IRIS have successfully turned a profitable company with happy and knowledgeable employees, into the shadow of its former success.
There have been heavy redundancies over the last few years, with long standing staff leaving due to the increased pressure and lack of support from managers.
A significant amount of product knowledge has been lost, which is impacting the quality of support offered to customers.
There is a claim that they care about employees, yet every communication from the CEO tells us to love the customer; very, very rarely do we receive a thank you for keeping the nanny in their job.
We once used to receive a small token of appreciation at Christmas, which most people saw as a nice thing. We now receive a propaganda leaflet; again telling us we should love the customer!!
Every year it's disheartening when you are told at your review that you are excelling at your job, yet you know you are being paid less than market rate; no pay rises have been issued for many people since IRIS took ownership.
They have a bonus scheme, which is only issued to managers; again it really grinds you down when you hear them gloating about it.
Their so called benefits package is aimed at only a few employees (those who travel by train or cycle and like the gym). For the rest of us it's just dental care and the option to buy into a dodgy sounding voucher scheme for electrical products.
Whilst change was inevitable, the way they have gone about is abysmal. Rather than clearly setting out their intentions to each department, they much prefer to drip feed information via generic company emails and teams groups with other companies in the organisation. These groups tend to be discussions about multiple subjects and it takes time for it to become clear that they are actually setting up a new way of working.
Career progression is non existent and training is restricted to pre-approved soft skill courses. It's very hard to get training approved that relates directly to the role you are doing.
Management... how many layers of management does one organisation need? There are some genuinely nice people in the roles, yet the time taken to make a decision is multiplied by the number of levels of management in the department.
Having the financial backing of HG capital puts them in a great position to buy up the competitors, pull them apart and eradicate those brands from existence. Whilst this suits the way IRIS work, not many people have the feeling of long term job security.
If you do find yourself working here, bear in mind that other places will offer better career progression, salary and a feeling of worth.
