Although it is great working with so much freedom you are expected to hit challenging targets, If you are struggling to do this then management don't have many solutions and this may leave some staff who need a bit more support really struggling. As the contract is on a payment by results system there is constant pressure to achieve these targets but little focus on quality or fully supporting customers. There is no financial incentive to see people more than once which means customer interactions feel limited as many of the customers are far from the job market and may need multiple interactions. These targets can also lead to squabbling and competition within teams as advisers compete for the same customers/locations. New people joining the team can struggle as older advisers tend to have all the regular and reliable locations for delivery meaning new advisers are just picking up the work other people don't want. Performance doesn't really take into account overall impact or time with clients or hours worked, mainly just targets. Targets did keep increasing over my time there which were increasingly hard to achieve meaning less of a work/life balance. If customers don't turn up it is suggested it is your fault and you can't claim anything for them. As targets dominate your time there is little time for research or training as this isn't factored into your week, meaning you still have to hit the same targets even if you attend training. Over time this leads to an attitude of purely focusing on yourself and your targets rather than trying to improve as an adviser. Upper management enforce the pressure and targets so this dominates any team days or challenges. There were opportunities for promotion but these tended to be handled in a less than transparent way, some roles were never advertised and certain individuals (like those related to the management) were appointed without due process. Also a huge amount of paperwork which again kept increasing over time. This got to the point of dominating interactions with clients, more time was spent getting customers to sign the right paperwork than give advice! Also very time consuming to process all the paperwork and enter on the system. Sometimes dealing with very difficult customers, many of whom are told they have to use the service or risk losing benefits etc. Many are long term unemployed and unskilled which means the targets of getting them into work or training can be very challenging. Little opportunity to see a variety of customers unless they fit certain groups. Pressure to hit targets leads to some dubious means and methods to claim outcomes. Some of these things (the targets, paperwork, payment systems) come from the government rather than the company itself so it's hard to be too critical but still impact negatively on the adviser experience.
