warehouse worker

assembler

production operator

forklift operator

7.5 tonne driver

Assist-Resourcing

A Few fake reviews on here so i'l tell you my whole experience of working for Assist. I worked the 12 hour night shift at the JD warehouse on Kingsway. I enjoyed working the night shift and I enjoyed working 4 days on, 4 days off. That's about it.

Breaks: In your 12 hour shift you get 3 breaks. Break times are different for everybody but in total add up to an hour. I started at 6pm, my first break was at 9pm (15 minutes). My second break was at 1am (30 minutes) and my final break was at 4am (15 minutes). You have to clock out your breaks using a fingerprint scanner so they can monitor how long your breaks are. Walking to the canteen and back counts as your break so really your 15 minute breaks are about about 10 minutes (depending how far away from the canteen you work).

Pay: Assist pay you in a very strange, confusing way. Your first week you will get £300 which makes you go "oh that's alright that". After that you will be paid £240 for 4 weeks and the following weeks will be paid £270. I've never understood it or where that 1 weeks wage went every 2 months. "It carries over". Whatever. Assist messed up my pay 3 times in 3 months and, if you work the night shift, you have to wait until 6 in the morning to tell them, and there's a queue, and the staff are rude to you. Due to the 4 days on, 4 days off you will work weekends sometimes. There is no 'Sunday Pay'.

Security/ Exiting the building: Once every 4 hours or so a security guard will approach you whilst working to check your pockets. You're not allowed anything in your pockets except money or keys. No phones. No chewing gum. If you do have anything like this you get a strike. 3 strikes and you're automatically fired. You also have to empty your pockets every time you go to the bathroom. After your shift you must queue up in a large queue to clock out, then wait in another large queue and be searched when you leave. This involves putting all your belongings into a red tub (including your belt), which a security guard goes through, then walk through a metal detector, then lift your shirt and pant legs up to a second security guard. On average it took me 25 minutes to leave the place. You are not paid for this waste of your time. It is similar to a working prison. 

Clothing: You have to wear a blue or black top. If you have any markings/logos on your blue or black top (even if hidden by your hi-vis vest or a jumper) if they are seen they can either be cut off by security or you will be sent home without pay.  

The Work: If you're tramming or packing the work part isn't particularly bad. Once you understand what to do it's fairly easy. It's frustrating when there is nothing to do though and you're chastised for not meeting their targets (100 an hour or something stupid like that).  
Management just sits around doing nothing but occasionally coming round to tell you that you need to work faster. They are more interested in meeting their own time targets than the quality of the packing/picking/whatever your assigned to doing. Your job role is decided randomly, you could be doing anything.

Food: The canteen is pretty good, you can pay on card and get a well-priced breakfast at 9pm which I always enjoyed. Breakfast is self-serve so you can choose what to put on your plate and pay for. The dinners served at the 30 minute break were a bit like school dinners and slightly overpriced. You can pay on card and they do cash back. There's a smoking area outside which is good. However the canteen part is closed during your last break so you can't get any food during this time. 

Start time: You are given a barcode ID to wear around your neck. You use this to scan into the revolving gate at the entrance. You then enter the building, scan your card AND fingerprint to go through another revolving door. You enter the cloakroom, put your coat on a peg or a bench if you can find one (this usually involves putting your jacket over someone else's as there are no pegs free). You then approach the area you work in, wait in a queue to clock in on a fingerprint scanner. After this you ALSO have to hand sign a register. If you fail to do any one of these things Assist will go "oh it says you weren't in that day" and not pay you. The time you started your shift goes off the "fingerprint clock-in machine" NOT when you first scan into the building. 
 
People: The people I worked with were surprisingly nice. A mix of young and old, everyone in the same boat just trying to make a living. There were a few grumps who had nothing better to do than beat their old targets and not help new people. You are not allowed to talk really but you can as long as you don't stop working. 

First day and Training: On your first day they give you an Assist vest and steel-toecap boots. Your feet will be on fire at the end of your first shift. After 2 weeks you will get used to this. I recommend getting jelly insoles for these shoes or buying your own steel-toe cap shoes. Before you start working there, there is a lot of document signing and training to undertake the day before you start. The training was pretty much useless and I never needed to do anything I learnt in it which, from what I recall, consisted of wrapping up crates with cling film (a process hardly ever used in the warehouse as tape is commonly used). At the end of your first week you will spend your first day off recovering from sleep. 

Random Dismissals/ Getting Fired: Throughout my time working for Assist I saw many employees fired. Although they have their '3 strike' rule I saw people fired on the spot. This method isn't that common though, you will most likely be randomly sent a text message "volume has increased so we do not require your assistance for the foreseeable future". That's what I received. Although it was not a technical dismissal, it was. I had no strikes. Many people are fired for this reason, usually after Christmas sales.
They text me 3 weeks later asking me to work part-time. No chance. You left me 3 weeks without a job.

Final Warning: If you work for Assist you will feel disposable and replaceable. Everyone who works there hates Assist. The work isn't bad or hard but their attitude, treating everyone like prisoners is disgusting. Having to scan into the bathroom, come on. 
Although they bait you with the chance to progress, very few are selected to. After about 5 months of working there you can be chosen to become Gold Standard, provided that you never missed a day off and you meet high targets. Gold Standard pays a lot better but you've got to practically give blood to get it. After about a year of being Gold Standard you can be eligible to work for JD sports themselves which pays even better. The job might even be worthwhile on the pay JD employees get. Everyone must go through this Assist, Gold Standard, JD process though. Even the managers once worked for Assist and worked their way up. It takes years and lots of effort doing the most soul-draining work to even be considered for a pay rise though. 

P.S: Hope you like Absolute 80's, because you will be hearing the same few 80s pop songs on repeat during your 12 hour shifts. 

Don't work for Assist.

Unpaid induction which is promised to be paid.Under paid,first week you get £133,second week £217 (both after tax).No one answers the phones,ever so you can't ring anyone to discuss the pay issue.The worse place ever to work and the worse staff and mangers I've ever worked for,very patronising,cocky and rude.The job it's self (picking) was extremely easy,but very boring.Scanners rarely work,so if your looking for or waiting for a battery to charge,and they check to see if your keeping up with targets (300 in 1hr) and if your not cause you have no scanner,even if you explain this,you still get a warning.The managers sit and talk bad about people that work there,usually in a very personal way.They sit near the only fan on your floor all day doing nothing but expect everyone else to be stood up for 11 hours a day.The shoes are unbearable,so if you are crazy enough to work at JD I'd advise buying your own shoes or several insoles,or you won't be able to walk the day after.Be prepared for the heat also,wear shorts or a very thin t-shirt.They know people that work here are either desperate or it's a stop gap for people,but honestly no money is worth working in the conditions you do or to be treated the way you are,there is other agencies that will treat you with respect and pay you correctly,unlike assist.Shocking all round.

I only put up with this nasty work place for 3.5 weeks because of these reasons 

1, virtually threatened by the supervisor on the day I started that if I did not make the ridiculous targets set I would be warned & then finished. This is pretty bad work practises & made me want to get out there & then

2, in the 8 hour shift I worked I was allowed only one break a dinner break of 30 mins it took me 5 mins to walk to the canteen & 5 mins back meaning I only had 20 mins break in 8 hours this work practise is ok for slaves & immigrants but am not used to being treated like an slave.

3. because its run like & has the same feeling as a prison when you finish you get out 20 mins late every day after the shambolic security system has frisked you then have to walk another 7 mins to the car park 

4, the pay when you finally get it is truly  poor from a company who is fond of bragging about there profits they pay minimum wage  well thanks jd I rate your firm as one of the worst firms to work for & will never buy anything from one of your shops ever again

5, the canteen food is as bad as it gets so don't believe any of peoples rubbish about it being good believe me its not

They treat you like cattle, if you have a question for them and your on nights you have to wait till after 6am till the office opens if it's about  your tax code being wrong they tell you they will sort it out,but never do, you have to do that yourself by contacting the tax office yourself,the way they pay your wages is confusing on nights your paid day rate from 6pm to 10pm,then night rate after until 6am, but their payslips read differently, the so called absence line is a joke when you first phone it give you less than 15 seconds to tell them your name number and reason for absence,then a recorded message saying "no message recorded" and disconnects you forcing you to call again where it then let's you record your message, but doesn't seem to get to the relevant staff. I left for health reasons and also because of the 22 staff that were inducted on the same day as myself, to the department i was on all but 1(you can guess who wasn't) were offered a contract,even though  i was closer to the targets than them so my advice would be stay away

Fun place to work😳 !!!!management either assist or jd staff must of written good reviews about this place .... I read somebody put invaluable skills learnt YEAH not how to treat people .. Don't talk, don't laugh,what you doing ,where have you been ,good breaks by the time you get to canteen you may not be able to get anything as there mite be a queue or even half way through eating back to work they couldn't care less tell you to get back to work while they sit there for longer ...one employee has not been payed for 4 weeks and has had to go to local food bank to feed there kids we had a wip round for them assist nor jd give a toss in this day and age caring employer REALLY....worked both night and days .. Nights seemed better bunch of people ... Days team leaders and supervisors treat you well what can I say very low I'm leaving next week 😀 can't wait going to miss the odd person but on the whole as a company to work for avoid, if there's one thing I've learnt from working for assist @ jd sports... better yourself you don't need to put up with this mental and psychical abuse and they say sports direct is bad

typical agency. will cancell jobs at the last minute. the company you were doing the job for didn't expect you..... the usual communications failure!
expected you in even if you were ill and dying. made a total mess of your Tax, was paying emergency tax for months .which you have to sort out with the tax man.
took weeks to get a p45 off them.
would only use them as a last resort.
the actual job itself is fairly easy, but can be boring waiting around to off load for like 4 hrs at a time, your employed on a 12 hr shift which is constantly changing its start times. they tell you to start at 7. am then next day it's 9.am and then it's 5.am and so on.they do days and nights.
you don't get favoured for loyalty. you work all week and want work on a weekend to get extra money, and they don't give you the weekend work they give it to some one who hasn't worked in the week.
the company your contracted to are ok but they do like to blame agency drivers for mistakes and damage.  so make sure you point out any defects/ previous damage to the transport manager.

After my induction with assist I was told to turn up Half hour early for my first shift along with others who had been told the same information, on arrival I was questioned for being late as apparently I was supposed to be there 2 hours before shift so I was sent home. Next time I try to be there 2 hours early and they tell me I am an hour late! They wanted me there at 7am when my shift was 10 am- 2pm!! was complained at for being in at 8, I apologised and asked if I would be being paid for the hours before my shift I was then accused of holding an attitude for my question an told to go home, I spent around £20 getting to work and being sent home but did not receive a single shift before being let go for their lack of organisation. I have worked with another agency at JD which I had no problems with but the management for assist are egotistical with no sense of what's going on in the warehouse or with the operatives they employ. Wouldn't even consider going anywhere near this agency ever again.

I started work this year in October and was dismissed at November just because i went to an appointment assist allowed me to go but the jd shift manager was not happy because i did not inform her but had told jd team leader that was part of her team that i was going to be in late tomorrow therefore they made up the fact that i dont work i am always talking i said what work i have been house keeping for the last seven days and even though i spoke to assist team leader that i was not happy about house keeping he backed me up but i still got dismissed now they are refusing to pay me 8hours which i worked on the day of the appointment and will not give me my holiday pay cos i didnt even take any holidays i worked 5weeks there no one answers the phone and when i went down in person still not resolved it is the worst company ever because they do not stick up for you they take jd staffs word and you have no say what so ever

I really enjoy working within JD warehouse, the people that work there do a fantastic job at making you feel welcome when you first start working there. The break times are very reasonable and it helps split your shift up the perfect amount that you don't even realise that you've worked a full 12 hour shift because of the way the breaks fall. A typical day at work would usually consist of signing in and then hearing a few words from your supervisors explaining what work needs to be done over the period of the shift then going to your designated area and starting your work. If your team leader needs you in a different area they will tell you when to move. I think the hardest part of the job is the not having a contract with the company so not knowing whether you're going to stay with them or not is a constant worry, other than that I enjoy everything else about the job

Their fingerprint system for attendance is how they calculate pay and it doesn't work at times meaning you don't get your pay for the hours you worked. 

You can't send them an email or call them as they won't reply and will flat out ignore you or simply tell you to come meet them. Meeting them means several trips there as they constantly need reminder to fix your pay and show little care.

My experience with Assist is such that you are replaceable and problems that are theirs and now yours and theres nothing you can do about it. I left mid september for health reasons this year and to this day I am still owed money for the time I worked there and despite constant requests for pay all I have gotten is nothing. 

No reply from email or phone. 

I won't be working for Assist anymore neither would I recommend anyone working for them and I now have a negative opinion of working at a warehouse as whole.

Thank you Assist for nothing.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Warehouse worker 75 salaries reported	£12.94 per hour
Assembler 7 salaries reported	£521 per week
Production operator 23 salaries reported	£13.41 per hour
Forklift operator 17 salaries reported	£13.53 per hour
7.5 tonne driver 10 salaries reported	£813 per week

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