Exciting place to work but some growing pains - Anonymous employee Inner Circle Consulting Employee Review

Some really great and intelligent people.

- A recurring message from staff was that “not everyone can cut it here” - creating a toxic, exclusion atmosphere. The ways of working were individualist lacking support and using the idea that because ICC is ‘so fast paced and challenging’ not everyone will make it. Rather the company suffered from a lack of process, poor resourcing, and a culture of constant firefighting. - The office environment often felt tense and unwelcoming, with limited collaboration among teams. The office itself was also way to small for purpose so when everyone was brought in for ‘insights’ days people were not happy to be there. - Meetings were frequently unproductive, typically used for status updates rather than meaningful collaboration or problem-solving. - There was little to no emphasis on aligning teams around final deliverables; as a result, the most important aspects of delivery were often neglected. - Projects were consistently poorly scoped, with a recurring lack of clarity around deliverables. This led to constantly shifting goalposts and reactive, disorganised work. - Onboarding was virtually non-existent, and there was no meaningful training provided. Subject matter experts (SMEs), who were intended to support delivery, were often overextended and unavailable. - There was minimal support for staff wellbeing. Attempts to address stress and burnout (e.g., encouraging lunchtime walks) felt like superficial box-ticking rather than meaningful initiatives. - Emotional intelligence (EQ) was notably low with little or no appearance to care about things such a mental health or work stress. - Anxiety and burnout were widespread. Employees who did not experience these challenges often dismissed them outright, creating a lack of psychological safety. Overall a very poor and toxic work culture, would not recommend.

Some really nice, intelligent, kind people - most of which don't stick around very long because they are chronically overworked and undervalued

Where to begin? There is no regard for staff wellbeing in any way shape or form. Staff are crammed into a tiny office that isn't fit-for-purpose or accessible. There aren't enough monitors or desks for even a quarter of the London office. Then they mandate that everyone comes in on Fridays for Insight days where everyone crams into the office and has to essentially perch on top of a cupboard to take client calls. If people don't subject themselves to this they are criticised for not being "visible". The response to high-levels of stress and poor staff wellbeing that came out of staff surveys was to introduce an appalling series of 'personal resilience' training sessions. (You honestly can't make it up. The company they use to do these also has a 1.7 star glassdoor rating and reportedly also has a toxic culture. Glad we're learning from the best!) That doesn't even scratch the surface. Projects are always incorrectly scoped and resourced because of a lack of consulting capability and experience in leadership. The burden always falls to more junior members of staff, particularly SCs, to pick up the slack and work 70+ hour weeks to deliver. Leadership seem more concerned with LinkedIn posts and attending conferences than solving the very real problems within the organisation that create awful working conditions for their own staff. If you're thinking about working here, don't.