The Co-Operative Bank Careers and Employment

Great experience, wonderful people. Standard working hours , learnt a lot amongst colleagues. Would love to progress and be challenged. A good company to work for

Mortgage Advisor in Manchester, Greater Manchester

on 12 April 2021

Struggling bank in need of innovation & proper management

Started working then left very shortly afterwards due to pedantic and very overbearing micro-management. I'd been told Co-op is an ethical bank as they dont lend to arms companies and such, but in my opinion this bank have dined out for free on that redundant sentiment for too long. What I saw working here shocked and saddened me. IT systems were inherently broken and not fit for purpose, management shirked responsibilities and took evasive action whenever anyone suggested streamlining broken processes. I witnessed a lot of favouritism and nepotism in my time here. On the plus side, I found the initial induction fairly standard and most of the customer facing staff more welcoming, training & initial impressions were fairly ok. However this changed as soon as I started my day to day duties as a mortgage adviser which fell in the domain of the "training academy". This academy was one person who essentially decided whether you stay or not, and this largely depended whether they wanted you there or not rather than your ability to do the job. I immediately encountered a level of scrutiny in my work that involved every tiny piece of my conversations with customers being picked apart, over-analysed and nitpicked to the Nth degree whilst other advisers producing similar outcomes were allowed to sail through. During my training one chap resigned due to stress and another colleague confided that they were taking anti-anxiety medication because of the amount of over-zealous and pushy scrutiny that a particular staff member was placing on them. This lead me to feel extremely unwelcome at this supposed "ethical and inclusive" bank, and I subsequently resigned rather than be managed out (which was hinted at many times). In general I found the salary to be below industry average and the work volumes to be excessive for the pay.

Customer Service Advisor in Skelmersdale, Lancashire

on 1 April 2021

Stressful low wage job with little benefit

If you work here in customer services you’ll be treated with contempt and be given little/no support. Due to serious failings by management you'll bear the brunt of any issues like systems crashing daily, not enough staff or call waits of over an hour. Besides a wage that hasn’t really increased in years you’ll get nothing more. They used to offer bonuses, prizes, rewards but now you just get access to discounted gift cards. I can get that myself online! Direction to develop the company changes every year when the management team leaves and gets replaced. Which means they spent money making people redundant and new systems that never get finished. So you end up with no staff and old systems from the 80/90s. Due to making so many people redundant they’ll give you many roles to perform and leave you to it. During the height of covid they didn’t care and provided little support. Only when staff absence increased did they try to put processes in place. If you’re after a stressful job and don’t want to stack shelves for the similar wage. Be given no support and work in a toxic environment then this is a job for you. They made people redundant late last year (2020) in customer services and they’re recruiting to fill those jobs. So you can see that the staff turnover is shocking! At least at McDonalds you get a free meal.

Customer Service Advocate in Skelmersdale

on 30 January 2021

Stressful

No job security. Currently up skilling staff so that everyone can do everything, including dealing with fraud!Training from other skills has been so diluted and rushed so that they can have enough staff trained.

Customer Service Leader [Operations Lead] in Leek

on 27 January 2021

For People With Purpose

Loved my time at Britannia and The Co-operative Bank. Good benefits and working environment. Sadly, couldn't escape the latest round of redundancies - otherwise I'd be there forever.

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