IRIS Software Group reviews

Money! Money! Money! Money is the main problem at IRIS. Run by accountants, the penny-pinching is laughable! During my last promotion, I was initially offered a salary after passing an interview, only for someone from HR to tell me that the offered salary was incorrect, and that only 10% pay rises are approved for internal promotions. 10%! I have been offered significant promotions with zero salary increase, and management were surprised when I immediately declined. This happened again recently and was one of the reasons I decided to leave. Furthermore, during the annual salary review, if you are among the lucky few to get an increment, what you receive is laughably below inflation and effectively a salary decrease. Regarding the actual salaries, when you start at IRIS, you may receive a reasonable salary; however, bear in mind that it is likely below market salary bandings, and you will be significantly above the salaries of many of your colleagues, which is another joke in itself. It is unlikely that your hard work will be rewarded with a salary increase. There are many responses from IRIS claiming they do their own research against market rate salaries, but this is false! Total rubbish! I found a new role very quickly; the salary I requested at IRIS following my promotion was scoffed at. My new employer genuinely said, "Is that it?" Numerous former colleagues who have also moved on had similar experiences. I am now being paid more in a more junior role, with less responsibility, than I would have been at IRIS in a more senior role. You will see replies from IRIS talking about an annual bonus, but it is important to highlight that this is based on company performance against very challenging sales targets. Additionally, it is not as straightforward as "there's a sum of cash" - IRIS has very poor KPIs for employees that dictate the bonus amount. If you are a manager and your employee rates the company low, you are encouraged to persuade your employee to change it, despite it being an anonymous survey. Otherwise, your bonus will be reduced based on factors beyond your control. As an employee, your manager can rate you as a high performer, but the HR team can and will mark you down to "on track," which reduces your bonus, based on arbitrary factors such as "not being on the high potential programme" - a programme that is a complete waste of time. It is obvious this is a malicious attempt to avoid paying out more money. Extending from the above, it is even more frustrating when you gain responsibility and work alongside contractors, seeing how much IRIS spends on them. It is sickening. One contractor was paid my annual salary in three months and worked as a junior on my team, despite me having direct reports. In some cases, these contractors are brought in for a very long time, and it is nauseating to think about the amount of money wasted on contractors, while key staff members are leaving voluntarily due to salary issues or being made redundant because jobs have been moved overseas (as these employees allegedly "cost too much"). Management is another group that falls under the cons of working at IRIS. There are two types of managers at IRIS: corporate shills who relay the company message without listening, and managers who genuinely want to help but are put in their place the moment they try to assist an employee. I belong to the latter group, and I have never felt as defeated leaving a place as I did leaving IRIS. I had a leaving call with a senior manager before I left, and he asked why I was leaving. I said the money is very poor, and I am being offered more elsewhere with less responsibility. He then went on a tangent about how profitable IRIS is - what a slap in the face. Profitable at the expense of paying staff! More recently, starting during the pandemic, IRIS shifted from a policy of 80/20 UK/Overseas to a position where all new roles are recruited overseas. The newer staff recruited overseas are often contractors from very cheap contracting companies, and it shows. They do not care about the products, services, or customers, and the quality of their work is embarrassing.