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Montreal Associates

Engaged Employer

Could be good but to flee absolutely - Senior Consultant Montreal Associates Employee Review

1.0
Nov 9, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Not much I can tell. few nice people like everywhere, Office is ok but far from the closest station (10/15 minutes walking and nowhere to get a decent lunch) A good L&D program

Cons

I will try to stay objective : - No strategy (subcontracting is the major part of the business, very few final clients, no repeat business, no clients shared between teams, no market vision, they are still alive due to their staff and a growing market before covid) - no support at all (but they spy on your phone calls (all registered), make you sing in public if you're late, checks your emails and stored document...) - wages are among the lowest in the UK market ( 20K, you can't barely afford a room in London with that ...) - due to the low salaries they use to employ people from any kind of background and to pressure them till they leave by themself. - the turnover of employee is crazy : 30% of the company every year (befor covid)… - They call themselves "Human" but have laid off a quarter of the employees after a week of covid lockdown. The HR department will say "but we will take them back afterwards" but the truth is that they fired them, then a HR posted on linkedin a week later "At Montreal we fired no one, we use technical unemployment (Furlough) to protect our teams" so fired people asked to be rehired on pain of suing them and the company had to took them back ... unbelievable right? - they also cut commissions and wages for all staff this year due to the pandemic before any consequences on business, so we are now working for nothing and have to live with the basic salary of bar tenders but without the tips... - At Montreal we can also not trust anyone, a lot of stab wounds in the back between colleagues, managers, even between offices, everyone talks behind everyone's back and to many drama queens make stories for nothing... - They say they are different, that you won't be beaten by the stats but in reality they only live by KPIs checked every week and they will beat you if you don't reach your stats! - They never communicate important information to the staff, everything is secret and you will discover it the day they make the change, sometimes it's more than hard to accept when it's directly link to business. - The commission system is done to leave you with very few money at the end so far under the market average. ( an oddly calculated margin + splits + errors every month over all your contracts or placements = in the end almost nothing left) - Internal procedures are combersome, support does a lot of mistakes and you have to deal with lots of complains from clients and consultants, /candidates all the time. - You won’t improve your English over there, they speak french 90% of the time. - I'm not talking about important business actions that take months to be adressed, red tape and recurring errors that polluate you on a daily basis, that teams do not share anything with each other, or that the business has a so low mark on Glassdoor that they asked all people still in the company to put a very good review to increase a 2,7 mark ! Frankly, run away before you get stuck in London with a company that will drop you sooner or later and use you as long as you bring money in pretending they care for you.

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Montreal Associates Response
5y
Thanks for taking time to raise and share your points. Although your review is slightly one-sided, we understand that emotions are high at the moment and that 2020 has tested all of us on all fronts. We take your feedback very seriously and have taken actions, some you would know of, others you did not get a chance to hear and live. That being said, there is so much calumny in your review that some response or just clarification might be needed for the readers and prospective employees of MA: - Location: our locations are great to 98% of our staff, sorry you did not feel this way but you probably joined us knowing where we were based and I can only assume location has not been a problem with the WFH we have offered to all since March 2020 - No repeat business: 90% which some would argue is almost too much - No strategy: maybe you disagree with our strategy which includes a strong focus on repeat business, compliance and quality of service or maybe you just did not get it which would be our wrong doing but we will ensure that everyone gets it in the future - Communication and cut on salaries and commission: you might have disagreed with our position but we were true to our values and decided that tightening our belts for a few months was better than making large scale redundancies as we recognised that we needed a bit of adjustment to our repeat business strategy when some key clients were struggling. We kept everyone aware of the company's performance on a monthly basis. - You won't improve your English at MA: I don't think we ever promised you or anyone that you were joining to improve your English, although we offer English classes to our staff. MA speaks more than 15 languages and there are many English speakers (including non native French speakers) you could have engaged with if you really wanted to improve your English. - Collaboration: it has been a concern in very good times where everyone was so busy servicing clients and candidates and a new office was trying to rise but I am thrilled with the improvement I see everyday and it would be very strange if you had not seen it in action during the pandemic. We appreciate that MA is not for everyone. We strongly believe in our purpose and values and respect that they might not be for everyone. We did not meet your expectations and you seem to have acted upon it. I sincerely hope we have not waisted 1 or 2 years of your career but I cannot help thinking you might have stayed that long because there might also be some positives you have not shared in this review. As direct and passionate as my answer to your passionate review is, I wish you all the best and hope you can find the perfect place for your aspirations. If you feel strongly about helping MA get better and stronger, I hope you will find the courage and compassion to reach out to me or Matt. With all my heart, David

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Cons

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