Working at Serco: Company Overview and Reviews in Australia
Serco
2.9
238 reviews
Serco, AU Ratings
2.9
Average rating of 238 reviews on Indeed
3.0
Work-Life Balance
3.0
Pay & Benefits
2.6
Job Security & Advancement
2.6
Management
2.8
Culture
Headquarters
Serco UK
Enterprise House
11 Bartley Wood Business Park
Bartley Way, Hook
Hampshire, RG27 9XB
Serco Belgium
Avenue de Cortenbergh 60
1000 Brussels
Belgium
Customer Service Representative | Mill Park VIC | 4 Aug 2020
Toxic environment
I wouldn’t recommend anyone to work at Serco Mill park even if it was my worst enemy! I’ll start off by saying when you first interview for the job you will feel like it’s a nice place to work at because the managers are nothing but fake to you but as soon as you start working there you’ll regret it. Serco has actually made me feel depressed at stages, they do not help at all with shifts you can’t attend because of something more important or if you only want to work a couple days a week or anything - everything to them is complicated. Secondly the managers and team leaders there are horrible like I cannot describe it enough, once they are promoted everything gets to their head. Everyone who is a customer service officer that isn’t higher up basically gets treated like they are nothing. Don’t get me started with the big bosses/ ops managers - BIGGEST BULLIES. Who would’ve thought someone of a mature age would go out of their way to bully you, walk around you, watch you at work, follow everything you do to intimidate you and go out of their way to get you in trouble. I for one can say I can stick up for myself I mean at least I think I can but! If you can’t! You will hate your life, they treat you like you’re dumb and like you’re a nobody , they bully their workers, everyone at serco talks behind eachothers backs - it’s as if you’re in school. The pay isn’t the best, during covid time we weren’t aloud to wear masks and got told off infront of the workplace if we would wear a m
ProsNONE
ConsThe pay, management are bullies, you get treated like you’re lower than any management that’s above you, everyone talks bad about eachother, it’s like you’re in highschool, complaints don’t go no where because all the supervisors have eachothers backs, it’s like high school all over again
2.0
Customer Service Representative | Melbourne VIC | 28 May 2021
Be Mentally Prepared.
1. If you’re not apart of management/have a good relationship within management then don’t expect to be spoken to/recognised - side note, you don’t get introduced to any of the management staff - so you’re left without knowing who is who.
2. They expect you to exceed in EVERYTHING without allowing mistakes, they say they’ll do everything to support you and assist you so that you can improve in your work but when you approach management/TL’s they either brush you off or make you feel like a failure. They question nearly everything you do.
3. The policies/KPI’s are ridiculous, CSO’s sometimes get notified of new changes through CUSTOMERS (how embarrassing) - when this comes about by the time you complete training for it another change has been made (sometimes you don’t even get trained)
4. They expect you to adhere to everything management says even when it’s ridiculous but I guess it’s just a “do what you’re told/no buts” kinda thing.
5. You can’t disclose what work you do to anyone really, no posts, no tagging on social media.
6. All internal emails are supposed to be read whilst working, this makes it very difficult as you’re also expected to be handling calls within a specific time whilst providing excellent customer service to very frustrated callers majority of the time
7. Prepare to be called out for pointing something out that doesn’t make sense or providing constructive criticism about a change/policy - from Management - when you’re finding it difficult and stressful w
ProsNone
ConsToo many
2.0
Customer Service Representative | Melbourne VIC | 1 Aug 2019
Started out great and went consistantly downhill from there.
I barely made it out of training alive. It was the worst, most boring and useless training I have ever sat through anywhere but it paid well and I was broke. People were actually falling asleep and when we started work I couldnt even log on to my computer. After 8 weekends of 10 hour days, they hadn't bothered to cover that. I worked night shifts and weekends and the flexibility to choose my own hours was a huge drawcard for me. If you do a lot of hours the money can be very good but in the end, I burnt out. The people are the best and the worst thing about Serco. The company culture is very inclusive but the management has all the power and does what they like. You are just a statistic on a page, there is no fairness in their policies. ie. They instruct you how to do something, you do it, then you are told its wrong and it's your fault. Get used to it. A lot of their policies are just for show. There are avenues to dispute such instances but the rules say the decision is final and won't be overturned anyway. So it's a waste of time arguing the point. They employ a LOT of very young people in team leader and management roles who clearly don't have any experience and large ego's. The work itself gets more and more complex and I found it difficult to keep up. It changes almost daily, if you don't do regular shifts you will be left behind. You also get stuck at your desk for hours at a time. day shift staff have the luxury of having workstations ergonomically set up for the nig
ProsClose to home, flexable hours, good pay, great collegues.
ConsManagement is a dogs breakfast and the work is complicated, a LOT of sitting.
Worst company I ever had the misfortune to work for
I cannot comment on other sections of Serco however, the Traffic Camera Services arm of the company treats its Mobile Road Safety Camera Operators (MRSCO) with absolute and utter CONTEMPT. They do not pay annual leave loading or weekend penalties. They say these allowances are factored into the MRSCO's pay scale of $25 - $33 p/h which is measly given the amount of responsibility that goes with the job and the constant abuse the MRSCO must endure from the public daily. The 2017 EBA offered the MRSCO a pittance in terms of a 2.5% pay rise which for those on the lower end of the pay scale equates to little more than 60 - 65 cents per hour before tax . The MRSCO works a 24/7 roster but are not deemed shift workers so the company avoids having to award the MRSCO the extra week of annual leave. Staff in the communications centre on the other hand who also work a 24/7 roster ARE deemed shift workers and do receive the extra week of annual leave. Management has been unable to explain or justify the reason for this unfair inequity. The 2017 EBA has also offered staff in the communications centre a whopping 7.5% pay rise. Any error made by an MRSCO in virtually any capacity and regardless of how minor is immediately entered into and recorded on the MRSCO's Monthly Performance Report. Any similar error made by staff who are not an MRSCO however, is not recorded. Hypocritically, on occasion when the MRSCO receives an error notification from admin staff, that staff member notifying the MR
I'm voicing my concerns for all those who working for Serco during the Covid-19 outbreak. Okay so essentially we aren't allowed to by choice wear protective gear like a mask for work because its a security issue which makes no logical sense, I asked to provide legal legislation from Serco that states why you cannot wear a mask during a infectious outbreak, management had nothing to back there decisions up, its not a hygienic workplace at all.Hot desking environment does not provide sanitiser wet wipes to agents or appropriate paper towels in bathrooms door handles not cleaned frequently either. Well currently Victoria is in lockdown why is Serco still operating without taking proper procedures because it's not in there interest to protect the agents health and safety. I'll give a brief example so we are in a tight open environment where we've been advised to keep 1.5 meters away from each other but the desk's are connected and everyone is squished together like sardines. How to avoid an infection if you can't protect yourself. Which is absolutely a crime to be committing all employer's and employee's should have a fair right to protect themselves in any way possible in relation to a potential carona virus that is going to wipe out a vast majority of our under populated country in Australia if not careful. Serco Mil park does not have the best interest for it's worker's whom are also elderly and may have immunity issues, treated like in high school held against our free right
2.0
Customer Service Representative | Box Hill VIC | 29 May 2018
Ordinary job without any real career progression
A typical day at work is to answer inquiries about tax for Business and Individual clients. This would include over the phone and email inquiries.
I have learned how the Australian Taxation Office cheats its employees by hiring outsourced labour for the fraction of the cost it would take for them to do this themselves. A fully trained ATO employee would be expected payment of $35.00 per hour. Working for this outsourced centre, doing exactly the same type of job and as a full time employee, you will be paid $21.00 per hour which is just above the minimum wage expected for a call centre employee.
Management tend to only concentrate on results and care very little about individuals. During award negotiations, Management used scare tactics to negotiate a wage solution which benefited themselves greatly.
Workplace culture is highly negative. Apart from seeing fellow employees during work hours, there was little interaction outside office hours. There have been efforts to organise a time and place to see other employees outside these hours but there was little enthusiam from employers and employees to continue these plans.
The hardest part of this job is to remain motivated doing repetitive work. The breaks were not that long; only 10 minutes break for the morning and afternoon and a 30 minute lunch break.
The most enjoyable are the team meetings which you would have an hour to run through details of the work. It also means an hour off the phones which was h
Serco Essendon is very claustrophobic. Paying $20-23 to work in a very a stressful environment. You are only allowed 2 of 10 mins break - like seriously ? You have to sit at your desk unless you are on your break and you can't turn around or talk to the people around you as someone may see your screen etc. 30 minutes of lunch break. You need to logout not at 5pm, you logout at 05.06pm.
You can't eat your desk
You can't bring any nibbles
You can't keep a notepad and a pen
You can't talk to the person sitting next to you unless you lock your screen
You can't keep your phones - so if it's an emergency, your kids or family will need a call a Sick hotline to get hold of you.
You can't keep phones in your pockets either.
You have to switch your phone off - it shouldn't be silent
ZERO flexibility- as the most of the companies brag about flexibility, this company doesn't even know what that is. You can't change your shift, there are no flexible hours, obviously, you can't work from home.
In 10 mins of break you can hardly get a coffee, in 30 mins lunch break you would be so tired and drained.
I felt that I was cut-of from the outside world between 9-5pm, can't check my emails, can't call my family embers because there is no time.
Unless, you like to drain your energy for this low pay, a very poor working environment, I would never recommend this workplace. They seriously need a lot of improvements in terms of their work culture, pays, flexibility, better breaks
ProsNOTHING!
Consclaustrophobic, no flexibility, a lot of "NOs"
1.0
Customer Service Representative | Dandenong VIC | 17 June 2020
Please dont waste your time.
Such a toxic work environment with minimum pay. They are focused on their kpis rather than their staff. They care heaps about unplanned leave (and in turn expect u to provide medical certificates) when majority of their staff are casual. This also effects your chances if you apply for other roles. Even with the certificates provided. To book days off you need to book way in advance which is crazy with the amount of people they have rostered on. They cut shifts with very little warning and just put it down to 'business needs' and can't give you a definite answer when things will pick up again.
Their training is way to fast and not effective. They expect their call centre agents to now do processing work with very basic training from a trainer who has no business being a trainer as she does not have the patience and understanding. Training 100 people at once is ridiculous. No extra pay either for this work, when it is a lot more stressful. They have lost a lot of people, but do they care? No! They just keep hiring more people. They try to motivate us with free food days which they think we will be happy with. Sorry but it just doesn't cut it.
The only positive to working here is your colleagues. They are all great and supportive. Some of the team leaders are okay!
Please think twice before applying to work at Serco.
ProsColleagues
ConsSalary, Management
2.0
Customer Service Representative | Dandenong VIC | 29 June 2019
All promises, no delivery
After starting at Serco with 2 weeks on nonsensical training completely irrelevant to the job at hand, we were set to work in a call centre having never even being shown how to answer the phone!
The hours and conditions originally advertised must have come from a fairytale because working a rotating roster and only learning your roster 3 days ahead of the next change is just magical when you are trying to plan a work life balance, the promised carparking never eventuated and as a result our safety is put at risk everyday with muggings a regular occurance, upskilling occurs so frequently you never have the opportunity to consolidate any knowledge and the KPIs are ridicilous.
All of the supervisory staff and management could not go out without being asked for ID so if you are looking for career advancement and exceed 25 you are in the wrong job, they have no work or life experience but the upside is they have a ton of dressup days, pizza days, pj days - all the fun stuff a teenager could want in a workplace.
I continue to work here because I need a job - there is NOTHING else keeping me at Serco, they promise the world and deliver nothing
ProsYoung workforce
ConsPoor wages for responsibilities, rotating rosters with short notice, ridiculous KPIs, no onsite parking, lack of management support
One of the worst companies I have ever worked for. Management are all related and the play mind games. There is no one to complain to if you have an issue, as too many married couples in the same office! Promotions are only given to family members, so you can't ever advance in the company. You can't even report bullies to HR as again HR have hired family members. If you do a great job you never get recognized for it, and if you don't brown nose you will be bullied. They send out their army to spy on you all the time. If they want to get rid of you they hand you a misconduct letter like your a criminal. Actually its quiet hilarious as they hand out misconduct letters for the dumbest stuff. Cleaners suddenly become management with no experience only because they are related to someone higher up. They push you do a job that requires at least 3 people all on your own. If you want to be miserable go ahead and work for them. They are all about making money. They advertise themselves as a company with integrity, what a load of rubbish. This is Australia Serco, the land of equal opportunity not who you know. I stayed because I needed to support my family but I was so miserable it took its toll on my family as well. I had no choice but to quit or go on anti depressants.
Designing the induction programme and conducting the same for the new recruits at all levels.
Pre-hire Orientation to the new hires with the purpose of introducing them with the organization and to control early Attrition.
Interface with training team and learning academy for timely developmental interventions. Planned, Coordinated and Directed the Employee Relation and Referral Program among the sites in Gurgaon.
Develop relationship with all departments of the unit in order to ensure smooth functioning of the group.
Responsible for HR formalities like increment letter, relieving letter.
Responsible for all the redeployment cases and, transfer payroll cases.
Managing employee relations & HR related queries & issues.
Implementation of people practices like EWS, 1 on 1, exit interviews, retention discussions, etc.
Analysis of attrition reports and creative measures of retention.
Ensure that the unit performance appraisals, increments and performance bonuses are computed on time.
Rewards & Recognition program.
Handling Internal and transfer movements (Vertical/Horizontal) through IJP.
Administration of full & final settlements Ensure that resigned employees get their F&F on time as put in the policy. Ensure that the F&F sheet for each employee is sent out to the commercial dept for amount disbursement.
Coordinating for the completion of all the joining formalities, opening of bank accounts, creating employee id’s, issuing appointment and
ProsInternal growth
Cons-
1.0
Customer Service Representative | Telling | 14 Nov 2018
Workplace culture absolutely disgusting
Where in ANY work place are you encouraged to dob in your workmates, and what does that say about the culture of this employer.
Management are PHAT and lazy, not interested in the staff on the front line doing all the hard work and suffering from the stress of the phone calls.
Blatant favouritism for long term employees and micro management of staff, back stabbing and gossiping on the floor, floor walkers who have NO idea of answers to questions put to them, acting team leaders who are too young to have any leadership skills but yet have inflated ego's.
Serco certainly need to be released from their obligations to the Tax Office as they are being paid for 8-12 weeks training and only giving 2 to their employees which is completely inefficient, operatives are being sent out to answer important phone calls from the public without enough knowledge about the tax system and what information is in the scripting is not always adequate for the calls being received.
Constantly drummed into you to use the scripting but then when you have to absolutely think outside the box you are reprimanded for it.
Team Leaders for some reason think they are doing quite an important job but in reality, they are working in a call centre.....
New contracts are being handled ineffectively, training is inadequate again for the contracts being gained from the Tax Office by Serco, one contract had one days training, and when advised to use specialists, there were none, because it was a new contract.
Productive and fun work Environment, Provide great learning atmosphere, latest systems and excellent system support
SERCO is ranked 9th among the same line of companies but should be ranked 2nd as far as employee satisfaction and knowledge at job is concerned.
Productive and fun work Environment, Provide great learning atmosphere, latest systems and excellent system support
A day at SERCO starts happily greeting to all the co workers and client and ends with learning something new everyday. SERCO serves to be a second home for its employees.
I have learned in depth about Order to Cash, Client Management, Management Reporting, Team Handling and got introduced with SAP FICO.
Management is sensitive, helpful, knowledgeable, well experienced and competent. Management is very supportive. In very rare chances we need to reach out to the Managers, as the team leads and SMEs are so much capable that most of our issues will be handled and resolved by them only. They have always encouraged everyone to learn and help out of the way to those who wants to learn something. They are like Mentors and helped in understanding business aspects and are also helpful in our personal growth. They address every issue very sensitively and work hard to get them resolved in every possible manner.
Co-Workers are good everywhere and so as here.
Hard Time- Once a junior made a mistake while posting an amount and we got a big escalation from the client but my seniors have shown so much confidence in me that I have not only resolved the issue but got an appreciation from the CEO of SERCO as well. For th
ProsBoth side cabs, Good and well experienced Management
ConsInfrastructure can be improved
1.0
Do not want to say. worked with everyone | Wentzville, MO | 26 Feb 2016
Horrible place to work with policies changes and managers that do not know what they are doing.
I was at a level where I engaged with all levels of management and you could not find a worse organization with poorer management. Most managers do not know what their workers are doing and therefore can not help with the never ending questions on how to perform your job. Also managers do not try to learn the job. When I first started all we did was check in the morning if the system worked and then played games for the first six months. They finally started getting work but you could be busy one month and then the next have nothing to do and hard to stay awake. The General Clerk II do the same job or more than General Clerk III but get paid $2.50 less. And they quit promoting people and only hire for General Clerk II. They also hired about 800 people for second shift and many of those people are not qualified. If a position opens they take substandard people from second shift who moved from first shift to second shift to get a promotion. Then these people get doctors notes stating that they have problems working those hours but knew they didn't want to work those hours when they took that position. The reason I did not take a managers position on second shift is because I was honest with myself and knew I could not work those hours. If I would have known that all I needed to go back to first shift was a doctors note I would have taken the position. The majority of deputy directors that work there are incompetent and have no idea about how to perform the work that is done the
ProsCoworkers
ConsManagers, change in hours, no room to move up
2.0
Customer Service Representative | Ontario | 17 Dec 2020
Not Recommended
If you value customer service and treating individuals with respect as a CSA should, this is not a company that appreciates those values aside from posters on the breakroom walls.
As a new employee you are thrown to the wolves and if you expect support from coworkers or staff, you'll be greatly disappointed. They do not acknowledge any good you do, or the level of expectation and stress they put you through, especially during Covid; quite frankly, not even to the individuals walking through the doors for services.
The amount of unacceptable behaviours I witnessed from staff while training and starting on the counter was astounding! The lack of valid support from management, or working with new staff to learn the job was dismal.
The amount they invest in new employees only to send them out the door because it is near impossible to complete your probationary period of 500+ hours when working 3-4 hour shifts (giving zero job security), let alone reducing any anxieties that you're exceeding the daily error allowance by actually educating that employee as to what the errors are and how to correct them, just goes to show how expensive their revolving door is.
I, myself, did not work as a drive examiner but am saddened to have witnessed the sheer horror and abuse they are subjected to, not only by the company's ridiculous policies to "prevent covid" (laughable), but from customers themselves due to trying to enforce company policy. Policy is not developed by feedback fro
ProsTransaction variety, problem solving, possibly making someone's stressful licensing issue better
ConsToxic environment, insecure hours, lack of job security, poor health & safety
Terrible management and starting salary with no promotion opportunity.
I accepted a job with Serco's Alumni Career Alumni Program at Fort Carson, Colorado Springs as a counselor, in 2011, wanting to make a difference in the lives of the Army's transitioning soldiers. And although I knew beforehand that the starting salary as a master degreed counselor was abysmal, I put the work with the soldiers ahead of the financial consideration. What surprised me the most was that despite Serco having the contract with the Army for over 20 years, the work environment and the managers ineptness was worse than the pay. The facility served over 100 soldiers a day in an area that was woefully inadequate and lacked privacy for the business of "counseling." There were not enough computers for the number of soldiers served as well as being outdated and frequently off-line. This resulted in the counselors being overworked in addition to being underpaid and undervalued by the manager (CIM). The manager treated the counselors as hired help with GEDs rather than professional and highly skilled college educated individuals. The majority of the counselors dealt with the managers incompetence as a leader, by focusing their efforts on helping the soldiers rather than dealing with her pettiness and immaturity. Prior to my arrival, several counselors had resigned primarily because of the work conditions and the managers lack of knowledge and poor leadership. During my brief tenure, I and two other counselors left within months of each other. Either Serco's management is ign
Prosability to make a difference in a soldiers life.
Consridiculous starting salary. lack of equipment and supplies, terrible management, poor insurance and health benefit plans, non-existence promotion opportunities, and little concern for professional development or consideration of employees ideas and suggestions.
The local experienced were mostly from High Wycombe and were excellent. A local community that knew their town and the job they had been doing for many years through different contracts. My supervisor was outstanding and was generally gutted when he was told to fire me. The Serco management that came in appeared to be hopeless. I had little direct contact myself, but the bad feeling created and the turnover of contract managers, experienced drivers, office staff, the hopeless planning evidenced by the new bin rollout which only achieved 90% of bin deliveries. I was told that the plan for refuse collection was the same as Milton Keynes, which is a flat, in a grid, with plenty of space to manouvre the vehicle, is modern so has no hidden away roads and less remote places. High Wycombe is in a valley, with steep hills, meandering streets, some very narrow, hard to find locations and rural locations with large difficult to find properties. I was not directly involved but witnessed many disgruntled experienced staff, those who were sacked as they earned more from a previous contract, and were replaced by people who had little evidence of driving ability. 12 contract managers in 2 years, I believe, who were sacked for failing to complete an impossible contract. It was rumoured that there were deliberate attempts to disrupt drivers with higher pay to get them to leave to be replaced with lower paid inexperienced people from outside the area. I was told people were asked to work in t
There are a lot of people in key supervisory/management positions whom do not know what they're doing. It seems that certain job titles are given based solely on how well-liked you are and not how qualified you are. Management is a mess; enforcing rules and regulations on the employees who needs them is a joke because the problematic ones pretty much do what they want. The true hard workers are treated unfairly and always have to pick up the slack of the ones who basically get away with dodging work and talking all day - yet getting paid the same rate as the ones who actually work. Moral is completely down and there are no raises. Whatever pay rate they bring you in at, that is what you'll be stuck making for several years to come, regardless of the countless quarterly performance reviews they give you which are pointless with no incentives to boot. Several well-qualified great employees has left after a short time because the management structure is so bad and the pay is not worth it. This is a government contractor company so job security is an issue as well. There are people who has been at this particular work site for 15-20 years with nothing to show for it in terms of a retirement package/pensions/benefits because of the different contractors that come in every few years or so - hence the mouse on a wheel. In retrospect, this is a job that's good if you want to make an OK living temporarily, but if you're looking for a long-term career, this is not a good fit.
The m
ProsOff every holiday
ConsPay, Management, Job Security & Healthcare benefits way overpriced
Questions And Answers about Serco
What are the benefits and perks of working at Serco Group?
Asked 27 June 2017
Colleagues! Early leave
Answered 17 June 2020
The people and special days like pyjama days. The free sandwiches and pizza even though that is regulated to two per person.
Answered 30 May 2020
What is the most stressful part about working at Serco Group?
Asked 17 Mar 2019
Attempting to do a job with insufficient training, very little actual support whilst on calls (especially now if you are working from home ) and attempting to meet KPIs. Not knowing if work is actually going to continue as only given roster with a weeks notice, which as a casual is extremely stressful. Being treated like a number not an actual person. Break times are ridiculous tight, 10 mins for a break 30 for lunch timed to the exact minute. Never been more stressed and unsupported in a job than at Serco.
Answered 2 Sept 2020
Lack of support especially when dealing with aggressive customers. Full on training in another department and then expected to do well after only 6 days. This new training is not within the scope of customer service which we have applied for. Poor floorwalkers have to deal with over 50 flags for help at the same time. Disorganized and choatic workplace environment.
Answered 30 May 2020
What should you wear to an interview at Serco Group?
Asked 27 June 2017
Gentle men dressing
Answered 8 Dec 2018
Make an effort, good first impressions, body language, confidence
Answered 25 Aug 2018
What is the work environment like
Asked 22 Oct 2017
Poor training, kpis are unachievable. It dont matter how hard you work anyway. Once this company has used you up they fire you. And repeat the cycle next year with a new bunch of victims.
Answered 16 Oct 2020
Even though there are beutifull views of Dandenong which make work more pleasant. It can be a tough environment to be apart of. Serco is currently going through a strong period of change and its not for the better. They have trained the telephony staff in processing. Some staff doing well. Others struggling as this was not the original role they applied for. In turn now the night processing staff have no work because its all being done during the day. Bad morale all round. I feel bad for doing processing when I should be doing the job I do well in telephony. Its not a work environment that will make you happy. Only stressed about whats coming around the corner.
Answered 24 June 2020
Position states part time, = to how nany hours per week
