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The Key Support Services

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The Key Support Services reviews

4.3

90% would recommend to a friend

(52 total reviews)

Chris Kenyon

99% approve of CEO

94% positive business outlook

The Key Support Services has an employee rating of 4.3 out of 5 stars, based on 52 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have an excellent working experience there. The The Key Support Services employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Education industry (3.7 stars).

Reviews by job title

52 reviews
5.0
Apr 8, 2020
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

Good culture and company values

Cons

Decisions making can be slow

avatar
The Key Support Services Response
6y
Thank you for your feedback. Our company culture and values are really important to us at The Key, and something that we're truly proud of. We're sorry to hear that you felt that the decision making process could be slow, but we welcome the feedback to help us improve as a company.
1.0
Apr 21, 2021

Trendy doesn't always mean good

Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The only pro is that I met some lovely people without whom I would never have gotten through. Personally, my "mentor" was fantastic, but I do feel like I got lucky with that.

Cons

- The recruitment process is brutal, I had 4 stages, which was excessive, especially for a low level role - The first few weeks were induction. The induction was also very hard, back to back meetings with no time to breathe or take anything in - The benefits were material, they value free fruit, cereal and beer above a good pension packet - The way they express praise is odd. They have yearly "awards" and a very intense process for review, which makes you feel like you're in a dystopian social media game - They value "fitting in" higher than hard and good work - The team are generally young and the office is "trendy" with music in the bathrooms etc. This makes for a stressful environment with no peace and quiet - The pay is poor, along with disproportionate within teams - People are not recognised, in several circumstances people were left out of praise for things they had done for no discernible reason - The mental health provision was bad, they didn't listen to their staff or seem to know that some were struggling

2.0
May 12, 2022
Recommend
CEO approval
Business Outlook

Pros

The Key is a fantastic place to work if you like to work alongside passionate people who want to do the best for the products and the members. With the majority of The Key’s products being high quality and good value, it is easy to see why they are a major player in the education sector and schools do genuinely love The Key. The teams I worked with during my time at The Key were packed with talent and brought fresh ideas to the table to help members and make internal processes better. Often, The Key does nice things like an impromptu half day off during the pandemic or towards Christmas to help with staff well-being. If you like to work with great people, good products, then this is the company for you.

Cons

However, if you need things such as money for rent, bills, feeding your family, maintaining a social life or any number of things you may need as a human being in the UK, I would suggest looking elsewhere. The pay. Is. Not. Good. Enough. For a company with it’s offices in London and expects you to live/commute in London (at least some of the time) it does not pay well enough. Every person I spoke to at my time during The Key, in junior or middling positions, talked about how the pay was not high enough. I am more than certain that is why the majority of people, who left within my time there, ended up leaving. As a junior/middling employee you were given little to no insight/input into senior decision making it a very top down process. This meant that management had unrealistic expectations of team members which were frankly unachievable. This stung even more with the massive pay discrepancy. For a company which is a monopoly in the education space, the wages are quite frankly laughable. Whilst The Key offers slight flexibility in the workday, they are far from a bastion of flexible working. Full remote working and a 4 day working week, with no loss of pay, are somethings that are far from reach at The Key.

avatar
The Key Support Services Response
3y
Thank you for taking the time to provide your feedback. The people and talent we have within The Key and their passion for the sector is something we’re truly proud of. We regularly review our salaries to make sure they’re competitive and in line with market rate. We have also supported many people due to the impact that the rising cost of living has had on people. We hope our employees can approach us if they’re struggling - we’re sorry that’s not been your experience. Thanks again for your feedback.
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Glassdoor has 54 The Key Support Services reviews submitted anonymously by The Key Support Services employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if The Key Support Services is right for you.