Great comany, but little regard for its staff - Anonymous employee Hargreaves Lansdown Employee Review

The last reviewer is correct, in the main. HL has become more and more bureaucratic and increasingly soulless. It used to be quite entrepreneurial, but now you feel like a cog in a wheel. Staff are seen purely as a cost, rather than an asset. Salaries and benefits are very low and employees are not rewarded for above-average performance. If you are ambitious and are looking to excel then I strongly suggest you look elsewhere. The company has thrown lots of money into HR and internal communications, which has done little other than increase bureaucracy levels further. The company continues to place shareholders before staff (the staff presentation with all arrows pointing to shareholders was a particular highlight!). Ironically, shareholders will be the ones left picking up the pieces unless the company starts investing more in staff and internal systems. We are struggling to cope with the rapid growth in client numbers, and service levels are declining. HL is a very bottom-heavy organisation so there are few opportunities for progression. Those that do occupy the higher roles are invariably only concerned with maximising their own salary. There are very few managers with good people skills. Most of the talented ones have left for pastures new. There are many control freaks in upper positions at HL - entrepreneurialism is generally stifled and don't even bother suggesting improvements/changes.