IRIS Software Group

1.0

4 Aug 2020

Account manager

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

Friendly staff across the sales floor and low level management isn't too bad.

Cons

The business has become completely ruthless recently. Last week, over 20 members of the Field Sales team were axed on the spot. This resulted in the business undergoing a complete organisational reshuffle across sales for both new business and business development. The remaining sales staff were left to soak up the targets of the 22 axed employees on top of their existing targets and expected to sell products they'd never dealt with previously. No training was offered in advance. No planning or preparation was done. It was just completely in at the deep end and completely blind. Targets have been readjusted so that people who are on higher basic salaries are targeted SIGNIFICANTLY higher (over £100K difference for the year) despite being restricted to the same data and marketing as others with lower targets on their team. This means people who worked their socks off over the years for pay rises in their annual reviews are now being punished with completely unrealistic targets which will categorically prevent them from earning a penny of commission. Lower level Management generally do not have a clue what is going on and are forced to play messenger for the big wigs. Usually at their own expense. The business decided to cut the quarter short by half a week at the end of July which forced any sales from the final 3 working days to be taken off their quarter's commission. This decision was made out of the blue with no warning and the CSO didn't even have the decency to put out an official communication. He let Team Managers deliver the news to their teams who were obviously furious to be losing out on money during a difficult time. The new CSO has had multiple calls booked in with the sales function which he has cancelled REPEATEDLY. People just want to know where they stand. When he finally attends his meeting he rambles for 15 minutes and will only accept a maximum of 3 questions from the entire sales floor. There's 30+ of us. All completely clueless and being kept in the dark and wanting to know answers. The business bombard us with fake positive messaging daily such as #GIVINGBACK, #1RIS and #ONETEAM but this couldn't be further from the truth. There is a huge disconnect between sales and the leadership team. The business sent out bottles of Wine/Prossecco to everybody who had avoided the chopping block this week but it has been laughed at as nothing more than an empty gesture by anybody on the sales floor with half a brain. They've been completely ruthless with how they've operated recently and a £15 bottle of fizz isn't going to rectify anything. There are multiple products in IRIS's portfolio that do not have anybody with any expertise across the entire company due to redundancies as Senior Sales Executives and Specialists who looked after those products have been let go of. This will result in more unhappy customers later down the line. But IRIS don't care.

IRIS Software Group Response

I am very sorry that you have been affected by the recent restructure in our Sales organisation and I appreciate you taking the time to leave a review. I must start by politely correcting your assertion – due to the impact of Covid-19 and associated operational changes we underwent a limited redundancy process within the Sales function. As always, this included a lengthy consultation process, with all affected staff given the opportunity to discuss ways to avoid the redundancy and encouraged to apply for other roles within the organisation, as well as receiving fully paid time off for training or other interviews should they wish and extensive mental health support and guidance throughout. None of this was entered into lightly, and where redundancy was unavoidable, the company funded outplacement support and an ex-gratia payment to help them into their next chapter. It is our upmost commitment to treat affected employees with the dignity and respect they rightly deserve. The recent day-early quarter close was designed to support accurate forecasting and customer delivery experience (rather than to reduce payments!) and certainly didn’t impact the overall commission employees receive – all closed deals are always eligible for commission. There have been many changes within Sales to give everyone the best opportunities for success and we have done our upmost to share the benefits and been transparent about the impact of the changes on a regular basis. The wider transformation is exciting as it enables us to share expertise and provide greater opportunities for employees across the IRIS family, it increases the potential for cross selling to support our growth, and it helps us provide the best possible service to our customers. We have also increased the training and development resources on offer for all our salespeople to support them in meeting targets. Sales enablement training sessions are now also available in a variety formats, focusing on our products and solutions with the addition of a dedicated platform for sharing content, guides and demos. It is important to me that we empower our salespeople with everything they need and to ensure that, have also created a specialised team of product and presales experts to support them. Unquestionably, we must have the right tools to recognise those who deliver high and exceptional performance, and we have launched a new Sales club (Elite Club) which offers an end of year trip for our highest performing salespeople and a number of encouraging awards along the way. Throughout these changes, as the Chief Sales Officer, I have held weekly ‘All Sales’ calls in addition to specific announcement calls to make sure that the changes were discussed and opportunities afforded to ask and receive answers to questions and concerns from everyone. I have further encouraged employees to ask me any questions directly, I have listened to feedback and provided more information whenever necessary and so I’m sorry to hear that you didn’t feel confident to come forward at the time. I would encourage you to reach out to me, or another of the Sales leadership team with your feedback so that we can help in any way we can. Kind regards, Chris Smith – Chief Sales Officer

Punishing Long Serving Staff - Account Manager IRIS Software Group Employee Review

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