Maru Group reviews

• FLEXIBLE WORKING - EYE BROWS RAISED Flexible working is an option, but there is still (in places) an old fashioned approach to this. There appears to me some lack of trust shown, whereas on the other side of the coin there are those who work regularly from home but appear to treat it as ‘time off’. There is some work to do to achieve consistency and fairness in this area. • SUPPORT AND DEVELOPMENT A number of minor inductions will be given to new starters (the basics about the business and team structures), but then you are mostly on your own. You will need to be quick at finding your feet with the in-house bespoke tool (not easy to use or particularly well built). Those who struggle to adapt at high speed to this system will be perceived negatively by those around them (and above them) when all that the staff need is time, dedication, training and further support. The support comes from the lower ranks in abundance, but is slightly lacking from the management team. • MANAGERS ARE NOT MANAGERS As mentioned, in most capacities there is a need to learn a highly bespoke system with intricacies that are not even understood by those who have used the system for many years. It’s a challenge but not impossible. Building familiarity with some of the system here often means you are then ready to be promoted. That has the unfortunate result of staff with minimal required people-skills being put in positions of authority. The people put in charge in management capacity are not managers, which results in vital ingredients (motivation, reward, support, development and listening to your staff) often going missing. Some management training is offered, so take heed from the fact that the company is attempting to amend some of this. Bare in mind also that the structure for promotion is a restricting factor here, with those promoted to the management level simply just more system-experienced than mid-level or low level colleagues with very little variance in job responsibilities. This can cause morale damage with the lower ranks who clearly know that those above them are doing very little different to them (often less). • PROMOTION CRITERIA OLD FASHIONED If you’ve read the above then you can get a feel for the promotion path (e.g. learn system, deliver a few projects and use some common sense and an ability to work under pressure). However, your hard work may go unnoticed - with promotion out of reach for those who ‘work 9am-5pm and take a lunch break’. Effectively, if you do your contracted hours and take the lunch break then you are not going to be considered for promotion. This was disappointing to hear, especially as a number of management staff are in their position simply on working long hours with little demonstration of any skills other than doing exactly the same as those in the lower ranks below them (e.g. using the complex system). With so many senior staff following this mindset (e.g. long hours are the only way to get promotion) then changing this outlook to a refreshing one may not be soon achieved. • LONG, LONG HOURS Following on from the above point here. The working hours are officially stated as 9am to 5pm. However, this isn’t often the case, with often mandatory over-time. Unfortunately it’s a result of being severely under-staffed. You will not be compensated for working extra either (apart from a textual thank you note, which is better than nothing). Even the lowest level ranks are expected to work long and hard a lot of the time, resulting in severe burnout and dented morale. • BLAME CULTURE Some examples were present of when a junior member of staff makes a mistake (often as a result of lack of training, poor communication and little support) management have demonstrated a ‘throw under the bus’ attitude. Experienced managers will know what should happen in this circumstance and it isn’t that attitude for sure. • LEADERSHIP NOT GETTING RESULTS Those at the very top (in my experience) were lacking energy, enthusiasm and charisma to inspire the business. A reputation amongst the ranks that senior managers can be found hiding in dark corners of the office, whilst others were never present. Strong aspirations to grow and improve the business have unfortunately not materialised, nor does it feel like these will ever achieved. I do wish them the best but there is a lot of work to do and some brave decisions on change to be made. • REDUNDANCY AFTER REDUNDANCY As a result of the above, you will find that redundancy is a common trend here. It’s a shame as it’s people who end up being sacrificed to save money as a result of the poor decisions at the top. Big changes over many, many years in terms of head count reduction. • DOG-FRIENDLY OFFICE Originating from when the business was tiny and first started many years previous. It is a nice thing of course to be allowed to bring a dog to work, but with it comes a number of unprofessional touches. For instance: - Dog owners appear to be given the freedom to march out of the office, take overly regular breaks (even during meetings) - which breeds an unfairness to those without an office dog. - Having worked in and amongst a number of colleagues who were allergic, fearful of or not animal fans - they were frowned upon as the minority if their concerns were raised (verbally and in writing were both ignored). A dog jumping up on them in a meeting, with some a little erratic in their behaviour was not always a welcome event. - An uncomfortable working environment for this around some of the dogs. E.g. You will need to double-check your chair before you stand-up for fear of running over a dog's tail. Some of the barking in and around the working environment is loud and a distraction. - Dogs attend meetings with you, which leads to often important meetings having vital messages interrupted by barking or toy-chewing under the desk. Some larger meetings would become a farce with reduced concentration and output. - Dogs are allowed on the chill-out area furniture and also in the food preparation kitchen areas, with little consideration to those who are not pet-people. As mentioned, it can be a nice touch, but perhaps raise the cleanliness and professionalism and restrict dog attendance to specific events only. Staff without dogs can then focus on with their work without distraction and the owners can target a higher proportion of the day doing what it is they get paid for (which should not be tending to dogs, or cleaning their mess). Is it fair on a dog to keep them tied up under a desk all day? SUMMARY: Some nice touches and good team spirit, but that is needed to get you through the high expectations to deliver in often unfair time-frames. You can get some good experience, and it would be a good approach to consider Maru Matchbox as a stepping stone or stop-gap. The morale is extremely low following continuous redundancies, with most staff entering 2020 fearing for their jobs. There is much hard work to do to fix this and the attempt to bring some element of future success back to the business - will they achieve it? Many will remain to be convinced, but I wish them luck in obviously challenging times.

They will just take as much from you as possible. I worked late and without lunch everyday for a week to get something over the line I had no support on, then a week or so later had a doctors appointment and was made to work more hours to make up for my appointment. There is no reward for working above and beyond, you won’t be paid and they will forget it immediately. When I tried to speak to my manager about having too much on, too much that I could actually due to them not hiring enough staff. I was then told it was my fault and that I wasn’t good enough, I was then later marked down in my review as not being positive when being overworked and full of stress. The company asks you to sell things to clients which don’t work and mistakes in simple projects are common. The senior management don’t care about the majority of employees, the CEO will never give you the straight truth and will leave early while everyone is working non stop, he didn’t make any meaningful changes the entire time I was there. Promotions barely come, many leave as they are told they are close to promotion then receive no promotion due to another reason which was never mentioned before and so all the talent leaves to companies which will reward hard work. Oh and the pay is the absolute minimum for this industry, you will be underpaid, overworked and unrewarded. (warning also check Maru/EDR reviews the company changed name to join NA offices so have lost some of their reviews and gained more positives from the company that bought them out)