a company run by big kids... - Publishing Manager Raconteur Employee Review

Naturally, I’m saddened that you’ve left this review of your experience at Raconteur - you’re the first person who has done that in our 12 year company history and across 18 reviews in total. The others are pretty much all from ex employees - we do not ask current employees to leave “false positive” reviews. Regarding your “Lads club” / female talent comments. Raconteur’s quest to become more inclusive and diverse is something I’ve publicly written about on both LinkedIn and our own website, and I’ve no problem admitting that we still have work to do on this front. We appointed a Head of Talent and Inclusion in 2019 and do a significant amount around inclusion both internally and externally - more than most companies of our size I’d be confident enough to suggest. Of course, when you have 65 staff, it’s inevitable that it won’t be enough for absolutely everyone. In 2019, 61% of leavers were male, 39% were female. 72% of women at Raconteur received a pay rise and / or promotion in 2019 versus 52% of men. I hope the actual stats demonstrate that we are moving in the right direction. There is more work to do on this front but we aren't shying away from it. Most of your other points ultimately relate to performance, sadly. If you're a lower than average performer in sales then you're not going to earn the same commission cheques as the high performers, and we need to work with people to get them up to a certain standard before we can consider them for progression. You were only with us a little over a year, so that just wasn't possible in your case. It's a shame when things don't work out - but these aren't crazy policies and there are plenty of examples of us progressing high performers, both male and female. We are also very open with candidates before they join that whilst the Publishing Manager role can be hugely rewarding, it is by no means easy. It's regrettable that your experience with us was not a good one, and I'm sorry to hear the personal feedback about myself and other directors. With an employee engagement score (independently and anonymously verified through Peakon) which has not dropped below 87% since 2018, I think you are in the clear minority with your views, but we will of course take on board your feedback. I wish you the best of luck finding somewhere where you can be happier, and I’m sorry that Raconteur wasn’t that place. Will