Unfair place to work that has no care for staff wellbeing and morale - Anonymous employee Silverbean Employee Review

1.0
Aug 12, 2024
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Due to how severe the cons are, there are no pros worth mentioning here

Cons

As a previous review mentions, the company Silverbean once was is no more. I worked for the company for 6.5 years, and I used to really enjoy working there, but over the last year or so in particular, there has been a significant decline in how they operate and treat their staff. Here are some key examples: - The company used to pride themselves on looking after their staff and caring for team members, however they now actively ignore and dismiss people that raise mental health issues which are associated with work. I had direct experience of this as I discussed with HR about the negative impact work was having on my wellbeing, but instead of offering support I was told that I needed to work on my emotional intelligence. I also know that this same response was given to another team member who was struggling at the time - In the last two Glassdoor responses the company have submitted, they have quoted some stats about their sickness absence rate being lower than the UK average of 5.3%. This demonstrates that they are choosing to skew stats and be blind to the actuality of the low morale and sentiment of their team. Earlier this year, there were 3 people off from the Silverbean team with work related stress within the space of 2 months. This is approximately 6% of the delivery team that were off due to stress and mental health issues caused by work - The senior management team are completely disconnected from the wider team. The CEO used to show genuine care for their people, but now they are distancing themselves and allowing other senior team members to ruin the once great culture and atmosphere that Silverbean had. I was made redundant in June this year, and despite being the longest serving member of the affiliate team at the time, the CEO did not reach out to me with any words of thanks or even a goodbye - The majority of the team are demoralised as they have to try and fight for minimal pay increases, whereas particular senior members of staff have had a number of promotions in the last two years. The team are told that these promotions are “thoroughly deserved” in emails, yet it is not clear what positive impact they are having. The team are often told that client performance isn’t where it needs to be or that they are not going beyond their role enough to warrant a pay rise or promotion. If that is the case for the delivery team, why is this same logic not applied to people that head up the entire team as surely they are ultimately accountable? - As referred to in other reviews and responses on here, the company conduct an Employee Have Your Say survey every quarter. In this survey they ask employees anonymously to score the company from 1-10 based on how likely they would recommend it as a place to work, which in turn provides them with an employee net promoter score. Within my redundancy scoring criteria, this score was defined as my “colleagues’ perception” of myself and was used ultimately to push me out of the company. Employees submit this score anonymously and in good faith that the company will address concerns properly and enact improvements to the way they operate. It is completely unfair and unethical to be twisted and skewed into a method of rating someone’s performance; the survey question on which the promoter score is based on is about the company as a whole, not an individual. In the company’s last response on here, they say they take employee feedback in the survey seriously and want to improve this score. This example shows that this is fundamentally not true - the senior management team have just manipulated the survey to suit their own agenda rather than making changes to benefit the team’s sentiment and morale

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Silverbean Response
1y
Thank you for taking the time to leave us a review. Whilst we wouldn’t comment on some of the personal circumstances you have mentioned in your review in a public forum, we would like to address some of your concerns below: - We take employee wellbeing and mental health very seriously. In every monthly 121 conversation we use a mental health continuum so that our employees can speak to their manager about any mental health concerns. We cover mental health awareness in our inductions and have tools and resources that our employees can access for themselves or their team. Our private medical insurance, healthcare cash plan and Thrive app (which all employees have access to) all offer mental health support. In addition, we offer unlimited annual leave and flexible/hybrid working. We continually review how we can support our people in the best way possible with their mental health. - The People and Development team review sickness absence regularly with managers so that we can identify any issues and support our employees. In the last 6 months our sickness absence rate was 1.03% across the agency - this is well below the UK national average of 5.1%. - Our senior management team has grown in recent years; this reflects the growth of the agency and the SMT are committed to making Silverbean a great place to work. They regularly take action to improve employee experience, and our Employee NPS score is a key metric that the SMT are accountable for. - As a performance marketing agency, client performance is a priority for employees at all levels. - We run our quarterly Have Your Say survey, and have an employee forum (Kaizen) as we want to encourage all of our employees to give us their feedback so that we can improve. We take employee feedback very seriously. Each time we run the survey, the results are reviewed by the SMT, action is taken and then communicated to employees so that they know their feedback is listened to and understand what actions have been taken. We’re sorry your experience at Silverbean wasn’t all positive, and we wish you all the best in your future career. The People and Development Team

Explore other reviews about Silverbean

5.0
Oct 24, 2021
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

They really value and look after their people. Great company benefits (unlimited annual leave!), flexible working conditions and everyone is very friendly. Company is filled with industry experts and is experiencing rapid growth.

Cons

None for me so far.

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Silverbean Response
4y
Hi, Thanks for leaving a review - we love to hear from our employees, Glad you are enjoying the company benefits! Regards The Recruitment Team
1.0
Dec 3, 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Nice office Good hybrid working policy

Cons

Work load - it’s a company wide issue all the way from executives up to senior managers , that working more than you allocated hours is necessary. Low pay - pay threshold is low compared to the market Progression - very limited progression , the jump from executives to manager to senior manager is extremely high / the frequency these roles come up , is extremely low Very cliquey- if you are not close / respected by certain a certain individual - it is made very apparent and you are pushed out both socially and professionally. Widespread strategy change - company direction and structure changes frequently , without much warning.

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Silverbean Response
5mo
Thank you for taking the time to share your experience. We're glad to hear you found the office environment and hybrid working policy positive. On workload, this is something we take seriously. We rely heavily on accurate time tracking from everyone across the business so we can spot pressure points, allocate resource properly and step in where support is needed. When time isn’t tracked in detail, it limits our ability to take the right action - so we continue to reinforce its importance and review workload trends regularly. We do recognise that, as a smaller agency, progression opportunities don’t come up as frequently as in larger organisations. We’re focused on how we can support development in other meaningful ways, even when formal role moves aren’t immediately available. Without having further context on some of the other points you raised, it's hard for me to respond to those meaningfully here. We appreciate your feedback and wish you all the best for the future.
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