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      Future

      Engaged Employer

      Future reviews

      3.2

      44% would recommend to a friend

      (714 total reviews)

      Kevin Li Ying

      60% approve of CEO

      36% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      3.6

      Diversity & inclusion

      3.3

      Work/Life balance

      3.1

      Culture & values

      3.0

      Compensation and benefits

      2.8

      Career opportunities

      2.7

      Senior management

      Future has an employee rating of 3.2 out of 5 stars, based on 714 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Future employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Media & Communication industry (3.7 stars).

      Ratings by demographic groups

      Reviews by job title

      714 reviews
      1.0
      Sep 19, 2017

      Preoccupied with appearing successful, neglecting everything else

      Production editor
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Talented rank and file staff who have genuine passion for their subjects Produces some best-in-class products Decent IT/services infrastructure Bath offices have been recently refurbished and are very nice

      Cons

      Below average pay (even by publishing standards) Terrible career progression options, particularly on the editorial/creative side Management increasingly treating editorial as a 'content farm', where people are easily replaceable, regardless of their experience or talent Constant budget cuts every year - staff are routinely expected to do more with less, with no real care for how that will impact them Patronising management ethos where insulting company 'values' are pushed (even to the point of having them printed in foot-high letters on the office walls) when they mean nothing, and serve no purpose Minimal benefits - there's a Bupa scheme and you'll get a few quid off a Mission Burrito if you show your ID, but that's about it Constant threat of redundancies/magazine closures - in the decade I worked there, Future had at least four large-scale redundancies. Since the last round, they regularly made people redundant in smaller numbers every few months to draw less attention

      avatar
      Future Response
      8y
      We appreciate the time you have taken to offer this detailed feedback. We are always looking for ways to improve. We have introduced a new People and Culture team, led by one of our Executive team, so that our people truly have a voice at the table. The team have started launching several initiatives, to gain more internal insight, to make Future a fantastic place to work. With these projects, such as regular feedback interviews, we are trying to make our workplace as transparent as possible for all employees on our commitment to deliver the things they think are important and certainly to surface any issues to the executive team. For us to keep moving forward we need to be able to adapt with the market and be agile. However, magazines are still a huge contributor to our revenues and we value the people that work incredibly hard to produce these. Future’s current position in this changing market is because of the employees and we are proud of their flexibility and dedication towards our amazing brands. It is true that we are a PLC and therefore we must always think commercially - our share price has risen substantially which shows that the market is responding well to our careful investments back into our business so we can diversify our revenue streams and continue to grow our business. We must stay ahead of the competition and this means making tough decisions, staying focused and constantly evaluating our operations and where our resources are best used. We wish you all the best in your future endeavours.
      4.0
      Jul 31, 2017

      Overal an average experience

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Autonomy - you are treated well by Line Management and left to do the job you are employed to do Senior Management have a good understanding of the industry

      Cons

      Lack of knowledge/experience of staff within company, career progression

      avatar
      Future Response
      8y
      Thanks for taking the time sharing your feedback. It is good to hear management is appreciated because of their place and knowledge of the industry. Part of this knowledge is the fact that our industry is very competitive and we need to keep moving forward to do business and continue to grow. This means that every day we need to reconsider and refocus where we are going to invest. Graduates are certainly a part of this journey as we look to hire talent that can adapt with the business as it grows! So far we have established a good base from where we keep working to improve our work atmosphere for the employees as well as being competitive in the market.
      2.0
      Jul 16, 2017

      Great people, terrible pay, struggling industry.

      Art editor
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      • Very sociable – you'll meet some great friends. • You'll learn a lot. This company is full of people who are brilliant at what they do. • You'll work on some great products. Future manage to output a consistently high standard. • It's all special-interest magazines, so you get to work on something you really care about.

      Cons

      • Incredibly bad pay. • It's all special-interest magazines, so you get to work on something you really care about… but the powers-that-be are aware of that, and they will take advantage of that with crappy pay and zero other incentives to work there other than the very occasional free donut. • Almost zero chance of being internally promoted to a senior position beyond editor level; these are only taken by a clique of staff (some great, but some godawful and struggling to stay relevant) who have been there since the 90s, or have come straight in at a higher position. • Pretty much no benefits package or incentives other than pension and Bupa. The canteen used to be a Starbucks, then it was Costa, then it was eventually a terrible, nondescript company who were only there because they under-cut every other caterer for the contract. That's not massively important in itself, but it's kind-of representative of where the company once was and where it is now. • They cancelled the Christmas party for a number of years - the only yearly party – so staff organised their own (most of the staff are pretty awesome like that). But Future failed to notice until they jumped on it last-minute and put some money into it. It was a bit pathetic, and unfortunately testament to how much effort they bother putting in. Come on, Future – if you're going to put everyone on low salaries, at least try and look like you care once a year. • Historically, there have been wide redundancies every couple of years. • Internal budgets cuts mean everything needs to be done on a shoe-string.

      avatar
      Future Response
      8y
      Thanks for offering this thorough feedback. We always appreciate feedback as we want to continuously improve and be a great employer to work for. Since your departure, we have created a People and Culture team, led by one of our Executive team as well as delivered a company wide project to make Future a fantastic place to work by making everything accessible for our people. We have been interviewing our current employees to gain their feedback so we can understand what’s important to them and so we can commit to delivering things or be transparent about what might need to be a longer term piece of work. Working in a very competitive market we need to keep reviewing and re-focussing where to invest our assets to maintain our market position and keep delivering our strategy. This often requires tough choices to be made on where we should invest and what luxuries we might have to forego. We are doing a huge push on our company values and our culture to create Future’s ‘Ways of Working’. Which we hope will engage and stimulate all of our fantastic people. We are proud of our past, we’ve gone through some very tough times, but we are now in a positive phase of strong growth and we look positively to our future.
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      Glassdoor has 788 Future reviews submitted anonymously by Future employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if Future is right for you.