Doesn't live up to its own values. As one person said "'We are Different' - until it gets too expensive.
Working at Cuckoo a few years ago was great - there was growth, a hardworking and engaged team, and some company values that everyone could get behind.
Ambitious targets for sales were set which the business then aligned all of its other goals around. This included recruitment and planning. When those sales failed to materialise, in no small part due to delays to availability caused by the sister company APFN, this left a bloated and expensive headcount.
Redundancies were required, and at this point all values seemed to be thrown out of the window. Decisions were made to offshore the entire customer operations department, and the news of this was not delivered well. Some roles remained which did not make sense, while others that were critical in ensuring the company could maintain its values did not. Some of those that remained are currently occupied by friends of the SLT which left a very bitter taste for others.
It is clear that the business has no overall control of major decision making - these decisions are made by the investors at Fern and are based 100% on finances rather than customer service or employee experience. A new computer system, Kraken (connected to Fern) has caused nothing but problems and is not designed for a telecoms business. Any attempt to deviate away from 'the Kraken operating model' was met with a brick wall. It felt like being in a cult by the end.
After making over 100 people redundant, the People team are currently congratulating themselves on social media for being nominated for an Employee Engagement award.