Overall Reviews at Nationwide Building Society
5.0
Customer Service Representative |
House, NM | May 21, 2013
Great people, great company
By far the best company I have worked for. From the moment of inception to the moment I left, management and co-workers were friendly and yet driven to achieving results. I learnt a lot from working for Nationwide, such as the importance of maintaining a balance between meeting targets and fun. Hard work was always acknowledged by senior members of staff and pecuniary rewards exceeded my expectations. As the end of the month approached and deadlines had to be met, the environment, as is to be expected, was often taut but motivational initiatives helped fuel the flock through stormy times. Wonderful people and a great company to work for.
ProsPay, benefits, management, atmosphere and ethos
ConsParking
4.0
high standards required with limited support
work life balance isn't great there is an expectation that you will complete work in your own time. The overall firm is good to work for but they make financial planning harder work than they need to.
Prosgood team spirt in branch
Consno one really understands the role reqirements except your peer group
3.0
Customer Representative |
Branch, MN | Dec 14, 2016
constantly changing objectives
This is a fairly high pressure sales role but without the reward and commission incentives. Objectives (not allowed to say targets) change constantly and it is difficult to know what you are meant to be promoting.
Risk is high as small admin errors will lead to disciplinary proceedings.
Highly stressful workplace
4.0
Great company and culture, if you don't mind the long hours for little pay.
The management, colleagues, and overall culture, plus career advancement opportunities, make Nationwide a brilliant place to work. The managers are very much "on the level" of their team(s), so you can chat to them as equals and feel genuinely supported.
The pension scheme is one of the best in the country, and there are also schemes to convert pay into extra holiday, etc, so the benefits are good. There are also branch and area level incentives run throughout the year that provide additional benefits.
However, about an hour of overtime is expected of employees every day (pre-opening admin and post-closing admin) unpaid - and if something goes wrong, this can extend to 2 or 3 hours.
The yearly salary is very low compared to other high street banks and building societies, some of whom work fewer hours, or also receive fully-paid overtime.
ProsNo Sunday or Bank Holiday hours; Structured training & development schemes
ConsLow salary; long hours; daily unpaid overtime
4.0
Non-stop, 24 hour
The largest employee in Swindon, four to five thousand people coming and going each day. a beehive of processes and compliance.
ProsWork for Nationwide
ConsLong hours, lots of contractors
1.0
Unhappy Office with Unrealistic Targets
The job adverts are shrewdly designed to make you think that the money you are getting is for 35-37.5 hours per week with the possibility of flexible working hours.
No part of the very short job description tells you that you are strictly required to hit unrealistically high weekly targets within a couple of weeks of your training, no matter how many hours it takes to do so! And since there is absolutely no tolerance for not hitting your weekly target, you easily end up working 45-50 hours per week which is up to 10 hours per day. This, first of all, leaves no room for flexible working and you can’t claim overtime for it because they say ‘ We don’t expect you to work more than your basic hours we just expect you to produce the amount of work that we set for you’.
Managers and trainers keep reminding you that there is no tolerance for not hitting targets and you end up feeling under immense pressure and threatened.
Not a very happy office to work for. In fact, by far it is the worset employer I have ever experienced and I have worked with quite a few great and not so great employers during the past 20 years.
I absolutely regret leaving my previous job for this one.
4.0
Good place to work and develop
I enjoyed a great career with Nationwide I was in a leadership role and sadly made redundant Good benefits, customer focused and did care about its staff As I was leaving there was a noticeable shift, and people became less important and cost cutting impacted But overall a good employer
ProsUniform, pension, interesting work
ConsLots of unpaid hours as a leader, poor engagement with redundancy process
5.0
Productive and fun work place
A typical day at work
what you learned
management
you co-workers
the hardest part of the job
the most enjoyable part of the job
ProsFree lunches
ConsShort breals
4.0
productive
Highly customer focussed atmosphere good work life balance, training and coaching. Friendly atmosphere with opportunity to grow and develop skills. Best building society culture
5.0
Account Administrator |
Swindon | Dec 10, 2019
Great team environment
The leadership was excellent. We would begin our days with a short team meeting. It was a great experience full of learning and growth experiences. We were cross-trained in many departments.
4.0
Delivery Manager |
Swindon | Feb 19, 2020
A really good place to work
you don't realise how good a place actually is until you leave there? the grass isn't always greener on the other side as I soon discovered however it was done for career advancement reasons. I would definitely consider going back if the opportunity ever arose.
3.0
Retail Assistant Manager |
Thame | Nov 11, 2019
It’s okay
Job security is good pay is not very good not many benefits can be old fashioned stuck in there ways a bit as a lot of people who work there have been there for years
5.0
Balance enquires/ mananging counter transactions |
Northampton | Mar 10, 2014
Excellent place to work
Calm, healthy environment to work in, friendly attitude in work and co-workers.
the hardest part of the job is making use of time, keeping busy even when their is no work plays a very important part so always ask when you have free time on your hands.
the most enjoyable part of the job is having your own space, clean work space and easy to reach assets provided by company.
4.0
Portfolio Manager |
Swindon | Mar 12, 2019
Great culture, challenging and enjoyable
Overseeing a number (12-16) of training programmes to ensure compliance and governance, as well as aligning and enabling the programmes to progress.
The management culture was of high integrity, very open, honest and colleague focussed.
Most enjoyable element was the diversity and wide reaching aspects of the role.
ProsPositive people in the majority
ConsNot always joined up across the various operational teams v's supporting functions
3.0
Customer Service Representative |
Sheffield | Mar 4, 2021
Mediocre
I got approached to start a job here straight after I'd finished uni and took it as I needed some money. The training was okay, but there was a fair bit of self learning needed as some of the information was outdated.
Overall, managers try and do their best, but it's clear head office doesn't care about the Sheffield branch and employee care lacks because of this. People were constantly going off sick with stress, shift patterns change weekly, and a lot of people feel underpaid for the work they're expected to do, and feel pressured to keep Nationwides good reputation.
There is a yearly bonus depending on company performance, but that is the extent of any perks (no canteen, no gym, etc - unlike other branches)
If you would like a monotonous role where you're constantly getting insulted by the general public, your mental health is disregarded, and you aren't wanting to progress in a career, then this job is ideal.
ProsBonus
ConsPoor employee care, lack of budget, lack of progression, low salary.
4.0
Great company to strat your career
Nationwide gave me core skills and attributes to grow in my career and as a person. I was able to work in different environments with different people.
4.0
Security Supervisor |
Swindon | Sep 18, 2019
Productive and fun workplace
A great place to work. Been away from home during the week and the M4 traffic I'll say are the less desirable. I made up by improving my gym attendance and improve exercise activity. This helped with handling work pressures.
5.0
Public Relations Assistant |
Northampton | Apr 29, 2018
busy
for a busy job in the warehouse it was good to have friendly people to help out working along side of you. working in the office was also a chilled job
