Being forced to drive vans that are unworthy or be out of work on the day. (Back doors swing open when driving, Internal locks believe the doors are always open causing a constant ringing throughout the van, constant EML light flashing with the chugging engine, Freezer never getting to - temperature and AC blowing hot air in 30 degree plus heatwave. These faults were passed onto the line manager and brushed off without any resolution.
Hours took off less than 24 hours before shift commencing without notification just found out by chance checking nexus the evening before the morning of the shift.
No assistance from shop staff to delivery drivers at all. Delivery crates left all over the shop, none in order, in the wrong places meaning some customers' food was in the wrong storage area causing company huge losses having to re-pick stock.
Biased behaviour from management
Perished food being put back in cabinets by management
COVID issues ( no social distancing, once saw management meeting in the office (7 people in a circle), Hand washes not replaced, forced to share vans with others who refuse to wear masks, vans never sanitised or cleaned.
Joke of a company
Paid for arranged shifts and very unlikely to be paid when running over from reasons beyond your control (traffic/weather/slow customers/etc)
System calculates 4 mins unloading for each delivery regardless if 12 crates to top floor of flats or up staircase. Constant late finishing especially at first months due to difficulty in finding addresses .
Never had an hour break as you get back later and you start loading before it's finished so you can get away on time
Expected to arrive at least 30mins early to unload empty crates and load for first slot and van checks
Retail Sales Associate | Cardiff, AL | Jan 27, 2020
Pay is fair.
A typical working day at Iceland is fast paced as they expect you to multitask by doing different job at once. I rarely left work on time as i was expected to finish the jobs i was told to do.
Work culture is very cliquey. Great if you fit in, if you don`t, don`t expect a lot of support from HR as this department has had many cutbacks due to cost of Palm Olive and Plastic pledges.
Working on till is seen as the lowest part of the job by staff, they all want to do stock, even if they have been rota`d to work on till.
Great job for students as the pay grade is the same for all ages.
Never finished on time , you don’t get paid for being stuck later than your hours on a till due to nobody taking over, breaks are like gold dust take half hour from pay and they give you 15 mins if you’re lucky. Understaffed for amount of customers, manager is lovely some duty managers are a bit up themselves and talk to you like you stupid , other colleagues are ok .
Come in five minutes late they are down your throat get stuck on a till five ten minutes no extra pay
ProsDiscount card
ConsNever get paid for overtime when on tills a bit longer
Joined Iceland in August as a Customer Delivery Driver on a permanent basis. After my retail experiences with Tesco's & Sainsbury's I was looking forward a permanent role within the industry but unfortunately was diagnosed with a tumor which meant I could not drive, (this was removed and have been cleared by both, surgeon, doctor and DVLA). I had no problem with the physical aspects of the job or the long driving hours but the management was awful
For a unskilled job it’s ok , I do see favouritism definitely in the store , some people get away with anything , understaffed usually , breaks are non existent regardless of hours done , people are all lovely but never point out the good a staff member does but high lights the negative , hard to finish on time ....staffing issues again.
Not Covid safe lack of basic things like hand sanitizer for customers ,
difficult place to work as you as a manager hardly get time to manage
all you do is fill the shopfloor, wage budget is so tight that unless you are filling the shopfloor for 8-9 hours a day you cant get it presentable
work culture is horrific where if your area manager comes to know that you are taking a break(out of 9 hours a day you are entitled for 1.30 hours break) he/she will be very upset
you are expected just to slog
Avoid, especially if you are from glasgow. maryhill or bridgeton.
I worked for this company and let me tell you they are awful. The boss of the Bridgeton store is a horrible, vile and disgusting women. She is a bully and overly aggressive to compensate for her own failings.
I also worked in Maryhill and the boss, Brian was useless and had been repeatedly investigated for bullying.
Avoid this company at all costs.
You are nothing more than a number. lucky if you get a break and if you ask for 1 are made to feel guilty.iceland do not recognize mental health. Expect you to stop on after your time and not pay you but soon on your back if you 5 seconds late .management are kids that have no ppl skills at all .hr dont bother going to them ith any problems always side with management
Fast paced role with not much time to finish delivery duties. Plenty of heavy lifting in all weather conditions. Expected to prepare you own deliveries if members of staff responsible are absent, which in turn makes you late to start your round and finish later without pay for the extra time spent. Scattered shifts with late finishes. Minimum wage for quite a physical job.
Senior Supervisor
ICELAND - Runcorn
Responsibilities
I am reviewing this company based on what happened to my husband
He was a senior supervisor for an Iceland store in Runcorn
The store was owned by Cool Trader when he first went there which was Icelands sister company, in 2012 Iceland sold the Cool Trader stores all except four to Herron Foods
The top four were taken over by Iceland one of which was his store
The first thing to take place was the promised 12 weeks training being cut to just two weeks and very little signed off on the training file he was given
He was then quite Frankly thrown in at the deep end once the Runcorn store was re-opened after the re-fit
They promised to support them by saying the store would have an Iceland manager and half and half Iceland trained staff and Cool trader staff, this again was a broken promise all the old Cool Trader staff returned to their store with my husband no trained Iceland staff at all except a temp Iceland trained manager who had little to no interest in continuing the training as he know he was only there a short time till the full time manager was assigned to the shop
My husband had had a small pay increase as Iceland do pay more than Cool Trader did but for this from day one he was expected to give up hours upon hours of his time unpaid to plug in the gaps for the understaffed store and also give up breaks and days off to cover for people, he would work 12 + hours as the norm which he was only paid
I started working for Iceland In Sept. I was hired as a senior supervisor and I was told that the manager wanted a firmer hand whilst dealing with staff which would include keeping them in check and ensuring all jobs were followed through correctly.
I was told that i was expected to be the floor manager and over see all aspects of the shop.
Within one week i was left alone with no training but an induction video!
It was one of my worst experiences to date as not only could i not understand the operations but i also looked weak in front of the staff on arrival.
A couple weeks passed and still no training, although we now had a store manager come and do training with my manager whilst i was left in the weeds.
every day they were side by side whilst during my 8 weeks there i had one training session. it simply wasn't good enough.
I remember messaging my manager after a horrible day asking him why he was doing this to me and asked him if he was testing me.
Once i became familiar with what i needed to fight through the days alone, I was then asked to start delegating more and controlling the team.
At first i was apprehensive as i had heard stories about how difficult and unprofessional particular members of staff were so decided to gain their respect and befriend them before clamping down in particular areas.
Most members of staff needed nurturing and i found myself becoming a personal councilor that included peoples issues outside of work.
Other issues included Nig
The job itself isn’t bad, it’s straightforward and simple to grasp - you’re literally delivering shopping to people. However there is quite a lot of heavy lifting involved with the crates. I now have a really bad back from it as you’re constantly lifting. It’s quite a physical job so if you’re not physically fit I wouldn’t recommend it.
In training the online course tells you that your ‘pit stop’ (getting the orders ready to load straight onto the van) will be done for you in preparation for your next run - this isn’t the case; drivers have to do this themselves which takes up additional time. I have to get into work an hour early each day because otherwise I wouldn’t be leaving on time for my run - because this is ‘voluntary’, you don’t get paid for coming in early (even though you basically have to). If you came in for the exact start time of your shift you’d end up leaving like half an hour late which has a knock on effect for the rest of the day. You only get 2 hours on each run to deliver the shopping and depending on how busy the runs are this can mean you’re rushing to try get the deliveries done in time to get back to load for the next run. A lot of the time unless you leave early for a run you don’t get back in enough time to load your van and end up leaving late. They don’t give you enough time to load up and you only get given roughly 5 minutes at each drop to deliver the shopping - they don’t take into account that you might have 9 or 10 crates to deliver to a bl
ProsGood pay, flexible with working hours, some managers are lovely, can potentially finish early.
ConsHeavy lifting, bad company management of drivers, unlikely to get a break, not appreciated
During my 4 years working with the Iceland company I have worked my way up through the in store roles from a Sales Assistant to a full time Home Delivery Supervisor gaining practical experience of the full in store operation from checkout operation and customer service up to the management of others and team leading. This in store experience has been invaluable in giving me personal and professional breadth and depth of knowledge of the challenges faced in both retail and head office from ensuring correct inventory and accurate planning to dealing with a customers and colleagues in a professional manner.
Working in one of the busiest stores in the company (Hayes Town), I have learned to work with different types of people, work under pressure, manage people and manage workload of myself and others whilst enjoying what I do.
Previously as a Supervisor I have ensured all store members and me are aware of targets, policies, the best ways of practice to succeed and have a full knowledge of responsibilities, consequences and importance for business. I have worked closely with store managers & home delivery drivers and I have gained experience of the role requirements and expectations of myself and others. I had helped 3 stores to achieve their targets and save money for the store and for the business, meet all required legal criteria demonstrable through the reducing customer complaints, increasing customer service standards, filling personal files, helping to recruit new sta
Unpaid overtime, no support given, under-appreciated
When in the interview, and on your induction day the management are all very helpful, persuasive even, and make an endless stream of promises which you would have no reason not to believe - things like ‘we’ll have all the deliveries set up and ready to be put in the van’ - for the first couple of days work they do indeed follow through with this but then after about a week working there it has stopped and you’ve realise, like it or not, you have to go into work around 45/60 minutes early in order to sort out the deliveries, as there are usually issues with them and they are randomly scattered in no order. The induction day is your training day and last for 2 delivery windows where you are out with a senior driver, this is categorically not enough training if you have had no prior delivery experience, something I had not. After a few days, you learn yourself and start to get up to speed. The deliveries are generally speaking alright, you get some big ones, some small - be prepared to be carrying about copious amounts of juice because that is by far and away the most common product, and due to Iceland’s position as a budget retailer these deliveries are frequently in flats without elevators. The vans themselves are old, pretty shockingly maintained and in serious need of a thorough clean, really are disgusting. That goes for the crates that deliveries are put in too, which were never once cleaned in over a year working there. The routes are all pre-planned by Iceland’s route pl
ProsCan finish early if you leave with your deliveries early
ConsUnpaid overtime, constant lies from management, unpleasant vans. Too many to list here.
A potentially good job ruined by greed and ineptitude.
Not really a driving job in the traditional sense, more a physical labour job where during a 9 hour shift, you load and unload hundreds of (often overweight/ overpacked) crates on/off the van, then you lift the bags from within the crates and carry them to the customers door. You need to be physically fit and even then on busy days you will be going home with aching limbs.
The sat-nav is the worst software that can be used, totally unreliable and useless to the degree where you just forget about it and use your own phone for Google maps.
The route planning is very hit and miss, with more misses that leave you struggling to get around the route (each delivery slot is 2 hours then back to the store to unload/load again.
The only way to have a chance of completing a busy 2 hour slot is to come into work 20-30 mins early at the start of your shift and same at lunch - this is because your first drop will be scheduled for 10 minutes after your official start time. In this 10 minutes you are expected to log on to the system and complete a full van inspection, the go to the freezer and hog crates down to loading bay, then drag crates from the refrigerated room and sort all the above with the room temperature groceries already in the loading bay. After sorting this lot into the individual customers and ticking off each crate the van is then loaded, the route planned and off you go - so if you haven't came in early to essentially work for FREE you are up to 30 minuted behind sche
I worked as a Delivery Driver for Iceland for the past two months and can only give my own honest assessment as I found the role. I note that many of the negative reviews recorded here cite poor management as an issue, clearly this varies from location to location. At the store where I was based, I found management and supervisors to be encouraging, helpful and supportive. The role itself is not complicated - you get your delivery list, collect and load your crates and deliver the groceries to the customers. The training I received for the role was thorough and professional albeit unenjoyable - though I would put that down to individual training style.
The role is physically demanding and requires shifting some heavy crates, it's not unusual to deliver to flats without lifts so if you are unfit with no desire to improve your fitness level or have health issues you'd probably be better considering another line of work. Workload varies but generally the expectation is to complete anywhere between 5 - 12 drops in a two hour time slot. This sounds relatively straightforward until you factor in travelling between delivery sites, locating them and unloading the delivery itself : 6 + crate individual deliveries are not unusual. You then have to get back to the depot, unload the empty crates and repeat the process. If you start to run late it is very difficult to make up for lost time and this will impact on your next run which can be stressful when you're trying to maintain and
ProsHelpful, friendly staff, good for fitness
ConsPreparation time for vehicle checks and first load should be paid, can be stressful maintaining delivery schedule to time.
You start your day at 8 or 10 am and finish at 7pm or 9pm. You have to come in half an hour early to load the van, which is an unpaid half an hour. If you don't do this you will more likely than not fall behind on your deliveries and come late to the customers. You are expected to sort out the crates and load them into the van yourself, which is back breaking and hard work especially when it is busy. You are given 16 minutes to do all of this when in reality it takes 30 minutes. I've worked there for two years and would say I'm quite good at the job by now, I could never do it in 16 minutes.
The computer that calculates the route is absolutely ridiculous and unreasonable as it gives you 3-5 minutes per drop, not taking into account if the customer is on a top floor flat or has 10 crates of shopping. The timeslots are done in two hour intervals, so after you complete one slot, say, 10am-12pm you have to come back to the store, unload the van, sort out all the crates for the next run and load them all up yourself. This usually happens 4 times in one shift. I sprained my wrists several times doing this job and you will never get help from the team to load your van.
The job can be nice when it is a quiet day and you can enjoy the drive, which for me was typically just one day a week on a Sunday, but other than that you are constantly rushing around trying to adhere to the unreasonable time frame all while 90% of the time not getting a lunch break. The vans themselves are
I dont like to leave malicious reviews however on this occasion I am prepared too.
With having being owed 1 full weeks wage (32hrs) on quitting the managing staff deleted and never sent across my hours of work to the payroll team. And advertised the same job on indeed 4 hours after quitting.
• The job - I was employed as a Driver on £9.50 per hour what may attract some people however what they don't tell you is, You have to get there 1 hour before you’re shift starts to organise and prepare, this is (Unpaid). before you’re first 2 hour delivery slot. If you are running late its one mad rush to catch up and if you finish late you are not paid any overtime (Only the agreed weeks hours). Each Van is fitted with telematics and these don't play in your favour when you are up against time.
With having a new PDA system, work loads are prioritised to one individual van giving it as many as 12 delivery's In a 2hr slot leaving a second van practically empty (Dont worry about that you will always be in the full van the staff know what they are doing..)
•The staff and managers
So the main manager. I Have to be honest and she portrays herself to be the perfect manager, she is far from it. (Shes Common) 1 week in and she made a racist comment in front of me when a customer appeared in to the back wanting assistants. I lost all respect for her from that moment.
The assistant trainee manager is actually better at his job than the actual manager! And have nothing else to say
Prosthats a tough one to answer
ConsJust read the review.
3.0
Retail Sales Associate | Lincolnshire | Feb 28, 2019
A company all about profit at the cost of its workers.
Want to work for a company that is all about sales and money but doesn't really care about it's front line colleagues? This is that company. Starting off on a 7.5 hour contact you can expect to be put on a till sometimes as the only cashier from as early as 3pm in the week with it still being relatively busy in store, you will have to ring for more staff, sometimes there are only 2 other members of staff in the building, who have stock to put out, customers to assist and deliveries to put away. You'll get moaned at by customers because you don't have the staff and other staff members aren't answering bells. If you are good then you will get trained in more areas, Like running stock, enjoy 9 hour stock shifts in small stock heavy warehouses with constant stock builds for following changeovers, not getting your break because you have to try and keep up with your off sales and answer bells for home delivery, and tills, while also assisting customers and van drivers. Don't forget about the company's Sunday evening or even better New Years Day changeovers, Who needs family time right? Up to 8 hours of changing the shop around and all the layouts and tickets, boring work for no extra pay but creating a lot more work as warehouses get full with discontinued stock, customers need more assistance to find products and stock staff have to get use to new layouts, Don't forget the added perk of not getting paid any extra for Bank Holidays or even Boxing day but watching the company splas
ProsDiscount Card.
ConsStressful, poorly managed, undervalues staff
Questions And Answers about Iceland Foods Ltd
How did you feel about telling people you worked at Iceland Foods?
Asked Jun 27, 2019
Fine/indifferent. Jobs for youth are few and far between these days, and supermarket jobs are highly coveted, especially since the pandemic. I am just happy to have a job
Answered Oct 10, 2020
Not a problem will tell them that I enjoy it
Answered Feb 10, 2020
What questions did they ask during your interview at Iceland Foods?
Asked Jan 27, 2020
Quite easy questions
Explain a situation where you have had to deal with being under pressure and how did you cope.
How would you make the store presentable to customers.
How would you make customers experience the best you could.
Your availability.
Previous experience
Answered Jul 10, 2021
None all seemed to be covered.apart from constantly having to make hot drinks .
Answered Sep 18, 2020
How are the working hours at Iceland Foods?
Asked Oct 11, 2016
Long with very little break.
Answered Jun 27, 2019
Long and strenuous most of the time once you say yes to staying longer it's expected l, one week working 6am -10am the next 6am-1 pm then suddenly a 2pm-9pm is thrown in the middle of the week
Answered May 2, 2019
What is the interview process like at Iceland Foods?
Asked Oct 11, 2016
Slow. Very slow from application to actual start date. 4 to 5 weeks.
Answered Sep 3, 2018
Ok took about 30 minutes to take my interview
Answered Oct 11, 2016
What is covered by the health insurance at Iceland Foods?
