Pros
Cafe, benefits, gym, some good people.
Cons
The results of the staff survey are in and surprise, surprise they are the same as the various focus groups, Glass Door entries and pulse surveys over the past year. So why does this seem a surprise to senior management? Why did they not have a couple of changes under their belt that could be announced in response to the survey results? Where on Earth are the comms team and what were they thinking? The survey results were announced and a horribly wishy washy video was sent out to all staff by our CEO which called the results "disappointing" and noted the only action to be taken was to "think about this over the summer". Well that'll keep everyone happy! Even worse is that when asked for comment, in front of senior managers, the rest of the exec reacted with silence - too busy sharpening their knives for the CEOs back I guess. Since then we now have emails and a visit from one of those members of the exec. Hmmm what could he possibly be trying to make himself look good for at this time when the CEO looks in danger of losing her job? Maybe he just really cares about us all and the Service? Maybe. So what has gone wrong at FOS? Well, the board appointed a CEO who is technically incredibly strong and astute, but who lacks the gravitas and persona of her predecessor as well as her business acumen. So it was important that she surrounded herself with people who had these skills and knowledge that she lacks - the first rule of leadership. That should have meant looking for people who had experience at a similar level elsewhere. But what actually happened was she promoted internal people, who have little external experience, and certainly none at such a senior level. This meant no new ideas, or experience of the pitfalls. We are now in the middle of a huge pitfall - the right people at the top would have seen this coming a mile off. The board have failed the CEO here. It is their job to guide her and they have not done so. They remain invisible and have avoided the majority of the criticism, but they are to blame for this mess. Shame on you! So now we have paid PWC consultants millions to design a new way of working. They have come up with the perfect sales model. Sadly we are not a sales organisation. The quality of the decisions we make must always be the most important thing and that is not what this model is focusing on. We simply cannot be Jack of all trades. We must be masters of what we do otherwise we are worse than the businesses we criticise. Now it will be hard to deviate from the PWC plan as the, when it fails, PWC will simply say "well that;s because you didn't follow our plan". It's a lose - lose situation. However, this is not the main problem. The main problem is the awful recruitment programme that has seen all the wrong people get the investigator and ombudsman manager roles. There are a handful on people who were successful in their application for ombudsman manager who have both ombudsman and manager experience and skills. They are finding the job to be a good fiit and making it work. However, that is very much the minority. Most of those jobs were given to ombudsmen, with the impression being given that it is east to learn to manage. News Flash - this is why the staff attrition in investigation has gone through the roof. And did you ask any of your experienced managers to help train or shadow these ombudsmen for their new role? Well no. That would mean connecting investigation and mass claims and we can't possibly have that can we? So the centuries of management experience in IH goes untapped. And this is exactly the same for adjudicators and investigators. We all watched open mouthed as the weaker adjudicators were successful in investigator applications, and the strong candidates were left behind. All the better for mass claims I guess! But it is why the new way of working does not work. And it is why the amount of work being produced is so low it is costing £900 per case (when we receive £550). Meanwhile, sound bites are released telling those in mass claims (which is working just fine thanks) they will be out of a job by 2020 - thanks for that. We feel so valued. Let's all step back and watch the FOS implode.