Good - Accounts Assistant Crossley Group Employee Review

Working here was positive for a short while. Local firm, within walking distance from my home. Support with training.

The working environment in every department is very intense, and everyone seems over worked. The ethic of the firm is to employ young, and this leads to havoc when you have a department of 15 unqualified teenagers. The biggest CON is the treatment of AAT students. The firm argue that they pay for AAT, or at least that they receive a grant to put trainees through AAT. This is a lie. Funding is obtained directly by First Intuition, the training provider. Crossley have a clause in trainees contracts that they have to pay back AAT fees to Crossley, if they leave during study, or less than a year after finishing. There have been many people who have had thousands deducted from their pay by Crossley, despite them incurring no cost, and First Intuituon being the funded training provider. More often than not, employees continue trainee at the FI under their new employer. It smells like the partners are profiting significantly by their already under paid trainees who are seeking better training, better pay, and more pleasant working environment elsewhere. Poor room for movement, the same faces will be manager for years. Low pay compared to competitors. Client satisfaction is very low at the moment, which must reflect in how the company is doing. Payrises aren't ever anything to shout about, and rumour has it that management have been told to tone down performance reviews, so that staff don't expect big pay rises.

Lots of young, mainly school leavers. Thrown into the deep end so if you're confident you can get a lot of experience you'd be sheltered from at most accountancy practices. Able to speak to clients from day one. If you like Excel you'll love Crossley!!

Worst job I've ever had. High staff churn rate, very time pressured, rule by spread sheet, very little experienced staff able to review and train. Sky high exit fees for students part way through training, low paid, little training support but expected to pay all back plus if leave before completing