The company recently rebranded from The Student Housing Company to Yugo.
All the while, they had grand visions of being the leading provider globally. Several things wrong with this:
- I have seen so many staff leave under The Student Housing Company due to not enough pay, head office and senior leadership sitting in ivory castles with no idea how things work or don't work on the ground, lack of progression, lack of training (especially if anyone wants to do an industry recognised qualification) and our so-called leaders not being able to see what is really happening.
They have kept promising things will get better with Yugo - the past few years have shown us that they give employees nothing but lip service - promise of training courses, more pay, better conditions but nothing has ever changed.
- The company have so many unpaid bills to contractors and suppliers, all the while blaming it on relocating the finance team from Dubai to Bristol. It makes it impossible to keep the building going and looking sparkly in the way Yugo claim to their residents. Rather embarrassing when the residents realise nothing is getting fixed because we can't buy anything.
- They claim to be family friendly. They aren't. They frown if you need time off for your kids or if an emergency comes up. Managers are on call 24/7 and are often criticised if they miss a call or if they try to make themselves unavailable.
- The company spend loads of things for the students - vouchers, goodies, small events etc. but do not spend anything on their employees. Incentives are non-existent. Managers have approached HR with ideas but told that they would not support us with them and certainly couldn't give us any financial backing.
- HR are like a bunch of vultures waiting to pick at employees as soon as they make any sort of mistake. Employees are constantly scared of the consequences of making natural mistakes because if HR are told, they get hauled straight in for a disciplinary - my experience is that I have seen this happen to so many people. Some have been fired when they really shouldn't have been.
- Progression is non-existent. Opportunities don't come up very often, but internal applicants are often overlooked and even if they do get the job, the training isn't great. I have seen people step up, struggle due to lack of proper training and leave as a result.
- Pay is low. If you Google similar jobs in the area, many companies pay more with better benefits.
- Departments like HR and finance are uncooperative and unreliable. They have promised training for various things since I started and it still hasn't happened - IOSH, First Aid etc. Currently, we have no trained first aiders on site but still they won't send any of us on training. If you try and get in contact with anyone from HR or Finance, they won't even reply to you and if they do, it's often weeks.
- Staff feel unsafe, especially those working overnight. They refuse to let night staff have protection such as body cams and where they work solo, will not entertain the idea of providing extra back up. Other large site have explained the benefits of doing so, but told them one person should be able to run it. Staff have previously been threatened, almost assaulted and put in harms way, but the company still haven't improved things. Staff have left because they feel so at risk, not just from violence, but false allegations. Staff have been put through a disciplinary in the past due to false allegations and left before the process was complete as they wouldn't believe him and didn't have any faith or motivation to work for a company not trusting their employees.
- They have their busy periods in June/July and September when students check out and in. They expect all staff to muck in, put in the hours and STRONGLY criticise you if you don't or can't do any overtime during these periods.
