SOLIHULL METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL Employee Reviews

Flexible working enables you to work from home and to have a good work life balance. The people are very friendly and supportive where everyone is willing to help.

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Pleasant and collaborative environment

Post 16 Tracking officer (Former Employee) - Solihull - 21 July 2023

Management are always approachable and supportive of personal development and there are lots of training and upskilling opportunities. Most roles include working in conjunction with other teams within the Council. A fair amount of personal resilience is required in most roles as targets must be accomplished within strict time-frames but help from colleagues is almost always given when requested. Overall, a lovely place to work.

Pros

Supportive colleagues and management, Employee benefits and support initiatives, chance of annual increment, Good salary, flexible/hybrid working, Training, upskilling and personal development opportunities available.

Cons

Application process is long and complicated. Can be stressful, Yearly employee review is a long and complicated process, Job security is rarely guaranteed depending on which team you work for.

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Rewarding job as a teacher

Specialist Teacher (Former Employee) - Solihull - 8 September 2022

Rewarding job as a teacher. Personally found it hard / impossible to keep job related issues outside school. Left as got aware that to meet and deliver all support to students I would need to work 60 hours a week. Hard to keep life balance ( for me ) when one has a family and commitments.

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Great place to work, improving and flexible

Social Worker (Current Employee) - Solihull - 20 August 2022

-Great management who are supportive-flexible working-great team-great support in fostering from management and colleagues - supportive - opportunities for development

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Forward thinking local authority

Administrative Officer (Former Employee) - Solihull - 29 January 2022

Good place to work with flexibility around working hours and able to work from home if it suited the task, clear achievable targets set by my manager and potential for advancement, sad to leave but travel time was too much.

Pros

Flexible working

Cons

Some long serving staff with dated approach

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Insights into SOLIHULL METROPOLITAN BOROUGH COUNCIL

Based on 17 survey responses

What people like

Clear sense of purpose
Time and location flexibility
Ability to meet personal goals

Areas for improvement

Energising work tasks
General feeling of work happiness
Support from manager

Nice Culture

Management Support Officer then PA to x2 Heads of Department (Former Employee) - Solihull - 17 November 2021

I was 'only' a temp.there for about five months. I worked in two departments as a Management Support Officer - the one paying £10, the second at £12.47. Usually on £14-£16 but I now Councils and the NHS for instance, pay less. It was a really good culture there - everybody, Line Managers and upwards were kind and helpful.

Pros

Non-applicable - no Pros as a Temp.

Cons

None

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Policy and procedures not abided by

Admin Manager (Former Employee) - Solihull - 8 September 2021

I was treat abominably by SMBC. I used to enjoy my role until new management and they don’t respect diversity nor equality They do not support staff so if you do take a job please please join a union.

Pros

None

Cons

Management do not listen to employees

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Nice place to work flexible

Income Officer (Current Employee) - Revenues - 6 October 2020

Nice place to work can be stressful but good team very family friendly. Lots of targets are set. No free time at all. Very customer focused. The last 25 years we have always been the top metropolitan authority for council tax collection. Audit score of 1 achieved we have always maintained an excellent in audit scoring

Pros

Flexibility

Cons

Not paid enough

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Don't work in Public Sector

Finance Assistant (Former Employee) - Solihull - 1 February 2019

Everyone off sick with stress, high work load, no recognition, terrible pay, no parking, inefficient management, only good thing was flexi-time. hours banked and taken as an when.

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Fun workplace

Customer Service Advisor (Former Employee) - Birmingham, West Midlands - 17 June 2018

My time at Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council was very fulfilling. I completed all of the work that I set out to do and I got rewarded for it. Furthermore, I also completed tasks I never thought of doing myself which has added to my knowledge.

Pros

Freedom

Cons

Repetitive

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Social Worker

Social Worker (Current Employee) - Solihull, West Midlands - 29 May 2018

Working with children and families with a range of issues that require support on child in need plans, child protection plans and looked after child plans.

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The Fostering team is dire

Fostering (Former Employee) - Fostering - 28 April 2018

I joined the Fostering team in the midst of a restructure, my experience was one of mutual mistrust between staff and managers. In the years I was in the role I didn’t feel like the management was able to move beyond the restructure and return to an effective business as usual state. I saw a lot of good Social workers leave the team because they felt burnt out.

Pros

N/a

Cons

Mistrusting managers, all talk no progress, no direction from above

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good little school job

College Administrator (Current Employee) - Solihull - 4 April 2018

hours are suitable with people with small children who want to return to work. Sometimes work life balance is difficult due to less time at work. You have to be 100% committed to both the pupils and the school.

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fun place to work

Play Worker (Current Employee) - Solihull, West Midlands - 4 June 2017

Only work term time which has been great. The team is good to be around a lot of the time unfortunately there is no room for advancement so your practically stuck in the job.

Pros

school holidays off

Cons

favouritism

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talking to different people each day. great benefits.

support worker in schools. telecanvasser. (Current Employee) - solihull. - 10 May 2017

Having the right attitude time and patience with customers us highly important. Even if faced with customers not wanting a sales call or aren't interested in buying a product its still important to show concern understanding and empathy at times too. Being bubbly and enthusiastic even if no one wants to buy a product still helps to know you've been polite and have the right attitude

Pros

flexible hours and great commission

Cons

if leads aren't turned into dems

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Job satisfaction , weather usually good , help's keep active and healthy

Road Safety Insructor (Current Employee) - North Solihull, Chelmsley Wood - 25 January 2017

Helping to give confidence to school age children (pupil's) while they are learning to ride their bike's on the local roads around their school and surrounding area's. In still's a better understanding of what they need,while riding their bike's on the road and making them aware of what is needed to keep safe and also be aware that respect to fellow user's is a must. The Children (pupil's) learn how to check their bike's each time they use them by applying the basic M check (like a MOT for a car)The Children(pupil's) will also have passed the level 1 to enable them to progress to level 2-3 which would be on the road with various traffic. There would alway's be a high standard of ratio of instructor's per Children (pupil's). I feel this give's the Children confidence, a healthy outlook on a different mode of transport and also keep's an active mind and healthy body.

Pros

healthy

Cons

bad weather

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challenging environment

Category Manager (Current Employee) - Solihull - 4 November 2016

under challenging conditions Solihull metropolitan borough council is a forward thinking authority and has some of the best practices within the public sector

Pros

flexi-time

Cons

heirarchy

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fast paced and extremely busy

Catering Assistant Cook (Current Employee) - Solihull Council - 27 September 2016

Really busy and physically hard work, everyday is different as providing service to so many brings many different requests and situations. Fantastic co-workers,

Pros

non

Cons

low salary for the work expected.

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Accounts Volunteer

Accounts Assistant Volunteer (Former Employee) - Solihull - 8 September 2016

I was working in a accountancy department processing invoices and corresponding with clients. Also I worked with direct payments team.

Pros

Good atmosphere

Cons

N/a

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Nice team members to work with

Awards Assessor (Former Employee) - Solihull - 2 August 2016

Learnt a lot in this role with Housing Benefit, which has also built a foundation to learning how the welfare system works as a whole.

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Productive but not much progression

Council Tax Administrator (Current Employee) - Solihull - 23 September 2014

I have been working for the council on a temporary basis, however I feel there is not that much progression available. The people i work with are great, and the management are always there to help