Supportive Company - Researcher Rowan Group (Manchester) Employee Review

Decent office in central Manchester

Don't join here if you value autonomy, a mature working environment or just being treated like an adult. Owner Paul Waite is a great rec con. However, he involves himself in everything from operations, marketing, internal recruitment, training etc etc - none of which he is qualified or knowledgeable in. The 'directors' in the company essentially just do what Paul tells them to do. Fortunately he has shocking attention to detail and is pretty easy to fob off with a few platitudes/flattery. If you do what Paul says, you'll stay, if you don't, he will find a way to manage you out or make your experience bad enough that you quit. My experience there was that essentially everyone was cracking on with their job and placating Paul at the same time, telling him what he needed to hear to get him to go away and let them do their job. The other main issue is the software product 'leadership dynamics'. This is a very expensive program that seems to quantify leadership traits by - wait for it - scouring the candidate's LinkedIn profile for the cheaper version and getting them to answer a questionnaire for the pricier version. It can be gamed very, very easily. It uses a complicated set of algorithms to do this, and you have lifelong rec cons trying to understand this and communicate it to clients. It's a shitshow and completely unnecessary IMO, not to mention unfair on the candidates it is trying to evaluate.

Great team culture; everyone is involved and everyone is rewarded. It's a team effort and everyone makes the effort to lift each other up and it really does promote such a positive and empowering environment to work in. Teams share best practice and knowledge with each other and whilst there is a hierarchy, you really wouldn't know it. Management are down to earth and realistic and I honestly can't remember that last time I worked in a business where the Director took time out of their schedule to check in on me and my world, taking feedback on onboarding and how I've settled in etc. There's a genuine level of care and interest in Employees. Ideas are listened to and welcomed and the rewards are just fantastic. Team managers nurture and empower you to be the best you can be and get to know your strengths and areas of development and work with you to fill any gaps. I have been in sales, internal recruitment and HR and this is by far the most rewarding, supportive, positive and friendly atmosphere I have ever worked in.

Not really a con as it's not the business and just the industry - But if you don't plan properly your workload will get on top of you and you could miss deadlines. But your're part of a team and managers do help you stay focused with that.