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      The Key Support Services

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      The Key Support Services Reviews

      4.0

      78% would recommend to a friend

      (52 total reviews)

      Chris Kenyon

      93% approve of CEO

      79% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      4.4

      Culture and values

      4.4

      Work/Life balance

      4.0

      Senior management

      3.8

      Career opportunities

      3.5

      Diversity and inclusion

      3.5

      Compensation and benefits

      The Key Support Services has an employee rating of 4.0 out of 5 stars, based on 52 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The The Key Support Services employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Education industry (3.7 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      52 reviews
      1.0
      21 Apr 2021

      Trendy doesn't always mean good

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      The only pro is that I met some lovely people without whom I would never have gotten through. Personally, my "mentor" was fantastic, but I do feel like I got lucky with that.

      Cons

      - The recruitment process is brutal, I had 4 stages, which was excessive, especially for a low level role - The first few weeks were induction. The induction was also very hard, back to back meetings with no time to breathe or take anything in - The benefits were material, they value free fruit, cereal and beer above a good pension packet - The way they express praise is odd. They have yearly "awards" and a very intense process for review, which makes you feel like you're in a dystopian social media game - They value "fitting in" higher than hard and good work - The team are generally young and the office is "trendy" with music in the bathrooms etc. This makes for a stressful environment with no peace and quiet - The pay is poor, along with disproportionate within teams - People are not recognised, in several circumstances people were left out of praise for things they had done for no discernible reason - The mental health provision was bad, they didn't listen to their staff or seem to know that some were struggling

      2.0
      12 May 2022

      2 poor, 2 furious

      Junior product marketing manager
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      The Key is a fantastic place to work if you like to work alongside passionate people who want to do the best for the products and the members. With the majority of The Key’s products being high quality and good value, it is easy to see why they are a major player in the education sector and schools do genuinely love The Key. The teams I worked with during my time at The Key were packed with talent and brought fresh ideas to the table to help members and make internal processes better. Often, The Key does nice things like an impromptu half day off during the pandemic or towards Christmas to help with staff well-being. If you like to work with great people, good products, then this is the company for you.

      Cons

      However, if you need things such as money for rent, bills, feeding your family, maintaining a social life or any number of things you may need as a human being in the UK, I would suggest looking elsewhere. The pay. Is. Not. Good. Enough. For a company with it’s offices in London and expects you to live/commute in London (at least some of the time) it does not pay well enough. Every person I spoke to at my time during The Key, in junior or middling positions, talked about how the pay was not high enough. I am more than certain that is why the majority of people, who left within my time there, ended up leaving. As a junior/middling employee you were given little to no insight/input into senior decision making it a very top down process. This meant that management had unrealistic expectations of team members which were frankly unachievable. This stung even more with the massive pay discrepancy. For a company which is a monopoly in the education space, the wages are quite frankly laughable. Whilst The Key offers slight flexibility in the workday, they are far from a bastion of flexible working. Full remote working and a 4 day working week, with no loss of pay, are somethings that are far from reach at The Key.

      avatar
      The Key Support Services Response
      3y
      Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback. The people and talent we have within The Key and their passion for the sector is something we’re truly proud of. We regularly review our salaries to make sure they’re competitive and in line with market rate. We have also supported many people due to the impact that the rising cost of living has had on people. We hope our employees can approach us if they’re struggling - we’re sorry that’s not been your experience. Thanks again for your feedback.
      1.0
      23 July 2017

      Poor and seemingly inexperienced management

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Great place to work as your first job Good central london location as one office, second office is located on a business park in Plymouth

      Cons

      Management is very inexperienced and makes some very debatable decisions Limited progression available beyond v junior or mid level Bad communication amongst teams even though a lot of time is spent updating each team on going ons - is more updates rather than actual working together Run a bit like a school - employees are not trusted and people's experiences of line management vary hugely There isn't a wide variety of backgrounds (industry, education, experience) - a lot of the staff are red brick uni grads who have studied english literature in the uk

      avatar
      The Key Support Services Response
      8y
      Thank you for taking the time to give some feedback on your time at The Key. We are pleased to hear that as your first job, you found us a great place to work. We’re keen to make this a place that people enjoy coming to each day. With regards to your comments on management, naturally some managers have more experience than others. As we place an importance on developing and growing our people from within the business, some of our line managers are people that have progressed through the team. For all new line managers (whether internal or external) we provide a structured training programme to ensure consistency in their approach, but also that they are properly supported as team leaders. We are always looking at ways to communicate effectively as a business, and involving our people in decision making is important to us, for example involving our people in product development steering groups or workshops to write our new vision and mission. We are disappointed to hear your comments on trust, as we place high levels of trust in all our colleagues, whether it be trusting them to work flexibly through introducing flexible hours, or through giving them the opportunity to manage their own projects away from their core role. Diversity is something that we value, and we know we can improve on. I have passed your comments on this to Deeps (Head of HR). Thank you again for your feedback.
      Viewing 1 - 3 of 52 Reviews
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      ReviewsThe Key Support Services reviews

      Glassdoor has 54 The Key Support Services reviews submitted anonymously by The Key Support Services employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if The Key Support Services is right for you.