Double Standards - Anonymous employee COS Employee Review

COS as part of H&M Group have laid out their core values, unfortunately these values are not met at COS. We are one team. - The reality is that COS Head Office consists of dozens of smaller teams that do not communicate nor collaborate with each other. In many cases these teams are set against each other to compete for resources and recognition. Often this results in ‘blame game’ where teams are left blaming each other for the bad managerial decisions made. We believe in people - More like ‘We believe in some people’. Don’t get me wrong, some people have had great careers at COS, starting on the shop floor and ending up working in the head office. Others on the other hand (majority in my experience) end up working in the same role for years with no prospect of career development or recognition. Many roles are there just to get the job done and the management makes it very clear that if your role is not rewarding enough for you, there is a line of new applicants outside the door, eager to take your place. Entrepreneurial spirit - In this case entrepreneurial spirit means that if you face problems in your work, you are expected to find the solutions yourself and there is very little help for you. Constant improvement - There is talk of constant improvement yet same mistakes are repeated over and over due to lack of communication. This is partly due to high staff turnover. There also seems to be no brand vision or at least it is not communicated to staff, the only vision communicated to staff is ’Sell more’ which seems ironic considering the recent attempts to make COS seem like a sustainable brand. Cost-conscious - On one hand most of the company salaries are under market rate and there is constant talk of saving money, on the other hand *insane* amount of money is spent buying services from external contractors even though there are resources to get this work done internally by in-house talent. This is partly due to lack of trust in the in-house teams and their abilities and partly due to mismanagement of workflow. Straightforward and open minded - On the surface COS aims to be straightforward and open minded but underneath the reality is quite different. At COS we are taught that ‘feedback is a gift to the receiver’ but this only seems to be the case when feedback comes from above since feedback directed to management or HR is often ignored. This has also been very evident in the management misconduct cases that have tarnished COS’ reputation in recent years. Keep it simple - Could not be further from truth. The usual decision making process at COS means getting everyone (and I mean EVERYONE) involved (to make them feel they have a say) and in the end making decisions without taking any of these views into account. Usually the resulting decisions are not properly communicated or they are only communicated to some employees which results in hearsay and confusion. COS prides itself on having a flat organisational structure but the reality is that when issues arise no-one takes responsibility, least the management.