Simply Business reviews

3.6

57% would recommend to a friend

(306 total reviews)
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David Summers

78% approve of CEO

56% positive business outlook

Simply Business has an employee rating of 3.6 out of 5 stars, based on 306 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The Simply Business 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

306 reviews
2.0
Apr 1, 2021

Top heavy structure and slow paced delivery mindset

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

1. Wellbeing is taken very seriously here. 2. Dependent on your mindset (this could be a pro or a con) work output is not challenged and is low.

Cons

1. Top heavy structure. There are MANY MANY managers here and created roles that i know for a fact few understand. Where there is concern about velocity and or deliverables the answer always seems to be to throw resource at the problem...hire lots of Managing Directors to discuss. The problem is few of these people seem to have the want or assertion to actually make quick decisions. Pontification is the 'go to here' with Governance processes added that really seem to add another layer of unchallenging conversation, when really the elephant in the room is "given the sheer quantity of people being hired, why are there still so manyof the same urgent priorities taking months and years to be discussed and delivered?" 2. Tech composition - the way tech is structured is unlike anywhere i have worked before. Tech people are treated like Gods: given massive training budgets and Level up ability Vs all other roles. The way this division is treated has resulted in many abusing the system, delivering little and offering pitiful excuses that just would not be accepted time and time again. The velocity of tech is extremely low, they are not monitored or challenged anywhere near enough as recruitment in this area is challenging, and i feel those that are here can get away with blue murder. Again the construct does not help here, there are many roles within tech that seem to be duplications of effort and have been created to retain rather than for an absolute need in that area. I wish management would seriously review the construct of set teams and seriously consider building teams based on projects, allowing for fluidity of skill set and movement...rather than as it stands where you are forced to endure sometimes extremely poor attitudes and velocity outputs which when challenged are dismissed...why?...because tech rules that is why!! 3. No sense of urgency - honestly things move at a glacial pace here. If you enjoy stringing stuff out then it is wonderful and i argue is the reason why so many people stay but in all honesty there is no sense of pace here. Bonuses are not performance related which does not assist with motivation. 4. There is very limited knowledge as to company performance due to data access being difficult to easily access and analyse...Looker and Sherlock are not intuitive tools, indeed the labeling and subsets of data mean that you need people to review any dashboards you create before making any assumptions. I wish data was accessible in a more user friendly package i honestly feel it would allow those of us who want to understand the business, a much better chance of finding opportunities and access points. 5. Deep exploration and entrepreneurial discovery is not encouraged however much the business tries to state so in interviews. In reality, work is booked out for months and years against a massive roadmap which is ever growing with legacy and tech debt clean up work. 6. The Unique Selling Point of this business i.e. its flexibility has gone. More and more companies are now offering flexible hours and working from home as and when you want. If you asked me now what makes people stay, i would say the incredibly low work output requirements and complete lack of urgency. I think those who are career driven are hanging in here until the economy opens back up to make a move, although i have noticed a spike in people leaving this month post bonus which is unlike anything i have seen before. Maybe watching those that are ambitious leave could be the push the company needs to reassess?

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Simply Business Response
5y
Thanks for leaving such detailed feedback. We really do value the thoughts of current and former SBers, and recognise that getting the honest thoughts of our people – through both Glassdoor and our regular internal surveys – is crucial for us to continue making Simply Business the best possible place to work. We know that one of the benefits of Glassdoor is that it’s anonymous (as our internal surveys are of course), but if you would like to discuss any of your concerns in more detail, a member of our people team would welcome an open, honest conversation. Failing that, we’ll try to address your points below. Just to touch briefly on the positives before replying to your wider concerns. We really are proud that our efforts and commitment to our employees’ wellbeing is something you believe we’re doing well in. It’s always been high on the SB agenda, and we believe it’s more important than ever to invest the right amount of time and energy on wellbeing given the challenges of the last 12 months. Regarding your thoughts on the structure of our teams, this is really useful to know. With ambitions to continue to grow the business – at pace – we recognise that getting the right people in the business, and setting our teams up for success is vital. Equally, it’s just as important that our people feel empowered to make the right decisions, and we’re always considering ways to give our teams the autonomy they need to work effectively. As a company that prides itself on agility, the ability to deliver value for our customers at pace is crucial, and it’s good to get your take on this.Approaching 800 SBers globally, it’s crucial that our structure flexes and grows with us. Growing at such pace inevitably comes with challenges – we appreciate your thoughts and will consider how we can provide more clarity in this area. We believe that all of our teams should have the information to make the right decisions – so it’s a shame to hear that you feel this isn’t always necessarily the case. We’re proud of our award-winning data capabilities and will continue to invest in this area to make sure we’re improving further – with transparency, and empowerment for all teams a key priority. In terms of wider business performance, we do try to make this information readily available – and digestible with frequent company-wide communications, and broader quarterly all-hands sessions. We’ll consider how we can do an even better job on this front to make sure our whole team feel clear about the direction of travel for the business. On your point about flexibility specifically, we totally agree. We’re proud to have been pioneers in the way we shaped flexible working for many of our people, but in 2021 we’re no longer the only business who thinks this way. We’re working hard to understand how we best embrace a world that has changed massively in the last 12 months, making sure that Simply Business can continue to be industry-leaders in this regard – while maintaining our unique sense of culture. We’re so proud to have so many talented, ambitious people in the business, and know that this level of ambition is absolutely matched in our plans for the future. We know it’s our job to offer careers that are challenging, fulfilling and diverse enough to embrace this and are proud of the progress so many people have made in their careers at Simply Business. We take your thoughts on this really seriously, and can promise you that we’re constantly exploring ways we can help support our team’s learning and development. Thank you again for sharing your feedback with us. It really is so important for us to learn how our people are feeling, and each of your points will be picked up with the relevant teams and individuals. Again, if you’d like to have a conversation with anyone from our People team to drill into these points further, we’d be happy to chat.
1.0
Jun 14, 2021
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

- Overall company culture is positive

Cons

- Boring - Slow - Bullies tolerated - Product debt - Some tech leads refuse to have their teams improve things because they'd rather do more tutorials. - Architecture makes no sense

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Simply Business Response
5y
Thanks for taking the time to share your feedback on your experience at Simply Business – we value all thoughts, both positive and otherwise, and use these to inform conversations on how we can make SB the best possible place to work. Firstly, it’s really pleasing to learn you have a positive view of our culture – it’s something we’ve worked hard to maintain as we scale during an ambitious period of growth, and all of our people can be proud to have supported this. With regards to your feedback on both pace and how exciting your work is, this is disappointing to learn. We want SB to be a place where people feel challenged and – given our record of growth, and the ambitious plans set out for the coming years – believe that is the case for most. It’s particularly alarming to read about your feedback on bullying – this is absolutely not tolerated across the business, and if you feel comfortable sharing more information on this, we’d welcome a private conversation so that we can understand more and look to address any issue. Thank you again for leaving this review – we’ll make sure this feedback reaches the right people.
2.0
Mar 19, 2017

Massive inertia

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* Pretty flexible about remote work (up to 100% of the time) * Informal culture * Good work/life balance that is actually encouraged

Cons

The culture feels a bit orwellian as almost everybody seems to believe the company is the best place to work for. Due to this fact there is virtually no place for criticism as all complaints/requests/ideas are dismissed on the grounds of everything being superb in the Best company. You can see it even from the responses here on Glassdoor. To name some: * The office is overcrowded, there is no privacy at all. There are constant interruptions, so focused work is almost impossible. * The team seems to be obsessed with meetings and considers that to be the true agile approach (Hint: It's not, there are almost no uninterrupted time slots to actually deliver the work). * Design by committee is widespread. Everybody inputs on everything, nobody is actually accountable/responsible for the chosen path. * Tech competency of senior tech management is generally pretty low. Implemented solutions are of a poor quality ...over and over again. * Career path is more based on your participation in office politics as opposed to being evaluated on your true input. * The bureaucracy overhead is just unacceptable. Some simple requests (like expenses) took several months, some stuff was delivered in a broken state (violating the law) or not delivered at all. Honestly, I feel the idea of everything being awesome (but in fact being far from perfect) prevents any major change. I just gave up.

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Simply Business Response
9y
Thank you for your comments. Feedback is important to us in every form and I especially appreciate you calling out some of the areas you think we can improve. We have recently completed our employee survey, where we give everyone a confidential platform to share feedback, and we take the output of this very seriously. Good luck for the future and thank you for sharing your experiences.
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