customer service team lead

customer experience manager

customer service representative

team leader

trader

William Hill

Working for William Hill is easily one of the most regrettable decisions I and a lot of people have made in our lives. Don't make the mistake we did, no matter how desperate you are for a job. Seriously.

First of all, whether you are a Cashier or CEM you WILL be doing work or 'additional' duties through email that aren't on your contract. Some people you work with are the best people you will meet in your life, others are lazy and you'll be working double hard. And don't bother try to argue with that person or complain about them, remember there's only 2 of you and if that person is in your shop team you'll create tension in your entire shop. Rules contradict each other and only apply based on favouritism. You are not allowed to leave the shop or be on the shop floor after 7pm but the shop closes at 10pm. You are paid until 10:15. With this logic, that means you must empty the machines, take down newspapers, clean the shop, solve cash discrepancies and end of day all systems after 10pm. I'm not even going to tell you how long it takes, just know you won't be getting paid overtime. It's not authorised, even if the managers tell you to do it. And if it is authorised, you need to remind your BPM to reflect that on your rota so you get paid properly.  

BPMs (your go to if things go wrong) are the most incompetent set of idiots you will have the pleasure of knowing, because unless your shop has constant problems you aren't going to meet your BPM. There are 5 BPMs to a cluster. Each cluster has around 8-30 shops. Trust me when I tell you if you have a problem, need to call in sick or need to contact your BPM they won't pick up. And in the unlikely scenario they do call you back or pick up you can just tell in their voice they are thinking 'why are you calling me?'. Holiday requests are denied if they are not done how THEY want you to do it. If your till is down and you declare it because e.g. person before you didn't close the shop properly, and your justification doesn't sound Ok over the phone (spoiler: there are no justifiable excuses), you will have a disciplinary meeting and be interrogated like you're Public Enemy Number 1. By the way, any meeting you have is done by Law because you must have a meeting for discrepancies legally but the outcome was decided before the meeting. Don't go in there freshly prepared trying to be a barrister with facts like your fate wasn't already decided. Expect a first written warning at minimum.

William Hill like to go on about how good there security is but it isn't. If you are being abused and press the red button, StaffSafe will take about 30 seconds to respond (a long time in the heat of the moment), ask the customer to leave, tell you they are calling the police. And they never come. Trust me, unless there is a fight going on (they can look in your camera's CCTV) don't expect police to save you. And in the event police do come, it's normally an hour later when the shop has calmed down. So when they do arrive you look young and dumb, in no harm, on your broken, worn out chair like you've been making hoax calls. If there is a robbery and you have your phone next to you (having your phone is against the rules), you can kiss your job goodbye. William Hill think that you being on your phone distracts you which would have prevented the robbery, which is therefore gross misconduct. I'm not making this up, ask about.

If the machines break or are faulty, Helpdesk will send you videos on how you can fix them because they want to be cost effective and not send out engineers. Now that's all good and well if your a brown noser, but if you got this far down to my review you clearly value your time as well as yourself. Why should you do an engineers' job at cashier pay because the company want to save money, don't you respect yourself? Oh and don't think being a manager is any better.

As a cashier you are looking at £8.50. In the unfortunate and unlikely event your BPM actually does their job properly and signs you off your probation (you work through a book for 3 months) you will be a 2.5. That basically means you can do management and cashier shifts. Management shifts at 2.5 are supposed to pay £9.50. Yeah, I said supposed to. Because when you are a 2.5 your BPM WILL mess up your pay. It's not a matter of if, but when. The only 'if' is IF you realise.

Most importantly, don't get sucked in when they say 'flexible' working. The company does not offer flexible working. What they mean is they use you to make you flexible, when you are working. Read that again. You can ask for certain days off, but when the rota is eventually confirmed you won't get that day off. How do you resolve this, by calling the BPM right? That would be straightforward if they actually picked up. Oh and make sure you remind them twice, because they WILL forget. A BPM has to manage  8 of their own shops, plus the whole 28 cluster depending on if they are the Duty Area Manager. You can imagine what they are dealing with. So is your day request a priority? That's a rhetorical question. You can convince yourself the answer isn't that if it makes you feel more comfortable and you can live with yourself confiding in your lies.

What I am trying to say is, please don't do it. I wouldn't recommend this job to someone even if it could save their life. This job kills you from the inside out anyway so regardless you still end up dead. If you read this and still apply then you must be in debt and prepared to deal with the mental health issues this place will give you.

And if you are in debt and get the job, or are in the job  and had enough don't think about stealing the money in the Safe/Insert. Whether it's £5,000 or 5p, if they know or can prove it was you, they are gonna come and get you. Whether you change address, try to fly out, change your name, block everybody. They want that money back. They will chase you for it, they will find you for it. They won't let it slide.

Abridged version: Great job for students and part timers, no realistic opportunity to progress past CEM or "store manager" into posts of higher pay and responsibility. Long working hours, a management culture of "sort it yourself" but potentially some of the best people of you'll ever meet - hopefully you survive the bookies intact, take the experience with you and flourish elsewhere.

I have been with William Hill for 4 years, while I was still in college. As a student the flexible hours were great and overtime was always available.
 This should have, however, been a red flag, since a 12 hour contract was able to fill their downtime with 40-50 hours if they really wanted to - it showed how often we would be understaffed.

Training to be a duty manager meant I was able to work as a manager or a cashier, which was even better for flexibility while still in college. I was eventually approached by an area manager shortly after our restructuring (Read as - cuts from the bottom, High turnover/business shop managers were now being paid the same paltry rate as the former lowest grades).

After accepting what seemed to be a good move at the time into the shop manager role, which was changed to "Customer Experience Manager", I was given the opportunity to move from the quiet shop I had been moved to during my training as a CEM to one of our more high profile shops, which I believed to be a surefire stepping stone to progress further through the company.

Despite showing solid leadership skills, being popular amongst my colleagues and a huge depth of gambling and product knowledge (Sorry to blow my own trumpet) as well as indicating to my constantly changing BPM, my Area Manager and indeed my Regional Manager that I would like the opportunity to develop and progress, I have been constantly overlooked even for the opportunity to get a place on the training course, if not the actual position, for 2 years now with the only prospect languishing in a position within the company where the hours can be as long as 7am-10pm if your shop is understaffed or your manager is a sadist.
 If you're as lucky as I have been and have an excellent and reliable shop team you will find that you will be made to suffer by having your team constantly pulled to work elsewhere to cover other shops as, due to our level of business, we have more than the minimum staff on duty most days.

 The bonus structure is now a joke, with the performance of other shops in your cluster - which you have no control over - potentially affecting the bonus you receive negatively, which more often than not is delivered in "Wow points" which are of limited use (I must say that it once paid for a tumble dryer once which was niche, if not a need that must be met often).

 BPMs are usually unhelpful, employing underhanded tactics to make (usually) younger, less experienced or less confident members of staff feel like they cannot leave due to sickness or other issues with comments such as "You need to arrange for someone to come and cover you" which, as I have had to remind them on several occasions, is their job. This will not endear you particularly well to them.

 Disciplinary procedures are pedestrian at best and cowboy at worst, I advise you to make friends with someone who is adept at representing during these meetings or joining a union as Hills ceased to recognise their employees union years ago. I have seen a handful of contracts terminated which would have been avoidable with a half decent rep present.

When I first joined, I was coming from outside the industry. The training provided from upper management isn't that good, you'll have to travel all the way to the regional office (in my case edgington) to have 3 paid training days, of which only compliance and a basic guide of how bets work is learnt. Most of the training takes place in store, I was lucky enough to have two experienced CEMs teach me. The work/life balance isn't too good, a lot of the time you'll be called up to cover someone else's shift last minute and it gets to a point where saying no is looked down upon. The company pushes quite a lot of promotions which are hard to keep track of, in my personal opinion we don't get paid enough to deal with everything that we have to do, including making tea and coffees constantly, cleaning the store, swapping promotions and marketing everyday, watching out for banned/self excluded customers and fraudsters, dealing with abusive customers and also trying to please management while dealing with customer disputes, handling money and anything else that comes our way. Additionally, lone working is also another negative of the job, as it can be quite worrying working in a shop with quite a lot of cash and abusive customers for a long sum of time, not to mention that if there isn't anyone available to cover your break (when lone working), then you won't be allowed to take your break as leaving the store is an sackable offence. Speaking of time, whose looking for a managers role (known as CEM) might find themselves doing a 845am till 10pm shift with only 1 hour break. 

While I have definitely made quite a lot of negative points, benefits of the job include working with quite a selection of people whom of which are knowledgeable and will teach you a lot about the industry. Additionally, if you are a fast typer you'll find translating (entering the bet into the computer database) an easy breeze. Not to mention that anyone who is great with mathematics will have a breeze. Free coffee is also a benefit, along with plenty of overtime (if you need it), paid holiday for your birthday, air conditioned store and also somewhat comfy chairs. For any smokers, its down to the choice of your duty manager, but a lot of the time smoking is allowed during shifts bearing in mind you keep it quick, the only time you won't be able to smoke is either if you're lone working, or after 7pm (in which case you won't be able to leave the store). Personally as a smoker I find the work place smoker friendly. Think hard and clearly before applying, if you can deal with abusive customers and a lot of overtime (paid at a current rate of £7.83 for Cashiers) then go for the job, if not then consider another industry. This job might be good for any students looking for part time jobs, better then zero hour contracts definitely!

Every morning opening up a branch would consist of putting up the race papers, ensuring marketing material is up to date as well as football coupon dispenser.  Money would then be located form the safe and counted according to previous night.  An audit from previous night would also be printed and every bet checked individually for security reasons.  The same process would be completed for all of the previous days business.  the day would consist of creating a great atmosphere for every customer coming into the shop, but also adhering to Gambling Commission Regulations.  Behind the scenes, shop figures and targets have to be focused on as well as any staff issues and completing the staff rotas for the upcoming weeks.

Within this position I have learned a lot on how to effectively run my shop in accordance with budgets and hitting targets.  I  have developed skills in order to determine what may be causing the shop to underachiever and coming up with something to ensure it doesn't happen again.  This also goes for ensuring my shop team and I continue to do the things that are enabling us to achieve targets.

The management can be very different within William Hill, as it depends who you have as a District Operations Manager.  If you have someone who it all about process then it can be tough as working in the shops - especially when the company is  understaffed at the moment - can be very tough and motivation can be lost, this is due to sometimes being seen as just a number. However if you have someone who is more about people, things can be more uplifting, as although staffing and other factors can cause it to be tough on the work life/balance, the individual can have more of an impact of how people feel about the job.

Types of co-workers vary throughout the job and sometimes you do come across individuals who are very lazy and not interested, but then it is all about using skills as a manager to motivate co workers like this!

The hardest part of the job is definitely having to put up with verbal abuse and violence, in some bad cases staff members have even had to go through robberies.  The company do try to put the proper things in place to prevent situations like this from getting out of hand, but it still isn't great having to deal with it in the first place.

The best part of the job is dressing the shop and staff up to a theme to suit big sporting events such as Cheltenham and Grand National.  There is a great atmosphere amongst staff and customers and it makes it a really enjoyable and memorable time.

My typical working day at William Hill as a trainee cashier would be me taking and accepting bets. Along with learning the job role to money manage, count the safe and banking. You get trained to be able to open and close a store which then you become a Customer Experience Assistant grade 2. for that to happen you have modules to do with in your 3 month probation period to then get signed off if you pass the observation of you opening and closing a store. 

My colleagues were very nice and taught me loads about the betting industry. My store Manager was very nice and brilliant at her job and was very patient with me during my time there.

The customers most of the time we're alright to have a chat with and a laugh. We had our regulars but then you would have the odd one that may be problematic but it can be resolved if you have the right people skills, communication, patience and a good supportive team.

There we're days where the branch I was situated at was very quiet and would probably take over 100 bets by the time my cashier shift finished ( varies up and down)

The hardest part of the job for me was to make sure my till was correct by the end of my shift as it is very easy to calculate wrong and the cash Dec your till short which is not good if you can't back track where its gone. You learn to use your initiative to cash Dec regularly to avoid discrepancies.

The most enjoyable part of the job was really getting to know my colleagues and my customers, especially when you have a winner who comes back again to your store. but you have to be thick skinned and  very vigilante in this role as your dealing with peoples bets, payouts and frauds. Over time you'll gain knowledge on what to look out for in terms of illegal activity and how to deal with a angry customer for example a late bet or wrong payout

What I don't like about this William Hill is the dishonesty from upper management like Business performance Mangers and above because the communication about changes is not good and not professional when finding out a big change from another store manager via gossip for then to be confirmed when you speak to upper management later based on rumour then its a hard fact.These changes make a financial difference to most team members as we're the ones making it happen in the store and we have to survive to.

I only lasted 6 months there due to the company making me ill. 
#1I was a relief cea, I was put in a shop that reached between 35-40 degrees Celsius in the summer with no open windows. I was sick 2 shifts and a row, I asked to go home both times and was told no. The first time I had to stay there. The second time instead of letting me leave, I was put in another shop to work even longer hours knowing I was ill. 
#2 you feel pressured into over time. Not only by having 5 calls in a row asking you if you want over time and you’d already said no the first time, but also by the fact that if you live alone... you’re better on benefits than there diabolical low wages for CEA’s. 
#3 they waste money sending out backs of wagons wheels and gold bars in advertising packs but can’t afford to give their older shops a bit of TLC. 
#4 even if you know for a fact that someone has either got a gambling problem or can’t actually afford the bet their putting on, you are not allowed to refuse service unless they selfban. HOW DISGUSTING IS THAT? All we were told to do was pass them a leaflet. WE STILL HAD TO TAKE MONEY FROM THEM KNOWING THEY HAD AN ISSUE THEY JUST COULDN’T SEE IT! 
#5 the mystery shopper thing is a scam. I was described as a red head and told him to play a fish game on the machines... I didn’t even know there was a fish game on the machine.
#6 the staff are not as appreciated as they should be. 
#7 the mess around with (or even forget to pay) over time you do. If you do a 6th day to get your time and half... they mess around with it somehow so they don’t end up paying it you. 
#8 when you finally get lucky enough to leave the company, they don’t pay you everything you’re owed and if you have any holiday left... those days just magically disappear. 
#9 now this is my final one but this is the most important point. In there job advertisements they boast saying “shifts so you can make the most of your home and your work life” that’s the biggest load of lies I’ve ever seen. At one points I worked a full month without getting a day in the weekend off, I was on late closing shifts every single day baring my first 2 weeks that I worked there. I never had a decent home/work balance and there are a few people who were the same as me. 

So I repeat DO NOT apply for this horrible company!

Good place to work if you enjoy the aspects o betting, and customer service, can be quite a challenging role when running the shop on your own without a colleague, depending on how busy that day is.

But it does seem as though William Hill would rather not pay for 2 staff on when there really should be at times, for security reasons alone you would expect it to be enough, but also because working on your own a very busy day does put people under pressure.

Training in regard to opening and closing the shop is done very well, however all the training for a new started is clumped together, like they're expected to learn everything at the same time.

I think it would more efficient for a new started to get to grips with the simple basics of the shop first, and keep it simple, and give them time to focus on those hands on important parts the job, rather than making them read about loads and loads company policy at the same time. I feel that can get in the way of the time it takes for a new started to grasping all the basics needed to work alone in shop and feel confident about it 

Overall a good betting company to work for,
but the training over all I think should be done differently.
And on busy race dates, or busy foot ball game day's,
Day's when it is expected to busy, I feel William Hill should proprieties more on placing 2 people on.

Rather than prioritising sighing people off,
so staff are expected to work a large part of those day on their own, 
which is cheaper for William Hill.

If you think about it there are very few jobs in retail that require their staff to work by themselves for 4-5 hrs even though it's a busy day.
Yes maybe in a small off licence, but William Hill is a book makers so considering the amounts of bets being placed, constant and sometimes very large amounts of cash being taking and revered, it is different to the average shop in the high street, and in my view for a few reasons, like security as already mentioned, 2 people work should be priorities higher.

Basically I think during the busiest period of the year, on those weekends Saturday and Sunday/ they should always have two people on shift working a shift together.

From an operational point of view, the day to day running of the business (like any betting shop) can be quite enjoyable, particularly the social aspect of the job, talking to customers most of the day.

I did not learn much during my term of employment, being recruited as a manager with previous LBO experience. However, I received minimal training overall, and despite a few requests for more formal training, I received none.

The management style, in my personal opinion of the district / area management team can only be described as "Crisis reactive" and not very inspirational. For example, when briefing the team regarding a new initiative, it is in the best interest to make your team excited and passionate. Words such as "non negiotiable", does not stir that kind of emotion. For an extended period my store was short staffed, and what should normally take 2-3 weeks at most to recruit someone, taken almost 4 months. This was also occuring in multiple stores in the district, meaning that everyone was working a lot of overtime, which in itself is a good thing, except that as a manager, I was forced to take time in lieu, which I could not reclaim, as I could not get the cover.

As far as administration goes, William Hills can certainly be described as beaurocratic madness. Admin is archaic in nature, and is in dire need of modernisation. Collation of staff schedules across the area is like playing a game of "chinese whispers", so far as a store manager is concerned, you will find yourself regularly chasing up pay-related enquiries for your team.

That being said, William Hills does have its good points, if you are passionate about the sporting world. There is usually always someone you can talk to about sports, you can sometimes watch some of the key / high profile events whilst at work. Working hours is generally flexible, as you can swap shifts now and again with other members of your team, and the company offers an interesting array of staff discounts / benefits if you live in or nearby a city.

The most enjoyable part of the job would be colleagues (only the regular staff) while you can even need to work with so-called relief staff and they care about nothing at all ''this isn't my shop''.
Coz of the staff shortage you'll probably be asked to open or close few other shops during the day because people from certain shops like to call off sick during the nice weather or they actually don't want to work all-day shifts and overtime for a 50p more than a minimum wage.
Overtime is not paid as overtime but as a standard hour.
They'll say about giving you a day off for your bday... yeah but they'll take it off your holidays for Xmas.
There is also a holiday thing which you've got to tell your manager a year in advance the days you would like to take off (and there is a massive chance that the dates you requested wouldn't be approved).
There is NO life-work balance at all even if the company tries to sell a different story (only the part-time workers can have some balance).
The good thing in the company is that you can have a free drink such as coffee and tea and the contract is at least full-time permanent but only if you apply for a Customer Experience Manager position while Cashier Assistants can get a max of 25 to 30 hours contract depending on their BPM.
There's also a thing called perks at work where you can buy stuff from high street shops for ''let's call it cheaper price'' but almost every employer will offer you such a thing nowadays. 
It is hard to progress to the upper level if you're not from Leeds or London since that's where all these positions are. 
A survey that runs every 3 months is the most useless thing in there.
Questions would be something like what do you think about your pay and the 80 percentage of the employees would put a negative opinion about it and nothing will change, so what's the point of the survey in the first place?
Plenty of colleagues around the company are looking for new job opportunities or are at least thinking about it, mostly because of the long hours and low wages.

A typical day at work starts with me opening the shop. I come in and log on to our system and then count the money in the safe and transfer it to my till. Once the till is ready I then proceed to put out the horse and dog racing papers that get delivered daily to our shop. I will then get the machines ready. Before the shop opens I make sure all the marketing and football coupons are up to date, amending them if not. I open the doors at 8am and turn on the shop gantry and audio. The first hour is usually very quiet so in this time I do a daily business audit to check the day before business and to check there's nothing suspicious or incorrect on it. I then check the dairy to see if there's any notes or messages I need to be aware of. Once the customers start coming in to collect bets or place bets I make sure I am offering an outstanding service to them. I love having a chat and a giggle with the regulars who come in every day. This is the part I love most about my job, building a rapport with customers. When cash handling I make sure I am concentrating to decrease the chance of cash loss. At around midday I set up a float for my cashier. When they arrive I let them know of any important messages or information they may need to know. Depending on how much is in shop I will go and do some banking discreetly. Usually after this I would take my dinner break. After dinner I would go back out to work and depending on how busy the shop was I would possibly go out and host on the shop floor, chatting and interacting with customers. At around 5pm another manager would enter the shop to take over from me. I would let them know of any issues that they need to be aware of. I would check my float and sign out of my till, ready for the other manager to start their shift.
As a bookmakers hours are very long we get an ever changing rota covering days/nights/weekends. Unfortunately because of the shop hours we seem to work a lot of unsociable hours and I find it very difficult to maintain a work/life balance.

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