London Stock Exchange Reviews

Current Employee – been working at London Stock Exchange

Pros – Good brand, good prospects and good compensation

Cons – The race to be a world leader may dilute the brand

Advice to Senior Management – The race to be a world leader may dilute the brand

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at London Stock Exchange full-time for more than a year

Pros – Bonuses (if you get them!) are quite good

Cons – Management is too disconnected from the rest of the employees; poor communication, poor motivation.

Advice to Senior Management – Look more closely to your managers' attitude towards the staff! they might deliver on their promises but their staff is leaving because they are terrible managers. why would you put people who have no clue how to manage staff, in managerial positions?!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend – I'm optimistic about the outlook for this company

Former Employee – worked at London Stock Exchange

Pros – Great brand name, some interesting projects.

Cons – Aggressive culture. Very very high staff turnover, people are demoralised, undervalued and browbeaten. Senior management seem to pride themselves on driving good people out in the name of 'cost savings'. No encouragement, no reward for hard work. Blame culture - senior management have created an environment where employees are burned out and feel like they are digging their own graves. Impression that senior management is in it for the short term. Unrealistic deadlines. Bullying. Do not work here.

Advice to Senior Management – You are on completely the wrong track. Good employees need to be encouraged and developed, not burned out. The path you are on is unsustainable - if you are in it for the long term. Or even the medium term.

Former Employee – worked at London Stock Exchange

Pros – Pride working on a financial backbone of the UK economy.
Great on CV - If you can make a go of it here, chances you can do it anywhere.
Contractors can get good rates

Cons – Lack of work ownership and responsibilities leads to little pride in work performed.
Micromanagement / lack of recognition from management.
Project indecision.
Training, even if budget exists, is rarely approved or offered. Be prepared to go solo here.
New style management want 'Yes' men. Better to be quite and keep your head down.

Advice to Senior Management – Regardless of what other managers tell you, morale is still very low on the ground. Give employees in London & Italy a reason to have pride in their work. They are clever people so let them help you by not treating them with impunity and internally acknowledging those that perform well as no one believes every failure is a lowly employees' fault yet every success is a managers brilliant idea.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at London Stock Exchange

Pros – Great people to work with and Good work life balance

Cons – Big Management hierarchy in some departments.

Advice to Senior Management – ....

Yes, I would recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at London Stock Exchange

Pros – Colleagues are great, if a little brow-beaten. The proximity to the new shopping centre on cheapside is great - not sure that counts as a plus to LSE though!

Cons – Poor management and non-existent leadership, all the way from the top. Lack of understanding of people management or how to develop and maintain morale. Penny pinching is taken to the extreme.

Advice to Senior Management – Have a think about how short-term your management is. For instance, cutting costs by simply reducing headcount is not a viable long term answer. Furthermore, sapping morale by expecting too much and giving too little is going to backfire in a huge way if this is not addressed in the very near term. People will vote with their feet!

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Current Employee – been working at London Stock Exchange

Pros – Good projects to work on. Interesting times in the industry with consolidation and globalisation accelerating. Opportunities to develop career in this space

Cons – Company structure needs review. Often understaffed. Roles sometimes too inflexible. Junior and middle management inadequate and require training/development to lead high performing teams. This last point is the main problem at the LSE

Advice to Senior Management – Use more temporary staff as needed to back up permanent teams. Make the staffing decisions earlier in projects. Improve training and selection of junior/middle management - bring in people from management consulting backgrounds to shore up the management skills in the company

Former Employee – worked at London Stock Exchange

Pros – Nice offices, good benefits, prestigious organisation, looks great on the old CV, good exposure to financial markets, services and technology.

Cons – Endemic back-covering, bureaucracy and inefficiency. Very poor people management and very real lack of communication. The organisation singularly fails to encourage excellence, innovation and initiative.

Advice to Senior Management – Get more involved in what is going on. Don't expect that your middle managers are giving you an accurate representation of the facts - they're not.

Current Employee – been working at London Stock Exchange

Pros – Forefront of financial services arena

Cons – Not valued as employees and not given enough communication.

Advice to Senior Management – More frequent and open communication.

No, I would not recommend this company to a friend

Former Employee – worked at London Stock Exchange

Pros – Good reputation in trading system among banks
Good infrastructure
Learning curve is steep

Cons – Not enough IT training
Promotion is tough

Advice to Senior Management – Promote those who perform best