Logica Reviews in London, UK Area

Pros

Flexibility as to how work gets done
Leading approach to flexible benefits management
Plenty of very pleasant colleagues which makes working OK ...and at times even fun!

Cons

Lack of progression in pay and role after whatever was negotiated on entry
Talks the talk as a business services Company, but walks the walk as an IT provider.

Advice to Senior Management

Drive change more forcibly, and consistently. Almost everyone (relatively speaking) calls themself a director, and therefore acts as if they lead a business to the exclusion of all competitors. In principle a good thing; but they're not directors, they're department managers, and do not work collaboratively with other departments/divisions/territories for the greater good of the enterprise.

Pros

Working with highly talented individuals who are specialists in their field

Cons

Internal politics and glory seeking

Advice to Senior Management

More face to face time with employees to discuss issues

Pros

Recently joned - appear to have come in on updaed payscales which are reasonably competetive
Logica is still a strong and respected brand name
In theory there are lts of avenues / opportunities - but in reality they seem very difficult to get into
There ARE lots of very clver and people who are repsected across the industry in their field

Cons

I am placed at a client site - as another reviewer has mentioned this means your are effectively abandoned by the company - in effect you are an employees of the client having to confirm to theor processes , culture and hours etc BUT still having the overhead of the Logica bureacracy (timesheets, performance reviews) most of which is irrelevant. This is why I describe there being no company DNA - apart from my salary being paid I have no feeling or working-for, or loyalty-to, the company.

This can mean you can potentially regularly work a lot more hours than your expected or contracted hours - without any chance of recognition or reward, as it comes under the usual clauses of working-hours directive opt-out. This is frustrating when you consider the amount of overhead/ non-blllable staff your efforts are supporting.

Because of high overheads, its difficult to sell Logica resource at a competetive rate.

The HR/internal process are relentless - seeming chasing pointless tick-boxes which have no bearing on the current engagement, and with endless follow-up

Being a highly disbursed,distributed company - you will rarely get to meet HR, People Managers etc.

Advice to Senior Management

To soon to say. Possibly cut out a lot of the bureaucracy - get closer to the people generating revenue to identify cross-selling opportunities.

Pros

Lots of sharp people doing good work
Has a reputation for delivering difficult projects
It's possible to maintain a good work/life balance if you want to
Varied and interesting work
Is a good place for a graduate to get 2-3 years' good experience
There is a good networking culture which means that most people will help if you ring them up out of the blue

Cons

Unfortunately the sharp people doing good work aren't the ones in charge
No pay rises
No career development or planning and little training
No attempt to manage the internal job market to line up suitable roles for people as they come available
No personal contact from personal line management
Too much pointless internal reorganisation that makes no difference

Advice to Senior Management

Scrap the demoralising Performance Review process and stop lying that there is a link between performance and salary
Put in place proper staff management and career development
Try to have a stable management team doing for long enough to find out if they are any good or not instead of constant churn

Pros

Nice people
Some interesting projects but they tend to be slow moving and bureaucratic
You can work 9-5.30 if you want. Your salary is low enough so you should demand over-time if you work more than your contracted 37.5 hours a week at the junior career levels. Forget over-time if you are senior where you should go work for another company that pays market rates
Logica still has a good reputation so if you are a graduate work there for a year or two then leave as your salary won't get any better but you would have built up your CV

Cons

Bad performance review system which doesn't recognise talent so star performers leave the company leaving behind all the mediocre staff
Rotting from the inside as moral is low
Salary is low and will not increase if you stay at Logica as they don't reward staff for performance
Big gap between what the CEO's say and what happens on the ground
People are not proud to work for Logica. They make jokes like calling it 'Bodigca' or "of course I'm poor, I work for Logica"
Logica can't hire the right staff. Struggle to fill positions on projects while the company is hiring graduates who sit on the bench (no work to do) because they don't have the right skill set e.g. no development skills or can't get SC.
CEO is very focussed on outsourcing and automated services. He is moving away from what made Logica a great company doing all the bespoke software.
Strategy is concentrated on reducing costs and increasing productivity. This means lowering salaries.

Advice to Senior Management

Reward and keep your top talent. Drive for success and make people proud to work for Logica. If your staff are not happy how will you win big contracts? Focus on quality employees not on quantity....paying to keep the best will pay dividends in the long run.

Pros

There is a good work life balance
The opportunity to work from home
Logica seems to be quite flexible with its working hours. You don't have to be in at 9am on the dot.

Cons

The salary is terrible.
You will never be promoted
unless you're a senior manager you will never be recognised.
you will be penalised for logica not having enough roles available (being on the bench too long)

Advice to Senior Management

There are hard working people in Logica. Recognise them or they'll leave. No one is "proud" to work for Logica. They only do so because they have no where else to work and will leave as soon as the opportunity arises.

Pros

variety of roles
talented and hard working colleagues

Cons

slow career progression
low salaries with a culture of pay freezes
employees are resources to be used
short term vision

Advice to Senior Management

value baseline staff more. do not disperse teams to cut short term costs at the expence of long term profitability.

Pros

- Great people, lots of high calibre technical staff, although these are slowly being replaced with salesmen and a drive towards offshore resources.
- Varied projects gives you the opportunity to experience different industry sectors

Cons

- Poor Technical leadership, as mentioned above there is a drive to offshore the majority of technical work. Technical architects and managers of the future aren't grown internally.
- Bad people management, including a poorly implemented review process.
- Graduates aren't treated particularly well.

Advice to Senior Management

Improve the way graduates are progressed within the company. Look at why so many are leaving.

Pros

Logica lost its way in the mid 2000's, with management harking back to the boom days and not stepping up to the intensive competiton in its home UK market. There was a serious lack of investment in systems, people and Clients. Andy Green recognised these issues and set plans to change with a focus on customers and growth. The crappy buildings have been discarded, home working introduced, flexible benefits developed. The result is a company that is starting to believe in itself again and is improving year on year. Has largely retained its technical excellence and focus on the bottom line, and has good people to work with.

Cons

No pay awards in 2009, an over complex staff appraisal system, complex matrix management that can allow shirkers to hide

Advice to Senior Management

Listen to and invest in your staff

Pros

Logica is a large company so there are a number of projects to work on. Although if you are on the bench it doesn't always seem so

Cons

In a word - management. Of all the companies I've worked for I've never met a group that are so poor at staff managment. Logica are -Feb 2010- about to launch a new catch-phrase "Be Brilliant together ". at the launch a magic wand will be waved and, among other things, managers are supposed to be become inspirational and offer honest feedback. Honest feedback. Logica managers seem just to spout phrases learnt from "Management for Dummies" and love playing games like the silence gaem. The game where if you ask a difficult question and they sit and keep quiet waiting for you to break the silence.

So in summary, if you need a job OK but don't expect to join a compnay with high levels of morale

Advice to Senior Management

To start listening to your employees and stop believing that just because you have been made a manager that you are suddenly all knowing and that no-one below you knows anything. Acyually give honest feedback, stop playing games and you might actually become inspirational