Unfulfilled Promises and a Time For New Leadership - Anonymous employee NCFE Employee Review

2.0
21 Aug 2023
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

I've worked for the company a good few years now and from joining its always been a company that was flexible around life and things like childcare, such as being able to do the school run in/around work and making the time back later on in the day. I joined under the old CEO and at the time the company for all it was fairly large had the feel of a small close-knit company. People seemed to really know each other. Covid didn't really do that any favours with working remote however this small company vibe seems to exist and people are keen to still know each other and other teams. The company (until recently please see cons) always had a good internal growth and promotion. There are people within the business who started in very junior roles and progressed and excelled into really senior roles. For me that was a massive selling point when telling friends to apply, not many companies have/had that. Currently I still see it as a pro but with the upcoming internal changes I don't know if that's something they can still offer.

Cons

Regrettably, there are areas of NCFE's current state that cast a shadow over upcoming jobs losses and reshaping of the company. Due to multiple failings by the exec team the business, people are now going to lose their jobs. Even looking at this it seems a bit of a shambles. Core roles to teams are being removed but newly created positions that are very low on the value add have survived. Follow that up with pay has drifted miles off course. NCFE ran an embarrassing exercise last year to slot everyone into sector related pay bands which should have led to opportunities to understand the next pay increment and how as an employee I should reach the next increment. By the time the first bit was announced it was out of date, and the second piece has failed to arrive.

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NCFE Response
2y
Thank you for taking the time to leave your review. We’re glad to see you’ve benefited from our flexible working and also recognise our fantastic colleague base, as well as the opportunities that have been available for growth, progression and development at NCFE. We understand that as NCFE goes through a period of proposed organisational changes to drive and enhance connectivity between teams and to ensure our future sustainability, this can cause uncertainty for colleagues. If you’d like to discuss any specifics on the proposed changes that are being implemented and are directly impacted, we’d advise you to feed your thoughts through your employee representative, as we do want to ensure everyone’s voice is heard. In terms of pay and reward, we’re sorry to hear of your disappointment with our pay bands. In August 2022 we introduced pay bands to create transparency for colleagues to progress through as part of their continuous professional development. We encourage all colleagues to take ownership for their personal development and our pay and reward policy outlines how you can progress through these bands. In reference to our leadership team, we understand how important this is to the success of the organisation and the wellbeing of our colleagues, and that’s why we benchmark our leadership capability annually and track on a quarterly basis through employee surveys. In 2023, our senior leadership team was rated as 85% favourable by colleagues, with 77% of our people saying they trust our Executive team to do what’s right for the organisation. Our Transformation programme, as you mention, is a long-term programme of change and in the last year, it’s delivered against some of its bigger milestones including a website integration, bringing together all qualifications, resources and specialist knowledge from the brands within NCFE into one central place, massively enhancing our customer experience. We’d encourage you to keep feeding back your thoughts, and we have a number of ways you can do this, including through our regular Hive surveys and their subsequent practical action planning. We also ask people to speak directly with our Executive team anytime on a 121 basis or through our monthly Connection Days and regular all-colleague events. We believe it’s important for colleagues to have the opportunity to speak up in a safe and confidential manner and therefore we remind you that we have a whistleblowing policy in place to enable you to do this, including the opportunity to speak to any of our Trustees to escalate issues.

Explore other reviews about NCFE

2.0
19 July 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

This is an amazing place to work if you are a junior manager (Team Leader) or below. You could learn loads. The flexibility and benefits are good and the volunteering opportunities are fabulous

Cons

If you want to progress to senior management, avoid this place like the plague. There is no support for senior managers and the atmosphere is ‘look after yourself’ and cut throat. Senior managers are left to fend for themselves and at worst pitted amongst one another with limited resources and the culture is blaming and hostile. Take the learning opportunities and progress to a mid management level - then, in the words of the previous CEO (they’ve been through a few C-suite) - ‘find your happy elsewhere’

8
4.0
15 June 2026
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Inclusive, supportive, friendly, strategic, values-based

Cons

Budgets can be limited, development opportunities

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