This place is a mere shell of the company that it once was. There used to be positivity associated in being employed at Hays. That is long gone.
Same story for the “leadership”. Management used to be different but now the high-ups have sunk their claws for a torturous existence for those below.
So much is wrong with the company. From massive reorganizations and the restructuring of comp plans, titles and responsibilities. To the deconstruction of teams. To having people in a different country manage divisions they don’t understand. To a full lapse of communication about daily operations. Change management is almost non-existent. What is there is impressively poor.
The company keeps thinking they know what the problem is so they enact a rebrand alongside a witch-hunt to fix it. It continually makes things worse.
They company isn’t doing well but they think they’ve done enough layoffs so now they’re trying to make it obnoxiously uncomfortable and focused on micromanagement to get more people to quit.
For recruitment they have taken away the compensation for the success that propels the company forward. They pay you to be average but expect you to want more, without reward. There is no incentive nor is there structure for the teamwork needed to succeed.
For sales it’s an upside down mentality where you could be the worst biller in the company but as long as they hear you on the phone or you chime in on a training they will sing your praise. Meanwhile you could have great numbers but if they don’t like your accent or the way you sit, there’s a target on your back. Recruitment points a finger at sales. Sales finger points to recruitment. It’s a lose-lose situation.
Turnover has always been abnormally high but that was easy for them to explain with stories and mistruths. The unprofessional nature of there always being behind the back talk and whispers from management is uncalled for. The unbecoming conversations regarding performance issues and reasons people left is an indicator that it is not a good organization.
Recently putting Shaun and Dave in charge of people management in the technology division was the worst decision your executive level minds could have conceived. Especially Shaun. Dave is still somewhat living non-US values, while Shaun is living in 1999 when pay phones and quarters were the foundation of success. He is drunk with power and although he shows up to work looking homeless, he expects people to be awestruck and afraid of him because of his toxic masculinity and his accomplishments 30 years ago. He is 60 but managing 20 to 30 year olds who he doesn’t understand. Employees aren’t going to give respect just because he’s strict and used to be something special in the staffing industry. Shaun is a dictator and his approach is distasteful. He has held every title in the company already, which should be a red flag. It’s time to find him one where he’s better suited and also not in charge of people. Dave needs to adapt to the way US leadership has within the past 10 years. Although Dave has gotten better, Shaun has not.
No one even knows what Travis does nor how he’s associated with the organization.
Regarding culture, this is a company so toxic that when asked why their top recruiters and sales people have left within the past two years, they take no ownership. Instead they bad mouth their former employees and talk freely about issues with them. Furthermore, this is a company that is incredibly tone deaf. It could be humorous in a sitcom but these are real people’s lives being messed with.
i.e. they wrote personalized employee appreciation cards by hand on Friday, then put those same people on PIPs on Monday. It’s a company so tone deaf that they’ve had employees move across the country and from other countries then laid off the employees right after.
When you know better you’re supposed to do better. Hays knows better. They just make a conscious effort not to do better.
