Pros
Within SysGroup there are some great people to work with, most of whom have positive intent. There is a wealth of experience and technical expertise. The majority of team members are happy to help and advise. A number of team members were very flexible and eager to help across teams. I felt my salary was at market value for the role I was doing. Lots of well meaning perks and incentives by the People and Culture team designed to improve morale and overall culture within the business. The company handled the conversion to remote working due to the Covid-19 outbreak well. During the early days there were regular catch up meetings to ensure all team members were in communication and didn't feel isolated. The 4 hours a week of home schooling time given to parents was fantastic and helped a number of team members lower their anxiety levels and find a good balance with their work and parental duties. New benefits and increases to perks are on the horizon and are a good step in the right direction.
Cons
A distinct lack of action in replacing staff when they left. Various teams reported concerns with regards to very poor communication regarding plans for replacements. This led to lots of fear and uncertainty and a snowball effect of more people exiting the business. A change in approach from Account Managers to Business Development Directors/Managers with a more sales-driven attitude resulted in many customers complaining of poor service and communication. Which in turn led to frustrations within the service delivery teams at not being able to provide an acceptable level of service. Teams often complained of a reduction in ownership and collaboration with the BDMs/BDDs; this created grey areas between Service Delivery and Commercial teams. The change and implementation of new critical business systems didn't feel fully considered. It severely lacked business analysis of the integration between the times and introduced many challenges. There was a lack of clear direction in the company. An end goal had been expressed, but it was unclear what the core services and priorities were for achieving this target. Company felt entirely too reactive. Following mergers and acquisition there was too varied a product catalog, it was never unified to provide simplicity of specification, proposal, deployment and ongoing support and maintenance. There is a blame culture wrapped up in the core values of "accountability" and "own it" but people have become paralysed by fear. Many team members were worried about sticking their head up or making mistakes. I felt there was a distinct lack of process, or willingness to follow a process by many departments leads to a knock on effect on others. What had been a previously smooth process of sales, pre-sales, projects and support reverted to silos and disjointed efforts between teams. The forced contract renewal around the Christmas period caused a lot of frustration as changes to notice periods, terms and restrictive covenants felt underhanded. This was followed up with threats of termination for those who didn't sign them by the strict deadline.