Forward Financing reviews

4.8

96% would recommend to a friend

(289 total reviews)
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Jason Mullins

99% approve of CEO

97% positive business outlook

Forward Financing has an employee rating of 4.8 out of 5 stars, based on 289 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The Forward Financing employee rating is 33% above average for employers within the Financial Services industry (3.6 stars).

Reviews by job title

289 reviews
1.0
Jan 15, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The actual employees that work here are great. Before COVID, we had awesome happy hours and events, and I really enjoyed getting to know my team. My assumption is that these things will hopefully continue once it's safe to do so (post-COVID).

Cons

The leadership is really sub-par. They completely micromanage and don't have faith in their teams to actually do their jobs. Oversights is OK, but they have absolutely no faith in the people they hire. They talk about hiring "A Players" (which is a very outdated model that can lead to a lack of diversity), but then they don't trust these A Players to do their jobs. Our most senior leaders in the company are heavily involved in the day to day to the point where junior employees wonder why they are even here. When the pandemic hit, they had to lay off some employees, and furlough employees. That is hard for any company to go through. But the entire process was very poorly managed. The week after the first round of layoffs, we had a company-wide huddle, where our Event Planner played "Don't Stop Believing" as the introduction to the meeting. It was bizarre. For those of us that remained post-layoff and furloughs, we were forced to switch into different roles that promised career growth and opportunity. These were roles in completely different areas of the business. However, instead of being growth opportunities, they worked us to the bone and gave us no work life balance. I feel glued to my computer and work 60+ hour weeks. And I'm NOT compensated enough for that. Before I joined, they talked so much about their product - the Merchant Cash Advance (MCA) and how it came from a desire to help small businesses. The pandemic really showed us that it isn't the case at all. These customers often don't know what they are signing up for and Forward Financing takes advantage of that. I also don't understand why P&C asks people to fill out Glassdoor reviews. They're anonymous, but then somehow P&C will follow up to "check in" if you completed it. That's why I made my title on here Anonymous. If they are asking people to fill it out, it could be really obvious who it is, and that's why you see so many positive reviews on here. Honestly, I would not recommend working here. The cons far outweigh the pros.

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Forward Financing Response
5y
Thank you for sharing your feedback. We strive to build an environment where employees feel empowered to take ownership of their work, are listened to, and have a positive work/life balance. Our business was impacted by the sudden closure of many of our small business customers at the onset of COVID last spring. To make sure our customers could get the support they needed, we asked some employees to take on new responsibilities temporarily. However, no one at Forward Financing should be working 60+ hours a week at any time. We encourage candid feedback and provide multiple channels for employees to raise concerns, including anonymous feedback through Officevibe, scheduled monthly one-on-ones with members of the People & Culture Team, and regular check-ins with managers. Moving forward, we welcome you to share how you’re feeling through one of those channels so that we can address your concerns and make changes to your workload. When a customer receives funding from us, we explain the contract’s details over the phone to ensure they know what the product is and what they can expect from us. For example, when a customer’s revenue has decreased, we work with them to find a payment plan that works for their business. Over 90% of our 800+ Trustpilot reviews are 5 stars, and many comment on our great customer service and flexibility. We follow Glassdoor's best practices (https://www.glassdoor.com/employers/blog/employee-engagement-dos-donts/) by asking interviewees, new hires, and employees to share their feedback on Glassdoor. Our hope is that it gives future employees a sense of what it is like to work at Forward Financing, and that we can understand what is going well and what we can improve on. We never ask or require employees to share positive feedback - our only request is to submit an honest review. We’re committed to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in all that we do. We have an active DEI committee that meets regularly where ideas are shared and acted on to improve diversity in hiring. We welcome you to join our DEI community to share your thoughts on how we can improve our hiring process. If you would like to discuss this in more detail, please feel free to email peopleandculture@forwardfinancing.com. Every team member plays an important role at Forward Financing and in helping our customers, so we want to make sure that you and all employees feel supported and appreciated for your contributions.
1.0
Oct 17, 2020

Scam Artists

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Cool culture and fun events

Cons

This company is absolutely pathetic. They claim to be the most transparent and most caring about their employees. However, they are just filled with lies to try and keep people happy so they will shut up. All of these "positive" reviews you see on here are from current employees that were asked (forced) to put them up there... Or they come from the HR team. Those employees are probably afraid if they don't do it then they will get fired. Upper management has no clue what they are doing and honestly they do not care.  If you want to be left in the dark about everything that goes on.... then this could be a good fit for you. Otherwise, I would run.

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Forward Financing Response
5y
Thank you for sharing your feedback. Like many other companies interested in understanding employee sentiment, we invite employees to write an anonymous review about their experience working at Forward. We do not ask or require our team members to write positive feedback. Especially now that we are working remotely, we want to know what’s going well and what isn’t, to resolve problems promptly. We’re especially sorry to hear that you feel like there’s a lack of transparency. Ensuring that our team feels informed and connected is one of our top priorities. For example, we want team members to understand what’s expected of them, what they’re doing well, and how they can improve by providing timely performance feedback. Also, we send out a weekly anonymous survey inviting team members to include questions or comments to be addressed by the leadership team in the weekly company-wide huddles. If you have other recommendations on how we can create a greater sense of transparency, please feel free to email the People and Culture team at peopleandculture@forwardfinancing.com. Thank you!
5.0
Sep 21, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Involved leadership Forward thinking Great culture Cross department collaboration Fast paced and innovative

Cons

Office space growing pains Building out career paths was a goal when I left the company!

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Forward Financing Response
5y
Thanks so much for leaving us a review! We love to hear that you appreciated the fast-paced culture, collaborative environment, and involvement from the leadership team. Over the past year, we've built out career plans for each department and have moved into a new office space, and we're looking forward to providing even more career development opportunities in the new year! Thanks, Forward Financing
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Glassdoor has 295 Forward Financing reviews submitted anonymously by Forward Financing employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Forward Financing is right for you.