Standard Life plc Reviews

3.6

65% would recommend to a friend

(688 total reviews)
avatar

Andy Briggs

73% approve of CEO

57% positive business outlook

Standard Life plc has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 688 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Standard Life plc employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Insurance industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

688 reviews
1.0
28 Aug 2016
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Hi, I honestly think it's the worse company I have ever worked for. HR are a complete joke! They are completely disorganised and useless. I worked in there finance department where there is a lot of politics. It's my request to you all that please stay away from this company.

Cons

None - so like I said please stay away. Free lunch and infrastructure may sound amazing but trust me its not worth it.

avatar
Standard Life plc Response
9y
Hello, thanks for leaving a review on our Glassdoor page. We're sorry that you didn't enjoy your time with us, but we appreciate you letting us know about it. We take the onboarding of new employees very seriously; first impressions really do count! Our HR team has a range of processes that aim to ensure that new starters are inducted into the company in an engaging and comprehensive way. These include the Phoenix Green Room - a portal where new starters can find information on our functions, get an insight into their hiring manager, as well as day to day life at Phoenix - and an onsite HR team dedicated to each individual area of the business. We understand that this wasn't your experience, and we'll take your comments on board and see what we can do to make sure that everyone has a consistently excellent experience when they first join us.
2.0
1 Feb 2024

Where to begin

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Some decent people, recently changed the pay structure to reflect minimums and maximums for your role. Good bonuses. Some internal opportunities. Remote working.

Cons

- SEVERE lack of ethnic diversity. Marketing is a complete mess. - Everyone is overworked. - There's not nearly enough staff for the workload. - As a result everyone is under immense pressure and stress. - This results as an insanely pressurised environment that has no room for mistakes, or learning. - The culture then creates a tense atmosphere where people are getting more and more short and aggressive towards one another. - The only way to survive is to be in a clique with the land-grabbers and attention-seekers who only serve themselves and the talentless - CMO that thrives on making people work late and work weekends, otherwise they see you as not working hard enough. - HR are useless - There's no empathy for human beings in this company. Prepare for the cold shoulder if you go off sick or want to take time off. - CMO has problems with people taking time off during Christmas and Easter, so you'll have to fight to have those days off if you want to celebrate your religious holidays or spend time with your family you barely see because they've asked you to work so much. - Some colleagues have experienced calls at 11pm from the CMO, some working into the early hours as a result. - Edinburgh office is a cold and lifeless place - London office environment the same - End of Year ratings make no sense, there's a ratings tier they have that's impossible to reach so you'll never get the maximum bonus, ever. - Culture of accepted racism with colleagues openly calling someone 'coloured' on Teams calls with internal staff and external agency staff. - New starters are the people I truly empathise with, they've been sold something that doesn't exist at Phoenix.

avatar
Standard Life plc Response
2y
Thank you for taking the time to share your feedback. I am surprised by your review and concerned by the specific nature of your comments as this is not feedback we are hearing more broadly. We have not received any internal feedback or complaints regarding any of the points mentioned in your review. We have confidence in our people and in our business, as demonstrated by the facts mentioned below, and the internal feedback from our colleagues does not align to the points mentioned. I acknowledge your comments and would like to understand if there is any evidence to support this so that we can support you and address these specific points. I recommend you raise these comments via our internal channels which would be via your HR representative, People Leader or the confidential HR advice line. You are also welcome to contact me directly. We value diversity in all its forms. Racism is not accepted, and we take allegations of this nature seriously. In March 2023 we published our first ethnicity pay gap report, from April to September we ran ‘Inclusive Leadership’ training for our People Leaders and aspects of our recruitment process were classed as ‘Best in Class’ for all diversity lenses in a recent external audit. Our target for ethnicity representation across the Group was 13%, and we ended the year on 14.8%. This is published internally and externally for full transparency. We know that there’s more to do and I acknowledge that based on your review, some of this has not transpired in to your personal experience. Whilst your comments are not something we’re seeing anywhere else in the organisation, we are committed to continually taking on feedback, adapting our training and continuing to improve, so again, please get in touch using the contacts I mentioned above so that we can understand more about your specific experience. It’s impossible for us to help if we aren’t aware of this internally and we aren't seeing feedback of this nature relating to our CMO or the business more broadly in any other channel. We passionately believe that flexible working can help everyone thrive at Phoenix and embrace our differences across the business. What this means is that some people may choose and be able to work at different times of the day to fit around their home lives, but there is no expectation for other people to work to accommodate these different working arrangements. It is not a commonly held view that flexible working or annual leave is a challenge and your feedback describes a very specific instance that we are not aware of. Again, please contact me so we can understand more. Thank you again for taking the time to share your feedback. Whilst it’s good that you have some positive experiences, I recommend that you raise some of the specific points raised internally via the appropriate channels so that we can help. Please be assured that any further information you provide will be treated confidentially. Jane Avison Head of Talent Acquisition Operations & Employer Brand
3.0
14 May 2024
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The company as a whole is great. Excellent perks and support and really good pay and benefits.

Cons

Very poor marketing structure and CMO who has zero marketing experience and doesn't listen to the experienced team she has. Instead she keeps changes org charts and getting rid of talented people who aren't comfortable with her poor leadership experience.

avatar
Standard Life plc Response
2y
Thank you for sharing a review. I am concerned to read your comments and encourage you to contact me directly for a confidential discussion. We have seen reviews from marketing and have contacted colleagues internally to understand more as we have not received any complaints of this nature. Again, I encourage you to contact me directly for a further confidential discussion so that we can look in to this and support you further. Jane Avison, Head of Talent Acquisition Operations and Employer Brand
Viewing 1 - 3 of 688 Reviews

Glassdoor has 791 Standard Life plc reviews submitted anonymously by Standard Life plc employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Standard Life plc is right for you.