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
Mar 31, 2025

Culture Problems

Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Still a few good people left. Community feel amongst peers outside of work.

Cons

Toxic culture created by management. Company states it has a focus on improving the culture but it can't be fixed until management sort / see themselves out as the new management & management style is the problem. Working on the assumption that management aren't going to put their hands up and address that they are the issue, the culture will never be what it used to be which was when managers actually cared about their teams. The management style is now more akin to bullying in the workplace and blame (under the guise of accountability) than it is trying to develop your team. People speak up (multiple against one manager in some instances) and are told it's just the managers "management style". This seems to be a growing, common phrase now. High staff turnover in certain pockets of the business where management is particularly bad, never questioned or addressed. Engagement surveys from employees expressing dissatisfaction in the workplace swept under the carpet every year with no action or consequence off the back of them, instead focusing on trivial side questions or any positive available. Average / below average pay Downsized office size just before doubling the quota for people having to come into the office, result is not enough parking so have to park off site if you don't get in early enough and thats if you can actually get a seat in the office when teams are having team days (frequent). Redundancies happening on the quiet after what appeared to be open transparency that no more would be coming, as if no one in the office talks and will learn about them or notice people disappearing around them.

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Simply Business Response
1y
Thanks for your detailed feedback. We appreciate the complexity of the issues you've raised and have addressed the key points below. We welcome further discussion on any of these topics and encourage you to contact our People team. We're always looking to improve, and open, honest conversations are a great place to start. We understand that our culture is shaped by the interactions of our employees and the People Team is available to support healthy dialogs. Fostering positive relationships within our community is important to us, and we believe that our strong employee engagement scores reflect the positive aspects of our culture. However, we also recognise that there is always room for improvement, and we welcome feedback on how we can make our workplace better. We're committed to continuously investing in our culture and maintaining a positive work environment. Market changes and opportunities sometimes require us to be agile and adapt our strategies as a fast-growing company. We strive to keep our employees informed and encourage you to reach out to your manager or People Partner with any questions about changes in our strategic direction. Thanks again for taking the time to share your thoughts, and please do consider reaching out for a further conversation – we’d love to explore this in more depth via an open conversation.
3.0
Jan 19, 2019

Mixed experience

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

* Fun, informal office environment. * Regular social activities * Flexible working * Budget available for training and exploring new technologies and initiatives. * Reasonable tech stack - 100% Cloud-based for the dev teams. * Currently working towards the B Corp certification. There is a genuine interest in the environment and giving back to charity and the community.

Cons

* The cons from the previous reviews (August and September 2018) are still valid. * Poor line management - it can be difficult to escalate issues. * Silos of knowledge can make it difficult to collaborate and cross-train, creating a lonely working environment. * Team politics. Long-timers can be protective of their products and ways of working. This does not bode well for a company that is trying to rapidly increase their headcount. * Struggling to retain staff due to the above.

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Simply Business Response
7y
Thank you for taking the time to provide feedback. All feedback is exceptionally helpful as we shape the future and strive to improve what we do and how we do it. I do believe we are making positive changes in the areas you have mentioned and I look forward to you experiencing these as we create a better experience for our employees at Simply Business.
1.0
Aug 18, 2018

Think twice about joining here

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

• Great CEO • Solid tech stack, compared to many other places in the tech industry • Continous learning • Very tech driven company

Cons

• No sense of team in that you very rarely go for lunch together, it’s very much an individual thing • Some old timers who’ve been their for a long time indoctrinate their team with archaic ways of working and are not open to change • A lot of team politics going on which is not the best thing to be honest • The tech team management structure is very corporate and hierarchical so you know your place on the food chain • A lot of people who’ve been there for a while are leaving

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Simply Business Response
7y
Thank you for taking the time to provide Simply Business with some feedback. We really try to emphasize the importance of team and creating an environment where people can speak out if they believe there are opportunities for us to create a better working environment, so this feedback is important to us. We wish you all the best in your career outside of Simply Business.
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