Could be better - Anonymous employee UNRVLD Employee Review

2.0
29 Nov 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Most of the people Most of the team are great. Happy to have worked with them. - A small amount of the projects Mostly legacy, but the new projects are incredibly exciting. - Exciting transition, new teams, etc. New design team, new inspiration, great bunch! - Staff outings The staff away days are fun,. - Staff equipment Equipment available when required or requested. - Location Central Cardiff/Manchester, short walk from the train station. No fuss. Easy for commuting.

Cons

- Salary For a competitive company, and all its claims of being a Platinum Sitecore agency, the salary is a joke. No salary review (definitely none during my time of employment there). - Staff benefits Fish out for these, they are there but tedious to get. - Process heavy Everything has a process. It creates a dull working environment. Even how to speak to people and requesting for things that are beneficial to the development of the company and its staff(i.e training) has a process. - Senior management team (minus a couple.) Excellent staff team lead by unqualified "leaders". Management style is poor, and once a staff member is deemed a 'bad egg' (i.e. not a 'lad', not into football, or is not extroverted or by personal opinions of other senior management staff), then there is no chance for progression, improvements, or contribution. In some cases, is frowned upon and does not fall under the controlled parameters of how a 'kagoolie' should behave. When this happens, the senior management team takes almost anything personally or out of context to make it personal - beware of what you say, even outside of the working environment, even if it has absolutely nothing to do with work. A lot of sugar-coating with words, barely any action taken. Slow to react at the important parts of running a business, but quick to react to petty things that could potentially create an undesirable working environment. - Favouritism Some staff are no doubt favourites of the senior management team, thus will receive more leniency and benefits - this is not how a company should run. - Culture Unfortunately, there is no culture at the company. There is however a culture outside of the company created by groups of staff. If this does not fall under the control of the senior management team, it becomes a nuisance to the business. - Very school-like/call center-like/ controlled Specific (very specific) dress-code. Certain attire are not allowed to portray a more professional environment (which is fine) - however, communicating that across to staff seems very school-like. No headphones allowed - this is uncanny for a software house. - Training Requesting training has a process. There is no training budget, and staff may be required to wait for a long period of time. Some staff require huge skill-ups to be able to perform their role, and delayed training only causes stress on the job. This may have changed and hopefully has. - Working hours / Flexibility There are some options of starting early and finishing early. Though this is limited.

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UNRVLD Response
7y
Thank you for taking the time to post a review even though you weren’t with us that long. All feedback is appreciated and considered carefully. Its constantly mentioned by current and ex-employees that the team are a great bunch to work with and we’re glad you felt the same. We also agree that the increased investment in building up our design capability is an exciting development in our journey as a company There are a number of points raised in the cons which we felt it important to comment on - Salary – we certainly are a platinum Sitecore agency but are honest in the fact we are not the size of a large global agency (with their resources). We do everything we can to make sure we are competitive and regularly benchmark the market using our in-house talent team. We think we do provide an attractive package and this does bear out in terms of our ability to attract and retain people. To also confirm, we do perform annual salary reviews and have consistently done over the last 20 years. Perhaps this didn’t happen during your tenure because it was less than a year? - Process – we run enough process to make sure we deliver a quality output. It’s important to ensure everyone is on the same page especially when scaling out quickly with our rapid growth. We agree if it was too heavy it wouldn’t work but we are a very successful agency and believe we have the balance right but we have a regular forum that feeds in improvements. - Leadership – All of our senior team joined Kagool following previous agency experience at a senior or board level. This has translated into leadership that is based on a foundation of expertise and knowledge. We also believe we are a meritocracy (no favouritism) as an example all internal positions (that might involve a promotion) are advertised with a process with members from other departments. 1-2-1s encourage a 2-way discussion on performance (usually monthly). - Culture / Environment – we firmly believe in empowering people and ensuring people have the tools to do their role. We do have some guiding principles, for example, the fact we prefer not to have headphones to encourage people to communicate and collaborate does make us different. Different good. Our culture is one around teamwork, responsibility, being smart and getting things done. We’re proud this has been independently recognised with IIP gold and Best companies accreditation. - Training – there is an annual training plan and budget. We recently made some improvements and now its done bottom up and top down. Everyone in the team has either received or scheduled for some training before the end of our financial year. Thanks again for the feedback. We will definitely consider it carefully to make sure we make Kagool even better!

Explore other reviews about UNRVLD

5.0
15 June 2018
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Unbelievably supportive and fantastic work environment. I worked with some of the nicest people I have ever met and greatly enjoyed my job. Employees socialize together and really get to know each other so it is a family-feel. A lot of companies talk about being a family but Kagool is one of those rare places where they actually practice it. Lot of opportunities for professional development.

Cons

None that I could see.

3
5.0
30 July 2025
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

UNRVLD is a grown up agency with an amazing client roster, some super smart people both across the business and in the management team and a very flexible hybrid working policy (the best I have experienced). I would describe it as overall a very balanced agency - it's ambitious without putting growth at all costs, gives all the advantages of working in an agency environment (fast paced/variety and lots of autonomy) whilst providing a supportive working environment that is true to its promise of respecting work life balance. The senior management team is approachable and actively involved in both client and employee relationships and I feel confident that if I raise any issues or escalate any client concerns these will be responded to. Almost a year in I remain really happy with my choice to have joined UNRVLD.

Cons

Not a con per se but something I have had to get used to is that as a true multi location agency with offices in different locations you won't necessarily find yourself based out of the same home office as the team you work with. In my case the project team I work with is geographically dispersed so we rarely get to interact face to face. UNRVLD has facilitated an overnight team meeting (which was great) but the multi-locale set up has been a new experience for me.

2
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UNRVLD Response
10mo
We're really pleased to hear you're enjoying working at UNRVLD. Lots of effort goes into making sure our hybrid work environment gives everyone the best experience and keeps our team connected, so if you do have any ideas or feedback do use the internal channels to share as we'd love to hear them!
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