When Profit Comes Before People
Pros
There are some genuinely talented and dedicated colleagues across the business who care deeply about customers and support one another. I learned a great deal during my 10+ years with EKM and had opportunities to develop my skills, lead a fantastic team and build strong relationships with customers.
Cons
In my experience, the culture changed significantly over time following acquisitions and organisational restructuring - following the buyout to ClearCourse. Communication became increasingly top-down, with frequent changes to priorities, targets and commission structures. Employee wellbeing often felt secondary to commercial objectives. During periods of organisational change, I found consultation and communication lacking, and decisions sometimes appeared to have been made before employee feedback had been fully considered. Returning from a period of ill health was particularly challenging, as I did not feel adequately supported despite occupational health recommendations. Recognition for teams delivering excellent customer outcomes felt inconsistent, while pressure and uncertainty continued to increase. Long-serving employees may find that loyalty is not always reflected in how they are treated during periods of change. Pay and rewards were not adequate, given the specific skillsets required. Teams were promised benchmarking to bring pay in line but it never materialised and they were made redundant. It felt wrong that employees in Expert roles were still on minimum wage with 5yrs + service!!
