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      IRIS Software Group

      Engaged Employer

      IRIS Software Group reviews

      3.7

      67% would recommend to a friend

      (865 total reviews)
      avatar

      Jason Dies

      75% approve of CEO

      64% positive business outlook

      Ratings by demographic groups

      IRIS Software Group has an employee rating of 3.7 out of 5 stars, based on 865 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The IRIS Software Group employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Information Technology industry (3.9 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      865 reviews
      1.0
      Aug 25, 2020

      Going downhill fast

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      None of any significance .

      Cons

      IRIS have successfully turned a profitable company with happy and knowledgeable employees, into the shadow of its former success. There have been heavy redundancies over the last few years, with long standing staff leaving due to the increased pressure and lack of support from managers. A significant amount of product knowledge has been lost, which is impacting the quality of support offered to customers. There is a claim that they care about employees, yet every communication from the CEO tells us to love the customer; very, very rarely do we receive a thank you for keeping the nanny in their job. We once used to receive a small token of appreciation at Christmas, which most people saw as a nice thing. We now receive a propaganda leaflet; again telling us we should love the customer!! Every year it's disheartening when you are told at your review that you are excelling at your job, yet you know you are being paid less than market rate; no pay rises have been issued for many people since IRIS took ownership. They have a bonus scheme, which is only issued to managers; again it really grinds you down when you hear them gloating about it. Their so called benefits package is aimed at only a few employees (those who travel by train or cycle and like the gym). For the rest of us it's just dental care and the option to buy into a dodgy sounding voucher scheme for electrical products. Whilst change was inevitable, the way they have gone about is abysmal. Rather than clearly setting out their intentions to each department, they much prefer to drip feed information via generic company emails and teams groups with other companies in the organisation. These groups tend to be discussions about multiple subjects and it takes time for it to become clear that they are actually setting up a new way of working. Career progression is non existent and training is restricted to pre-approved soft skill courses. It's very hard to get training approved that relates directly to the role you are doing. Management... how many layers of management does one organisation need? There are some genuinely nice people in the roles, yet the time taken to make a decision is multiplied by the number of levels of management in the department. Having the financial backing of HG capital puts them in a great position to buy up the competitors, pull them apart and eradicate those brands from existence. Whilst this suits the way IRIS work, not many people have the feeling of long term job security. If you do find yourself working here, bear in mind that other places will offer better career progression, salary and a feeling of worth.

      avatar
      IRIS Software Group Response
      5y
      We are very sorry that you have been affected by the recent restructure within our Sales organisation. We would like to thank you for taking the time to write a review, although we are surprised and disappointed by your comments. We have a market-leading benefits package, including company-funded private healthcare, life insurance and income protection cover, generous holiday entitlement, 3 fully paid Giving Back Days for volunteering each year, a great pension scheme with NI uplift, a Perks @ Work platform offering discounted shopping, cinema tickets and travel, and a restaurant savings card, as well as the season ticket loan, cycle scheme you mention. We recently launched our tech scheme which offers the chance to purchase technology through Curry’s PC World via salary sacrifice to benefit from tax savings and the payment split over a 12 month period. We’re delighted to confirm that all our benefits are available to every UK employee here at IRIS. If you’d like more information or have additional benefits you’d like us to consider, please log into our myIRIS benefits platform or contact our Benefits Manager, Kerry.Cook@iris.co.uk. We are also very proud of our record of recognising and rewarding our hardworking staff. We offer our quarterly IMPACT Awards with voucher prizes for those who live our values (nominated by colleagues across the business), a Top Talent Award to recognise those who’ve gone above and beyond each year, our CEO’s weekly IRIS Heroes, as well as encouraging managers to give impromptu rewards and great feedback to celebrate their team’s fantastic achievements. Our bonus scheme is open to many employees across the business (not just managers) and we are currently looking into ways to extend the scheme to the small proportion who aren’t currently eligible. We are also delighted to be accredited as a Real Living Wage employer, and we commit to paying all our employees fairly and competitively for their work. We operate an annual salary review process and dedicated departmental pay progression schemes to support this across the business, alongside the many promotions we celebrate each year. We also offer extensive opportunities for training and development – including a range of courses that are freely available and now remote (both soft and technical), and a huge range of apprenticeship opportunities – we’ve been delighted to support over 100 apprenticeship applications this year alone, along with offering generous funding for individual qualifications and training. Please reach out to learning@iris.co.uk if you have a specific course you would like to attend. We aim to be a highly communicative and transparent employer and communicate through a range of channels – our intranet pages, monthly updates in every site and remotely, our regular newsletter, weekly emails from our CEO to name a few. We also offer extensive opportunities for feedback and questions – through our employee engagement committee, EmployeeFeedback@iris.co.uk email address, an open door policy for all managers and HR and opportunities for questions at the end of each monthly update. We would very much welcome the chance to talk to you in more detail so we can give the information you’re after and improve your experience of IRIS – please email EmployeeFeedback@iris.co.uk, reach out to your HR representative, or contact Stephanie Kelly, our Chief People Officer, so that we can help. Kind regards, the HR team
      1.0
      Jun 10, 2019

      Large pay disparities across the board and laterally between colleagues in the same role.

      Manager
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      These are my honest thoughts and there are not many pros to working at IRIS. There are some really good people, but most have to turn up to pay the bills and so smile, pretending they love the company. Free fruit on Tuesdays in some offices.

      Cons

      The NI payment saved via the employees salary sacrificed pension payment has been reduced by 50%. This was buried in an email that shouted out about the 4% contribution IRIS now makes to an employees pension. This is the statutory minimum IRIS is required to pay! I suspect this has largely gone unnoticed as only a few astute individuals will have picked this up. 4% pension contribution, possible higher in some companies recently acquired, but seriously, this is not going to attract the talent IRIS needs to survive. IRIS wants to be a world class company, striving to be a top 100 company. This is not how you do that. Remuneration is terrible, period. You will not earn good money here at IRIS. There is no share reward schemes. Bonuses have been pretty much cut to 50% as the majority of individuals will only fall into a High Meets Expectation category. The scheme is not transparent and individuals are not allowed to discuss with others. Objectives are subjective and you can do your best and still not achieve them. If you don't get along with your manager, there is no method to appeal or flag flagrant abuse. You're not told how you are doing through-out the year and so if below track, have no way to change or address concerns or debate your point of view. Honestly the system is set in favour of the house. If the company does not meet EBITDA, no bonus, if the company doesn't reach a budget set above its holding company, no bonus. If the CEO can't control his spending on the credit card and buys more companies for inorganic growth, then no bonus. IRIS will use creative accounting to reduce the bonus pot despite employees jumping through a myriad of hoops. A few receive a commensurate salary, but most won't and there are huge pay discrepancies between colleagues working in similar roles. Please don't be condescending, the majority of the staff are degree educated and smart. Most are slaves to their own circumstance or misfortune and thus turn up to work for a meagre wage. Most earn only enough per month that they are essentially trapped. IRIS will never pay enough for people to get ahead or make a real life changing differences, like a new car, that new kitchen or a bonus that would make life not so much of a struggle for the common employee. If life was a little simpler and circumstance a little different , a lot more people will have already voted with their feet and left. There is no career progression, salaries are behind the curve and stagnant. I don't care if I don't have a friend at IRIS. HR are not here to represent the staff member, but instead protect the companies best interest legally.

      avatar
      IRIS Software Group Response
      6y
      Hi, Thank you so much for your review. IRIS are proud to be a market leading organisation which invests a huge amount in our workforce each year. Sometimes we acquire companies which are paying only the minimum wage to employees, and on acquisition we ensure that these employees receive an increase to ensure they are in line with the higher real living wage amounts. We are also running a long-term salary benchmarking project to ensure that we are paying competitively against the market in all areas of the business, and we already offer local salary progression programs to recognise skills and experience and reward our upcoming talent, and we plan to roll out such programs more widely in future. We have taken on board the feedback regarding the FY19 bonus plan and the FY20 plan for eligible employees is being completely revamped in line with this feedback. There will be more communications on this in the coming weeks. We also offer a generous rewards package, including free income protection insurance, Vitality health insurance, life insurance, Perks at Work discount site, an Employee Assistance Program, our IMPACT Awards, Season Ticket Loans and many other fantastic benefits which we are proud to offer to all our UK employees. The 50% NI uplift on pension contributions is a generous addition that we offer on top of our employer contributions, which can be used in conjunction with a free pension modeller that provides support to our employees in planning the contributions that they make to be able to enjoy their retirement. We offer flexible working requests as an option for all staff, and we have a large number of part term, term time and remote working arrangements to suit the needs and personal circumstances of our employees. If there is an arrangement you would like to discuss, please reach out to the HR team who can talk you through your options. We continue to run our anonymous engagement survey each year and act on the results, and we have also introduced a wide variety of feedback measures for staff to share their feedback in confidence. Our Chief People Officer, Stephanie Kelly, is also committed to an open and transparent culture, and would welcome the opportunity to speak to you in complete confidence to discuss your concerns. Kind regards HR Team
      1.0
      Apr 22, 2022

      I didn't have the courage to put my job title in my review last year. Now I have.

      Senior content marketing executive
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business Outlook

      Pros

      Other people are going through the same experiences as you, so you will be able to find someone to vent to

      Cons

      As other reviews have explained, IRIS are constantly acquiring businesses. After this happens you will feel like suddenly no one cares about you anymore, and this is because they don't. They are in a constant acquisition cycle and their MO is sticking 'by IRIS' on the end of the company name, making all the management figures disappear and then sucking the life and soul out of everyone left. After our acquisition I had a year of hell and during that time I witnessed some frankly disturbing things. For example: - people made redundant and (allegedly...) told that if they let anyone know they wouldn't receive their redundancy package - droves of people being made redundant from departments in one fell swoop, and their responsibilities being outsourced to agencies in India or reallocated to the few people remaining - logging on to get extra work finished at 1am because I couldn't keep on top of everything, and there being dozens of others online doing the same I was constantly scared of being made redundant and I did everything I could to keep my job. For example, I asked to have a few hours off to accompany my husband to a hospital appointment and was told no...so I didn't go with him. I was scared I'd be next to get the chop if I did. It got to the point when my mental health suffered so much that I called my manager crying my eyes out begging for help with my ever-increasing workload and unattainable expectations. This call ended in her telling me someone was going on maternity and I'd have to pick up her workload too. If you scroll back through the past few months of reviews here you will notice that many of the 5* ones have word-for-word the same title, or variations of the same title. If you think this is genuine then I don't know what to tell you. HR are constantly trying to persuade people to leave positive reviews here, especially when you're a new joiner before you've seen the full picture of what this company is like. I know this because I've been there. If I could get on my hands and knees and beg you to not take a job at this company I would. And if you're working somewhere that has is in the process of being acquired by IRIS...run.

      avatar
      IRIS Software Group Response
      3y
      Thank you for taking the time to leave a review, although we are surprised and disappointed by your comments. We are very proud of all our fantastic acquisitions, which are full of great people who help us provide outstanding services and products to our customer base. We are committed to our growth and always buy successful companies which will support IRIS’ expansion, and therefore do not make redundancies as part of this process. We are delighted to have increased in size from just over 1,570 employees to over 2,000 employees in the last 12 months. We are proud that as part of this growth, we have invested in our Marketing teams, having welcomed 31 Marketing employees into the organisation. Over the past 12 months, we have also refined our acquisitions and integration processes and are now proud to have a dedicated team within IRIS focused on welcoming new businesses into the IRIS family. This includes inviting them to join our competitive benefits package – which for UK employees, encompasses company-funded private healthcare, an employee assistance programme, matched pension with NI uplift, mental health provisions and discounted gym memberships, our electric car scheme and many other opt-in benefits. We are also delighted to share a monthly Company Update with all our employees across the globe to celebrate our wonderful achievements across IRIS and signpost upcoming events. Our acquired employees are also able to access the wealth of personal and professional development we offer, with career and progression focused initiatives such as our High Potential programme and mentoring scheme, as well as a host if training and development opportunities with our quarterly updated learning curriculum. We encourage all our employees to voice their feedback, either through our monthly Peakon engagement surveys, our 35 Employee Voice Ambassadors across our departments, our Belonging Group, consisting of employee representatives who champion inclusion and diversity, or our range of dedicated inboxes for employee facing initiatives. We are delighted to have achieved an engagement score of 8.3 in our Marketing department, with consistently high scores on ‘Reward’, ‘Workload’, and ‘Autonomy’. We’re sorry to hear that this wasn’t your experience and encourage you to reach out to our Chief People Officer, Stephanie Kelly, or contact EmployeeFeedback@iris.co.uk with any further comments. Kind regards, the HR team.
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      Glassdoor has 897 IRIS Software Group reviews submitted anonymously by IRIS Software Group employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if IRIS Software Group is right for you.