jjFOX Reviews

The company is categorically failing its staff in every way; - The salaries are the lowest across the recruitment industry. They have recently raised the base salary for entry level, but the senior levels (middle management and above) have not seen a rise in their basic salary, so it essentially robbing from one to give to the other. - The commission structure starts at 5% (extremely low in comparison to other firms) and the ratchets to increase your commission are set so extremely far apart that it takes years to build up a decent percentage. All of this can be totally irrelevant also as they pay you based on a mythical 'whiteboard' figure, which are inaccurate figures in comparison with your invoicing (the figures you actually get paid on) so as confusing as this is for an outsider, many people who are invoicing £180,000+ for the company, per year, are still paid 5% (not hitting their earnt %) for not hitting 'whiteboard' figures. This leaves many senior consultants and some middle managers on £30,000-£35-000 salaries. - It is worth noting that COMMISSION STUCTURES ARE CAPPED - many of the Smithcorp job advertising states uncapped commission. To my knowledge Temporary and Secondary desks are capped at 20% and Permanent desks are capped at 30%. - It also takes 1 year service to gain your gym membership and 3 years or a promotion to Ninja (middle management) to gain your private healthcare benefits, which are both also stated on Smithcorp job adverts. - There are inaccuracies in commission structures across the desks - which effects pay across different divisions. Secondary coming out as being paid the lowest, followed by Temp, with Perm receiving the highest pay with the lowest profit margins. I myself wrote to the Board asking them to investigate this and I was told before it was taken to the Board that it was unlikely that anything would be done about it - and they were quite right - nothing was done! I did not even get any feedback for my efforts, it was totally dismissed. - The company sells their 'culture' as being unique and a reason to join. Over the last two or so years I was at jjFOX, in a senior role, I saw things like lunch club budgets slashed by 33% (even though profits were up), promotion and new starter drinks, which were so important to many and integral for team bonding, have been cut completely, the 5* trips they offer as rewards are not always all expenses paid (so take your wallet) and have been 4* breaks in resorts such as Alicante. - The 'culture' is more in line with a cult, in where if you do not think in the same manner as management you are a ‘trouble maker’. You are encouraged not to challenge anything which is supported by management whose responses to anything raised will be 'I will take this to the Board meeting' (which could be as far as a month away) and then you are unlikely to ever hear anything bar 'there will be no change' and then you can be assured that your card is marked by the board. There are also examples of management asking former staff members to leave bars where the company are frequenting outside of work hours. An extremely unprofessional, insular and odd attitude. - They are unable to evolve to cope with their diverse workforce in that they cannot offer part time hours (doing your contracted and former role if a recruitment consultant) when you return from periods of time off (sickness phased return or maternity for example), resulting in you have to move to a different division/department where you may not have the same opportunity to earn commission. - You are contracted 8 hours between the hours of 8-6pm with a 1 hour lunch break as a recruitment consultant, however - the expectation is that you start before 8pm and you do not leave before 6.30pm. So, you will actually be working 9.5 hour days (minimum). Management also enforce a rule that if you are in after 8am (as petty as 1 minute past) on a Friday (when they kindly let you finish after working your 8 contracted hours at 5pm) you have to stay until 6pm, so they are penalising you with your own time. They also condone staff ‘cheering’ when someone comes in after 8am – again, stirring up a really resentful office environment. When I challenged this ‘rule’ with management they explained it was 'just a management expectation that everyone else follows'. Sadly for them, contracts are not based on expectations, they are legal documents. - Support staff are under paid and over worked and if you have been there over 2 years you are handed a contract with a 3 month notice period, which traps many unhappy staff members as most new employers will not wait 3 months for an administrator. - One of the company's selling points is that it is organically grown – NOT TRUE. Management have been bought in from outside the company. The company has also lost approximately 80% of its senior staff (Ninjas) recently (approx. 12 months) due to the pay inaccuracies and dismal basic and commission packages (all of whom have been successful in starting up their own businesses or moving on to better paid posts) so they are currently having to advertise outside the company for a division manager as they have had no suitable response from internal candidates, as there are not the qualified or experienced consultants available to take on such roles due to their dreadful mismanagement. It is worth mentioning that they are advertising at £25-80k salary for this post, which shows lack of acumen on what a manager is worth. I suspect that an internal candidate would get the lower amount and a promise of a ‘higher salary when they have proved themselves’ but they are aware that they will not attract the right calibre of candidate if they advertise a management post at the lower figure as many other firms offer recruitment staff a higher salary than £25k – let alone decent managers…… - Many of the Board have very little respect from members of staff, which has been thoroughly earnt from their obnoxious attitudes. Most of them are infrequently involved in offices and if they come in they do not address staff apart from the office manager. There is also confusion as to what many of them even do, or what their role is within the company. - The company will congratulate staff on 'margins' as opposed to repeat business, number of deals or anything else. 'Margins' are basically the difference in what you pay an agency staff worker and what you will charge the employer. Consultants are encouraged to overcharge tax payer funded educational institutes and underpay teachers. Put this in line with the low commission structures and there are only a few people who are profiting from this and it is not the recruitment staff, clients or agency workers....... - Many of the offices are cliquey and not always the nicest of environments to work in. A high number of a staff are miserable and feel under pressure. - Management strategy is to advise offices that if performances are not improved then jobs will be at risk, adding to staff uncertainty and low morale. - Much of management communication is non-verbal, so you can expect to receive a number of passive aggressive emails from your managers daily. - Facilities vary throughout offices; they advertise free breakfasts when recruiting staff but to my knowledge that is only available within the Bristol Offices putting those in Truro and London at a disadvantage. Some of the offices are extremely cold in the winter months as there are issues with windows being sealed shut incorrectly so letting in cold draughts. The staff toilets in some offices are particularly unsightly and not fit for purpose. - The networks are incredibly slow with phrases like “is everybody frozen?” being commonplace across the offices, and many of the time saving tools available on the database programme they use are made unavailable to staff (likely to be cost saving for the company). - The training provided is outdated, repetitive, generally not industry specific and patronising. Furthermore, the courses are written and instructed by a person with no experience in recruitment.