Is Wren the #1 Rated Employer in the UK? It is but based on incorrect data collected by tricking employees into giving positive feedback at the end of their training.
After a two weeks training at the Nest, you will be asked to fill out a feedback form which cleverly directs the trainee to survey site where the trainee gives a positive review without knowing what is waiting for him/her after starting to work for Wren.
Wren has the highest employee turn over. All those happy faces in the pictures of showroom openings will be replaced by new staff within a few months.
If you are a current or previous employee of Wren Kitchens please share your honest review about this workplace below. If you know anyone who works for Wren Kitchens or used to work for Wren Kitchens, please share this page so that we will warn everyone before they get a job with Wren until they change their terms of employment.
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Where do you even start with this company!
I've worked in various roles and in many showrooms within the company and it's sad but not surprising to say every showroom up and down the country has the same toxic, abusive, sexist, bullying mentality, which is horrifically glorified.
I have witnessed all the false promises made to new recruits from management to designers. The scaremongering tactics used to entice people to jump ship and advised not to work out their notice periods to join wren NOW!.
Female's wearing lipstick and a pair of heels you are Hired on the spot! That should be the first red flag for the women because the daily sexual harassment is second nature, from all levels of management and you have no choice but to accept the 'banter' and laugh it off, because if you don't ladies you will then be the problem!
I have witnessed and been subjected to many sexualised degrading comments. I saw first hand, sexual harassment claims reported only to be ignored/covered up and then rewarded with job promotions.
You will be told the commission and earning potential is one of the best out there but expect to sell your soul to get it! And it will come at the cost of your home/family life. There is zero work - home life balance, you are expected to be at Wren's disposal no matter what.
Yes the commission can be great, IF!! your micromanaging management team ALLOWS you to earn it, which for the majority of the staff in every over-populated showroom... you won't! So expect minimum wage!!!
The Figures and KPI’s are manipulated for the top Aka 'favourites' to succeed… if you don’t fall into this category, god help you! Do not expect to succeed within Wren.
Management has full control over every appointment even if you sourced your own leads and appointments which is how the unfed rely upon for a wage but don't be surprised when they are taken off you by management because then your told every appointment belongs to management, not you! You can then expect the hounds from head office come for you, but you can't speak out because you don't have a leg to stand on! Apparently... the figures don't lie, your management don't lie.. but you do! it's all down to you and your instantly labeled as s**t at your job, the end!
You can expect to be told just how crap and worthless you are on each and every wonderful shift you work. This humiliation tactic is used daily in front of all your peers, with not real constructive criticism or help offered. You're simply rubbish at the job and your job security is used like a dangling carrot just for the fun of it.
Don't expect help from management once you arrive back from training and be prepared to mentally hold your breath for the next two years while you're in the dreaded probation period. Where you can be dropped at any given time, without any explanation or real reasons why.
So be mindful of when this torturous mile stone is approaching because Wren do enjoy to fail probations in the masses before people cross the 2 year mark.
Those who are brave enough to take a stand against the management and their bullying, harassing or mentally abusive ways... Sincerely. Well done and I feel for you because I can assume it only got worse from there and you have been labeled a problem, under performer/failed designer and a liar!
Because those who try to make a stand for better treatment in the workplace fall victimisation of Wrens head office! You think management is bad, you've seen nothing yet.
Welcome to the 'hit list' now you have a black mark against your name. HR and your management team will now be your best friend, while working simultaneously behind the scenes to ensure you are broken into submission and walk out of your job.
And this behaviour is used not only on designers; it's a tactic used against management too, if they want you out you better believe you will be gone!
I speak from witnessing this behaviour from the hierarchy and being subjected to the horrendous victimisation of Wrens management team and Wren HR myself.
Speaking as a Wren labeled 'failed design', 'problem' and a 'liar' for reporting my mentally abusive management to HR, which led to the heavy victimisation of HR has had a detrimental impact on my mental health (no record of mental health issues before Wren) and this is something I wouldn't wish upon anyone. It's unfair and shouldn't be allowed to continue.
The company has no morals, no ethics, and doesn't care about any of its employees. I hope more people will speak up about the vile treatment received while working at Wren because they do not deserve to be on this imaginary pedastool they are so proud of.
In my experience I have never seen such a toxic sales environment. After completing training at the nest you are tricked into leaving a good review as part of the e learning which they disguise to appear compulsory. I decided to resign on my own accord because this job has no maturity. I seen over a dozen people left the business, they either walk out or transfer to another branch because of an incompetent manager. Every member of staff is scared to give the Manager feedback or ask for feedback because there is always a negative response. I don't think the manager is a right fit for the job as he should listen to people around him more and look at his staff turnover before he runs the company into the ground like Car Craft.
Favouritism is at it's highest levels in Merry hill showroom. A new group is created for the best designers and Information Advisor leads are given to only a few designers, appointments get moved from designers, my own leads were even taken and given to someone else because the manager said he doesn't trust me to sell it. No opportunity to improve and progress, lack of diversity in the team, managers create a very toxic environment which ruins team dynamic! Unethical behaviour from management as they single out designers and say negative things about them. One female staff was told she was the worse designer in the showroom right after she made a sale and was back on her feet after struggling. The manager seriously needs some training and must look in the mirror, from my experience he has a very dysfunctional team and there gotta be only one person to blame, obviously the manager!
WORST WORKPLACE I HAVE EVER WORKED
This is an honest review. Please do yourself a favour and acknowledge those reviews that are clearly false, if they read like an advert chances are the staff was given shopping voucher incentives.
The head office has a cancerous atmosphere, the management think they are gods walking among peasants. The corporate culture is like no other. Be prepare in this workplace to be micro-managed, to be insulted daily, and if you are female; feel like there is a casting couch situation as this is real. You will only succeed if you please your manager in this workplace, and just know that this is not via working your job.
I joined as a designer in a new branch when it opened. I heard about the climate of fear at Head Office, where all Designers take a two week training course. You stay at a company-owned hotel and the staff are watching your behaviour all the time. Training was really rushed, to make the most time for teaching you the ‘Wren Way’. You are paid minimum wage and rely in commission to make it up to a decent amount. In the showroom it was very clear there was an In Crowd of sycophants. If your face didn’t fit you faced uncertainty every time you went to work. People would be called to the office and told their probation was unsuccessful. The job can’t be done in the contracted hours unless you are a lifelong kitchen designer so you end up working loads of unpaid overtime. Anything that’s wrong with the finished kitche is blamed on the Designer and your commission is clawed back to pay for it. Then there are the cancelled orders - which can happen right up until the last minute. All commission is taken back from the designer. I vowed that I’d leave if my monthly pay ever fell to the minimum and it did, so I resigned.
If you wish to join the clickiest work environment in Plymouth, join Wren. THE most unprofessional work environment, if you are happy to be a groupie to the managers you will fit in fine, if you want to work hard and be a strong sales executive go elsewhere. Left and now missing £1800 of wages. If you wish to gain depression, stress and become self conscious join Wren Plymouth.
Culture is penny pinching, long hours or too short depending on which contract you get.
I watched 15 designers walk when i was there and wondered why ?
All went to the Nest and trained and so it should have been a happy family. No Wren went through hundreds no reason, head office decision, gone. Sacked.
All the people i started with left and that was 60 staff.
Goal posts with regard to money kept changing, AND GOT worse and worse.
Moral was terrible at Cribbs causeway.
A small core OF DESIGNERS exists with new applications making up the numbers. Continuous ??
Wren paid £50 To the designers if you sent a best report on Wren as an employer- but here’s the rub you did n’t get paid for it anyway.
Only two people get their money the Show Room Manager and his side kick now going to America.
All other managers would sit in a room drinking their costa -coffee. These managers you would never see, but they would go through your drawers when you were not there.
One manager was always on his personal phone walking around the 2 floors and could not assist as he could not design or be friendly or communicate with others very well.
The SALE IS ON EVERY WEEK ( MFI ) MEAN ANYTHING !
Pros
None
Cons
Deceitful company, all the old MFI RE GROUPED.
Awful place to work, avoid at all costs. Management poor, culture extremely young and immature. Dont get a whatsapp account or your life is not your own. Big regret.
Pros
Good salary
Cons
Poor hours, poor management, dictatorial style
They want to pay me a £20 voucher to leave a 5 star review..
High turnover of staff
Rediculous over the top micro management
Commission reductions every year
Don’t expect to make the 2 years probation
No rewards or bonus for performance
Pros
Hard to think of any
Cons
Lots
This company is all take and no give. We worked 50-60 hours a week for a month when our showroom was opening. We were promised we would be paid the overtime. 3 months later we get the overtime money and its half of what we had originially signed for on the overtime form. A revised form with a lower figure to be paid would be given to us to quickly sign when we were not in a position to be able to object.
I was sitting an appointment with customers while my overtime form was given to me.
Recently there was an increase in the national minimum wage.
Coincedentally, a few days later Wren announed to their staff via mass email that the threshold of money we would have to sell would be increasing almost 50% in some cases. Meaning that we were essentially paying for our own pay rises because Wren didn't want to. I would have to go from selling £8500 a month to start earning my commission, to having to sell £12000. So every month I would have to sell even more kitchens just to earn the same amount that I did before.
In our contracts it says that the commission structure can be changed at any time, which I completely understand. However the fact that it is entirely revamped the moment Wren would have to start putting their hands into the pockets is shameful.
None of the designers in this showroom are happy at all. Over a third of our original team of designers has left because of how badly staff are treated in Wren. I'm sick to the back teeth of this company taking adavantage of its workers, so I will be leaving next week.
I left my previous career for the kitchen designer role at Wren which was advertised at a lot more money than I was previously on.
The interview was very easy and I heard back soon I was successful in my application.
I was expecting from the interview, for the role to be much more focused around delivering exceptional customer service and not purposefully rushing customers and constantly pushing for money without delivering a good service.
The training was short and intense (2 weeks) with the expectations to know everything out of the academy and into your first customer appointment.
The money was awful due to my experience levels, the management who could be bothered to talk to me were only interested in developing me into their own cookie cut mould as well as wanting me to be this larger than life character which they thought would bizarrely be appealing to customers. Very uncomfortable.
The management would go over individual staffs figures in front of the group which I found to be humiliating as I assume they used this as a deterrent to perform better. No praise from management if targets were met, constant torrents of negativity about staff performances. From being new and not knowing the processes, as I was not informed, for many aspects within the role, this caused frequent unnecessary tension between myself and the management.
I used to be forced towards customers who had been approached already by numerous other staff and was quizzed about why a sale was not made. (I would not wander into a store just to look and place a deposit for a £15,000 - more...
Pros
None
Cons
Horrific management. Not a quality product. Many customer complaints.
