieved. Oh, and yes, you will be blamed for "fudging numbers". The Vice President (whom considers himself a dictator) will lead a two-hour sermon once a month to express his displeasure at more or less every region by picking people out and demanding answers on how things will be fixed, after he has threatened everyone with job losses. You must sit quietly, obey and listen for the full duration and don't even think about asking questions or challenging anything, you will be dealt with. Dare you ask any reasonable question; you will be sharply and abruptly reminded that you are not following company protocol in speaking to your line manager, whom will then consider whether the masters, sorry, senior management need to know about your issue. There is NO leadership, only blame, no sharing of ideas, just "get on with it". The regional director for London, the ultimate ‘yes woman’ and driver of the bus using you as a speed bump. A master of making you feel like you are the only person in the universe that matters and then happy enough to deny any association and blame you for everything. There is such a thing as local management, which is purely ceremonial. No decisions can be achieved until the SMT are consulted and good luck with that! Trying to communicate with anybody beyond your regional management is strictly forbidden, but also impossible, as your thoughts, suggestions and ideas are of no value. Any aspirations of career development/advancement are pure lies, there is no interest in furthering anyone's career. You will be offered a made-up job title to keep you in your place for at least a few more months before you realise, nothing’s going to happen. Diversity. OK... Almost non-existent! For a company of this size, in the UK and to only have a handful of people from minority/other backgrounds, is astonishing. This can be addressed at every level of the business and it seems as though blissful ignorance to an obvious issue is preferred to addressing it. I genuinely do not know the rationale behind this; but having interacted with the recruitment team and witnessing varied and blended applicants, the appointments certainly did not represent a similar balance. This is not an attempt to identify mistreatment or deliberate actions, more a case of unconscious predisposition. The recruitment team is constantly reminded that nothing less than twelve sign ups of new learners is acceptable, yet Skills assessors are completely overwhelmed with existing learners, including those that are out of funding. I’m still trying to figure out this logic. It is the skills assessor’s team that suffer the most, with some of them with a case load in triple figures and unbelievable demands to get learners over the line, despite insurmountable issues. For those skills assessors’ that give up and rightfully leave the business, the case load will be left alone until the next person is hired to face the same issues and be instantly blamed for non-compliance. INCREDIBLE. Customer and learner care are non-existent, its nothing more than lip service to retain employers’ trust. This has probably got to be the most soul-destroying part of the job, trying to convince people to keep on using a service that cannot be delivered as promised. At the risk of this review turning into even more of an epic rant, I must add that there are some wonderful people that work for this company, whom are genuinely trying to make a difference. However, it’s the very same these people that are slowly but surely realising that working for this organisation is nothing more than a hideous drain upon their professionalism and work ethic. My advice? AVOID, YOU ARE BETTER THAN THIS!