cleaner

maintenance technician

e-learning developer

refrigeration engineer

store manager

Arcus FM

If you work in the offices there is little to no progression. Arcus will chose an external hire over progression for staff that already working there. The pay is not great for the experience that Arcus currently have, the more experienced people there are paid the same as new people when tailored experience should be paid more to keep the staff happy in the workplace. 
The company itself isn't bad, every year we get bonuses, a pay increase and they have benefits that wouldn't be of any interest to many people. The job can be stressful but the people that work there are interesting and brilliant. The clients 9/10 times are lovely to talk to and you'll speak to some really interesting engineers if you're a scheduler.
There are some really strict deadlines and KPIs that need to be hit and the office and field management will stay on top of the employees to ensure the work is all planned. Even if you have to triple check the works.
You will get moved around from each of the departments so it won't always be the same thing you do. This is a good thing because more experience means you have a better chance of progression but can be very frustrating for you or the department you're on. 
The company is fairly transparent in what it does and keeps the employees up to date with all the information but will never take genuine feedback from someone who might be at the bottom of the food chain.
The managers are all lovely, each one you can count on if you're having a hard day and each of them are very understanding. This company is probably one of the more relaxed places I have worked.
There are many other small positives and negatives about working for Arcus but rounded up it's a fairly pleasant and stable place to work, you know what's expected of you and the extensive training means you have a basic understanding of what to do before you start on your specific department.


This company runs on fear, lies bullying and corruption. Poor training if any at all, leaving a workforce in turmoil. They have a training academy run by technicians who are not qualified in the trade they are teaching. They have one day plastering and brick laying training and expect you too build and plaster a wall thereafter. Most of the stores are dry lined so why they have plastering courses is beyond me and not many brick walls. If a wall was hit by a member of the public, then it should go to a contractor for insurance purposes and for health and safety reasons, a large damaged wall should be repaired by a professional. They run a short vinyl welding course and then expect the technicians to lay floors? It’s even mentioned on their YouTube video. They recently set up a fabric repair team, which was not needed. It was run by management with no building experience and un qualified technicians. As expected this very expensive blunder failed, yet the failure was not questioned and the management involved and the technicians returned to their previous roles. They do have some talented and qualified technicians in the field, but they are suppressed by the insecure and unqualified management. Any that have dared to raise concerns have been quickly dealt with by the oppressive hr team. Their have been some great management over the years, but they have been forced out for not conforming to the micromanagement style the company endorses. The management with the worst record of bullying have been promoted to senior management, which speaks volumes. As you can imagine the stress levels and mental health of the workforce is at epidemic levels. The company use pr propaganda, by introducing mental health first aiders and dedicating theirselves to mental health discrimination, as a smoke screen to the mental health they are causing. There have unfortunately been many employees forced into sick leave, some long term due to the bullying by management. As this is a review for potential candidates. I must write a factual rendition of the way the company operate and strongly advise anyone to avoid this company.

For the most part my first year or so at arcus on sainsburys was quite good there were enough staff most people pulled their weight and I was able to get things done and done well. 

Then the cutting started one person got promoted and we were told out head count was too high. Then they wanted to merge fabric with M&E so the workload doubled. It went from managable to a nightmare pretty quickly. Another person left and they took on 2 more people. But the merger carried on and they increased the weekends from 1 in 6 to 1 in 3. Any jobs that required contractors were refused and passed straight back to handymen. Most regions well 3 of them have 2 planners but because 1 is exoerienced he gets the busiest region on his own.

Then there is multi client the same thing happened there the most experienced planner got london and east of england building fabric landed on them then within a month they doubled it to M&E as well. I was doing a lot of overtime on that contract on that ckntract and in the end i got fed up with them always wanting more and quit.the biggest problem on that team is they have too many clients and not enough resources and use micromanagment to compensate. 

The trouble is management dont do training they wont take on more ground level staff and they always complaining about the headcount being too high but funnily enough had the funds for more directors.experienced helpdesk staff on the nights team make stupid mistakes when they are working and no one wants to help anyone else . If you go out of your set job zone once they exoect it all of the time. I only hope they end this reign of understaffing and overworking and make it a better company to work for again as no one seems to be happy there

Pros:
• Some colleagues are supportive and try to help each other.
• The role itself is vital to the company, providing essential operations support.

Cons:
• Lack of Career Progression: No clear path for growth or development within the company.
• Poor Leadership & Blame Culture: Management does not support their teams, and there is a tendency to shift blame rather than address issues constructively.
• No Training or Development: Employees are expected to perform complex tasks without proper training or guidance.
• Unrealistic Expectations & Poor Compensation: The workload is overwhelming, yet salaries do not reflect the amount of work expected.
• Toxic Work Environment: Management shows favoritism, dismisses employee feedback, and allows bullying behavior to persist.
• Poor Communication & Decision-Making: Critical operational decisions are made without considering their impact on employees, and vital information is not communicated effectively to upper management.
• Mental Health Neglect: There is little to no regard for employee well-being, leading to a highly stressful work environment.

Advice to Management:
Listen to your employees, invest in proper training, and address the toxic culture within the company. Employees are the backbone of operations, yet they are undervalued and overworked. Without real change, the high stress and lack of support will continue to drive talented workers away.


Compared with other companies the salary for m+e Is not great but the take into account you have to work one saturday a month for free and overtime is paid at a flat rate and no Down time then after a few months you start to resent it and realise how poor it actually is. You will be promised the world in the interview but in reality it never happens. Impossible to get a pay rise and the hoops you have to jump through to get one it's easier to leave.Attitude as well when you are on call is that you will go to any planned out of hours jobs at the drop of a hat because your on call and they say so. Management is awful and not enough engineers. Countless times have been told to close jobs or sign onto them to meet sla times. Only few redeeming features of arcus are that generally the engineers are good guys and tend to be a laugh, the training academy and tech team. This company has a very high turnover of staff as they are unable to retain them once they have experience and have qualifications due to how poor the terms of the contract are so if your in need of certificates and can afford to work for peanuts for a while then this is the place to go

Starting with the good aspects of the job, almost all of the company members I met, over the period I was working for Arcus FM, were amazingly helpful, nice and overall friendly. I learned a lot new skills, starting from operating new software for booking and registering post, refreshing on some basic accounting skills, increasing my confidence with my oral and written communication as well as keeping my Microsoft Office skills sharp. 
 Unfortunately the down side of my experience with the company was that when I started, I was left on my own to figure how my job was supposed to be done. Everyone of my colleagues were giving different advises that most of the time contradicted with one another, giving out the impression that I most likely was not the only person left without any guidance and sometimes this caused quite a lot of stress. 
 Overall it was not a bad working experience and at times it was quite enjoyable, however I can not stress enough that personally, it was probably one of the toughest jobs to integrate into.

Arcus is a great place to work. I feel valued by my peers, stakeholders and, most importantly, my manager.
The majority of colleagues are all focused on a common goal: to provide efficient, quality solutions to clients - and again, most colleagues are engaged and proud of the part the play in achieving that goal.
There are opportunities for progression, paved by business growth over the last few years - coupled with upskilling opportunities for engineers and technicians as well as desk-based colleagues.
The biggest challenge is recruiting in a small market of engineers and technicians, with fierce competition from similar companies. Business growth means that this pressure is fairly consistent, however, this leads to greater sense of achievement when you do deliver - including recognition from managers across the business, not just your own.
The support networks allow colleagues to feel at ease in their roles, no one is afraid to ask for help.

I have been working for Arcus for a few years now and have seen them grow from a small business trying to get a foot in the market to a successful organisation who have great relationships with their clients and look after their staff. When I first joined Arcus there were a lot of people who struggled with the lack of communication from senior leadership and head office but thats all changed now.  Communication has got so much better with the Arcus Essentials that comes out every week so we all know whats going on with the company rather than relying on word of mouth. The improvements in the IT team have got rid of any concerns i ever had about calling an IT department and just being told to turn it on and off again and the new resourcing manager have been massively helpful in improving our brand but getting the right staff in. If Arcus carry on the way the have been in the not so distant future we will certainly be an industry leader.

Arcus is very bad refrigeration comany, but to be fair with them, i dont think its there fault. They have long term partnership with sainsburys which they have to deliver and not many engineers would want to work for arcus. So They only attract unexperienced engineers so you end up with 20+ jobs a day because most of them are recalls or jobs that have not been completed. Most ppms are signed off with out attending because they dont give you any time to do the ppms. All we hear is close down the cpt. ( fixed or not ) 
Make sure if you apply to work for arcus, you get the right money because its impossible to get any pay rise
You are forced to work very long hours and all your money is paid at flat rate even if you do over time on saturday, its still flat rate. Down time is not paid. 

The only good point about arcus is the training they offer, and they academy they have. Which makes it ideal for those looking to learn.

What is the best part of working at the company?
Training opportunities are very good,  if you need any training and it's relevant to both you and the company,  then they would normally approve it.


What is the most stressful part about working at the company?
They have too many different contracts now, and no more labour to be able to cope with it, very long working days and not very good organisational skills. 
Communication is very poor.

What is the work environment and culture like at the company?
Very stressful and always being chased by management and office staff as to when jobs are going to be completed or attended,  just not enough engineers to do so many different contracts. 

What is a typical day like for you at the company?
Normally a very long day,  starting early in the morning to try to finish a little earlier,  but hardly ever the case , as so many jobs to do that you just end up doing 11  hours plus days.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Cleaner 666 salaries reported	£12.51 per hour
Maintenance technician 29 salaries reported	£30,176 per year
E-learning developer 7 salaries reported	£39,143 per year
Refrigeration engineer 58 salaries reported	£50,039 per year
Store manager 105 salaries reported	£13.59 per hour

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