SQ Digital

1.0

Oct 14, 2022

Recommend

CEO approval

Business outlook

Pros

Good people (who rotate often due to a ridiculous turnover rate) who are young and full of energy (because young people are naive enough that they don't realise what they're getting into, and their energy only lasts as long as they can survive the horrible treatment they'll get). Let's not forget the friends you make along the way though! Friends who you will see shouted at and berated, made to feel small at every opportunity. The only real "pro" here is for the company themselves, since prior to the working from home practises that any decent company offers now, Lancaster was a small enough place that there was only really a few options if you wanted a job in digital marketing. Oh, and if you're a woman , you'll get more time before you're shouted and sworn at. So that's a plus.

Cons

Formerly known as "SearchQuest", look them up to see more tales of seriously damaged mental health. This company is well known in Lancaster as a horror show, taking in bright and eager young people and churning out damaged husks, traumatised by the abuse from the director and their cronies, pushed well beyond breaking point by pointless, unattainable crunch caused by rapid-fire mismanagement. They'll play with you like a dog plays with a toy, no care for who you are as a person. It's an absolutely disgusting company run by a vicious little tyrant who is obsessed with themselves. They will pretend they are your friend by imitating a real person, but they can't understanding you because they don't care about anything except putting the spotlight on themselves, and clawing away at you to make themselves feel more powerful. Everything, in one way or another, comes back to making them seem powerful and important. Maybe the management they hire are better? No, of course they're not, because they either wise up quickly and get out of there fast, or they match the director's personal vision for vanity and abuse and will hurt you just as readily as the director will, covering for them and making the pain they cause seem normal. People like that don't get better, they just learn how to hide themselves more. A new person starts and you get maybe a day, if you're lucky, before the swearing and shouting starts up again. Because that's the norm, with the director often spouting the frankly bizarre excuse of "maybe I'm a horrible person because I'm the youngest child". Whatever spark you go in with, you'll leave feeling traumatised. You'll go home every day feeling battered and exhausted, and every hour in there is spent waiting for the next barrage of shouting, another person fired, another unknowing victim brought in to replace them. This isn't a workplace, it's a saw mill for psychological abuse, taking in happy humans and spitting out broken people. There is absolutely no reason to take a job with them. Note: The company location on Glassdoor now shows "London" and the logo doesn't match the company's current logo. They used to be correct, but since that negative review in Nov '21, they aren't, which is what you'd expect from this company. Whatever scummy practises they can get away with, they will. I wouldn't be surprised if they change their name again, to hide from another set of negative reviews. Ignore the positive ones on here. Notice how 6 out of the current 10 were made on the same day, with a 7th made the day after? And even then, many of those positive 5/5 reviews make reference to crunch, the repercussions of failing to meet unreasonable expectations set on impulse, and pointlessly hyperactive changes in direction. I would not be surprised if they're edited after this review is published. However bad you think this company might be, it's worse. Maybe they'll get better? No, they won't. If they had, as in, if they could actually acknowledge the damage and hurt they've caused people, they'd have the enormous task of reaching out to everyone they ever traumatised to apologise for the horrifying treatment they've put them through. Which won't happen, because we're talking about hundreds of people here. They'll read this without ever knowing who wrote it, because I could be any one of the hundreds they've hurt. Oh, and the pay is abysmal too. Don't do it.

SQ Digital Response

Thanks for taking the time to write this review. I imagine it couldn't have been easy for you to write about what must have been a less than positive experience for you at SearchQuest. I assume it must have been some time ago, maybe even over 5 years, as the business I now run doesn’t resemble anything like what you’re describing. From what I understand, SearchQuest experienced rapid growth between 2010 and 2015 and employed almost 50 employees by 2016. Unfortunately, it sounds like the rapid growth came with its challenges, especially with recruitment and this put undue pressure on employees at the time. It must have been a challenging time for all, including the owners, who admittedly had little experience in managing such a large team. I do remember when I joined the business in 2016, I was surprised to see how young the workforce was, and it was predominantly graduates (ironically called Executives). This wasn’t necessarily a problem but combined with department managers and operations managers who were only a few years older with no experience in leading and developing teams, it was a recipe for disaster. It must have been a challenging environment to be in and an unsustainable way to run a business! Fortunately, the owners realised this and decided to make changes. Sounds like the changes came too late for you. I remember my first two years at SQ were probably the most challenging in my 20+ year career. Right from the beginning, it was apparent there was going to be a need for drastic change if the business was going to be successful. There was considerable turmoil as we addressed the culture and laid the foundations for growth. We experienced resistance to change, high staff turnover, and disruption to customer service as we tried to implement a new management structure, invested in systems, and streamlined processes. Even during this period, we made a lot of mistakes, but we kept learning and adapting. In all honesty, we’re still making mistakes now, but fortunately, we tend to get more things right than we do wrong these days, but I guess no business is perfect. I think it was in 2018 when we concluded the initial phase, and with the help of external consultants, we developed a brand strategy and a 5-year plan to kick-start a renewed growth plan. Yes, we did rebrand to SQ Digital, as it indicated that we didn’t just do search anymore. We didn’t plan on renaming the business until a former employee suggested it to us. The owners weren’t keen on the rebrand, but after some convincing, we compromised on SQ Digital. The owners didn’t want to lose the connection to its past – the S and Q are from SearchQuest. If I had got my way, I would have chosen a completely unrelated name. Either way, it was hardly an attempt to disassociate ourselves from SearchQuest. In fact, the SearchQuest page on Glassdoor links to the SQ Digital page. We’re proud of our humble beginnings, and yes, it hasn’t been smooth sailing but your review, albeit somewhat embellished, highlights how far the business has come. We have a huge amount of talent for a relatively small business, and we recognise the value that every one of our team delivers. We’ve managed to reduce the headcount to around 30 and invest the money back into the business, including paying above average market salaries. We also continuously invest in our people, ensuring that we nurture the exceptional talent we have. We’re big on training and development and have produced many experts in the industry over the years. Our employees all have annual objectives, monthly check-in meetings and dedicated hours each month for training and development. We encourage our employees to focus on behaviours and technical skills for their personal development. To support this, as well as running internal workshops, we also have leadership development workshops delivered by an external training company. These workshops include commercial and strategy, leadership, confidence building, change management, and others. We promote staff wellbeing, and through CiC, we offer all our employees independent, free and confidential information, advice and support service, including counselling services. In addition to nurturing our existing team, we also offer a graduate scheme. The individual is given the opportunity to spend the first six months with each of our teams before deciding which digital marketing discipline to focus on. We're also active in providing opportunities to pupils and undergrads and provide work experience for local schools and universities. We have an IT plan to ensure our teams have the best tools available to complete their work. We have developed software to help us deliver new efficiencies and reduce the pressure on our employees. We constantly review how we do things to drive efficiency and reduce tasks that add no value. Since Covid, we’ve successfully adapted our working practices to hybrid working. The changes have resulted in a happier and more productive team with more freedom to manage their workloads alongside spending quality time with colleagues and building a healthy work-life balance. But don’t take my word for it. I would encourage you to pay us a visit and see for yourself. If you’re willing, I can arrange a meeting with the owners and hopefully, you can finally get some closure. Feel free to contact me at kamal@sqdigital.co.uk. Kamal Essa (Managing Director)

Traumatic is an understatement - Digital Marketing SQ Digital Employee Review

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