To start with, I was debating between 1* & 2* for the overall score of the review. I settled on 1*, not as a bitter ex-employee as some 1* reviews on here can be, but because for me the feeling that the cons give you versus the feeling of the pro's completely dominate how I experience the workplace. Pay & benefits & a couple of coffee shops is great, but for anyone familiar with the "hierarchy of needs" theory, you have to get these things right for someone to be happy at work - pay isn't everything.
1) The company is large, maybe a little too large, in terms of staff and organisations within it. I've worked for large organisations before, but JLR with c.36k staff is a bit different, and for the first time in my career felt like just a number to the company. I usually (perhaps wrongly) reject people's statements that you're "just a number" to your employer as I feel it's often down to personal mindset, but JLR changed my opinion of this.
2) I needed to rely on HR to support me in a situation where a member of the public had an issue of mistaken identity on LinkedIn with me, confusing me for somebody else. The mishandling of this by one member of the leadership team, led to a formal grievance raised on my part which is still outstanding and not yet progressed in any way to date, currently >2 months later; I haven't even had a call/meeting with anybody at HR yet, or even know my case handers surname. I've since left JLR having taken a role at another company, the lack of urgency or care from HR being a main factor.
3) JLR provide A-D grades an annual pay rise on 1st November, with the most recent one due on 1st November 2023. Following a generous pay rise of c.12% in 2022 due to cost of living, JLR had looked to give a minimal c.1% pay rise in 2023 and had hoped not to get around negotiations with the unions. Digging their heels in, JLR reluctantly agreed to negotiate with the unions mid-November, 2 weeks after the pay rise should already be in effect.
A below-inflation pay rise offer came out at the end of November to come into effect in February 2024 instead, citing in company-wide emails that this was due to the large cost of the 2022 pay rise. JLR seemed happy for the enormously positive PR that came on the back of the 2022 pay rise, and the reduced attrition and employee satisfaction that came with it, but weaponised this for 2023 as justification to not provide a good pay rise this year.
The union members have rejected the pay review, and currently no pay rise for 2023 yet, with no end in sight currently.
4) A clear divide between the A-D grades and the leadership. A-D have union representation, LL6+ grades do not. LL6+ grades have offers to get company cars at an affordable price including insurance, A-D grades were quoted as much as £1300 per month for a Jaguar I-PACE (after tax benefits could still be as much as c.£900 pcm) which is unaffordable for employees on the lower end of pay bandings. A-D grades do not get private healthcare, LL6+ do.
Higher grades naturally will get better benefits in most organisations, but they're often proportionate i.e. higher salaries, bonuses etc. and not around things that should be more universal such as healthcare benefits, union representation etc.
5) The company is VERY hierarchal, which causes a lot of beaurocracy when it comes to unlocking problems, or implementing creative ideas. To get a piece of work signed off can require lots of different seemingly unnecessary approval stages, and the approvers often can't agree on what's needed.
I've personally witnessed a D grade employee identify a significant error in a piece of work by an LL6 Manager, and when I'd recommended they provide feedback the response was "what? to an LL6? I'm not looking to lose my job thank you".
6) A very random trivial and just personal gripe that realistically means nothing, but everything in the company seems dull and grey. The branding, the floor, the decor, the internal comms. Grey and beige, I'm writing this as we speak looking at their beige chairs and sofa's for miles scattered across grey floors, grey escalators, grey wall art on a slightly lighter grey wall background, whilst coming back to my grey work laptop on the grey coffee table having switched away from the grey logo on the grey intranet page.
Petty but it's such a nice building but such dull interiors!
