deVere group

crazycurls · 2 June 2011 at 8:43AM

Has anyone any experience of these people?

Bit of background why I ask:

My son on dropping out of Uni became ill and was on benefits for some time. He found it difficult to get work and finally (after his dad became ill and disabled) took a call centre job 7 months ago in the absence of anything else. He has done exceptionally well and has become one of the top lead generators in the company smashing his targets every month. The company however keep lowering the bonuses and raising the targets and he is becoming demotivated and frustrated. He is effectively selling financial service products (although the sale is actually completed by someone else virtually all his leads complete) he sells in a day more than others in his team in a month! He has tried to move on to other employers but can't get a look in due to lack of experience. However he genuinely seems to have a knack for this and is wasted where he is.

He wants/needs to earn more money and at he moment is the only wage earner in the family.

He has told me he has an interview tomorrow up in London with a company called the deVere Group [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] I don't want to hold him back from a real opportunity but neither he nor I have any financial cushion [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

So trusty money savers what do you know/think. Many thanks.

dseventy · 2 June 2011 at 9:43AM

DeVere group as in the hotel chain? They are a respected international chain of hotels. I don't know what he is selling but they are well establised.

My advice would be for him to stay put for a while.

He is only 7 months into a new job after being very ill. Why suddenly once he has gone from being long term to sick to fidning a job he is good at, is there a push to move on. Give it time. If he has been looked over for promotion citing experience, well he has only been there 7 months!

he wants/needs to earn more money and at he moment is the only wage earner in the family.

The comment ^^ worries me.

Why is he the only wage earner? The young lad starts a career after being ill and is getting pressure to support other people (like who? no mention that he has children).

Is he carrying older other family members who can't pull a wage? Hence putting pressure or nidging him to earn more?!

D70

crazycurls · 2 June 2011 at 10:17AM

No they are nothing to do with Devere hotels they are just a financial group or if they are they are well distanced. My husband made this mistake when my son mentioned the name to him and told him to apply. I am a bit more cynical and checked it.

My son doesn't support us, my husband following a stroke is on DLA and I get carers and we live off our savings( selling ISA's etc) receiving no other benefits. We need him to support himself and tbh it would be handy if he could afford more than the small amount of money he gives us each week. He feels he wants to do well for us and him and needs to as he has a massive personal loan to pay off(that he should never have been give but thats another story) as well as he is now paying off his student finance from Uni but that is peanuts compared to the loan.

Regarding the promotion there is none! To make the money you have to do what he does, he could become a supervisor and has been offered this but then he is on a fixed wage and won't be on commission based selling and would take home far less at the end of the day. I know he has only been there 7 months but that is a long time for this company, the attrition rate is horrendous. He wants to move to another company and has applied for other jobs outside that he knows he could do but most are asking for years rather than months of experience. I worry that he is becoming so demotivated he will just leave and I don't blame him. His points for the last quarter were giving him a bonus worth over 3k but just before the figures were produced they raised the targets leaving him with slightly over 1k.

I am just worried he will be going out of the frying pan into the fire. IME if it sounds too good to be true it usually is. They are promising [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM] 100k salaries etc.

Anyone else know/heard anything? Cheers.

dominicaeaton · 2 June 2011 at 10:28AM

Devere Group are a good company with solid reputation in the industry

dseventy · 2 June 2011 at 10:53AM

crazycurls wrote: »

We need him to support himself and tbh it would be handy if he could afford more than the small amount of money he gives us each week. He feels he wants to do well for us and him and needs to as he has a massive personal loan to pay off(that he should never have been give but thats another story) as well as he is now paying off his student finance from Uni but that is peanuts compared to the loan.

Regarding the promotion there is none! To make the money you have to do what he does, he could become a supervisor and has been offered this but then he is on a fixed wage and won't be on commission based selling and would take home far less at the end of the day. I know he has only been there 7 months but that is a long time for this company, the attrition rate is horrendous. He wants to move to another company and has applied for other jobs outside that he knows he could do but most are asking for years rather than months of experience. I worry that he is becoming so demotivated he will just leave and I don't blame him. His points for the last quarter were giving him a bonus worth over 3k but just before the figures were produced they raised the targets leaving him with slightly over 1k.

I am just worried he will be going out of the frying pan into the fire. IME if it sounds too good to be true it usually is. They are promising the moon 100k salaries etc.

Anyone else know/heard anything? Cheers.

I posted a long reply then deleted it as it justs reads harsh and its not my intention.

My basic point is that he is a young lad who presumably earns at least NMW, he should be able to pay you board (say £50 a week) and pay off a loan and have enough left over for his spending money.

It sounds to me like you are not being his parent and have clouded priorities for him.

It should be about whats best for him, not whats best for his parents who don't earn or work.

You have stated you want more money off him, state you don't "blame him" if he jacks in his job! Be a parent, support him, support him for him, not for anything else.

D70

suicidebob · 2 June 2011 at 11:52AM

If your son really is selling more in 1 day than others do in a month, then he doesn't have anything to worry about.

You say they keep lowering the bonuses, but it sounds like they only restructured this once - this is what happened in the previous company I worked for. Your son isn't being victimised.

A £1K bonus per quarter is pretty substantial, considering his lack of experience and previous history. He should be paying around £200 per month for lodgings, and should be able to easily manage this.

What if his sales don't look so good in the next quarter? He might have just had a lucky period. 7 Months isn't enough to convince an employer your son has credibility

TonyRover · 21 June 2011 at 4:21PM

crazycurls wrote: »

Has anyone any experience of these people?

As a client, yes. I was cold-called by them at work, and agreed to meet their representative. He seemed very upfront and straightforward, basically someone you could do business with. I signed up for a Generali Vision insurance policy. Then I got the investment document [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]. It was not going to be flexible and, assuming 5% p.a. growth over the term would take around a third of the term to break even. So I cancelled and saved some money.

[TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

CFC · 21 June 2011 at 8:28PM

7 months in sales is not sufficient for another employer to take him on. When he hits the 12 month he will be more successful.

MandaLocky · 10 August 2011 at 3:26PM

Hello,

I was recently made redundant from an investment banking job in the city. I applied for an IFA role with deVere group, they more or less got in touch with me straight away and I had a telephone interview with them on Monday. When I asked the HR representive some logical questions with regards to training and support available, I was somewhat suspicious when she advised me that the training for the role would be a 1 week intensive training course in Malta, she said I would have to cover the cost of the flights to Malta myself, additionally I would also have to cover the cost of flying out to my chosen destination of where I would be based....

I have previously applied for a job in the UAE and the bank who were interviewing me, covered the cost of all my travel and accomodation expenses.

I am not a qualified Financial Advisor in the UK so I was quite surprised when I was told that I would be able to start working straight away, upon completion of this week long course - with no formal qualification at the end of it....

I have been doing some research on the company myself over the last few days, [TEXT DELETED BY FORUM TEAM]

James_147 · 29 January 2013 at 12:50PM

Doies anyone have an update on the Devere Group - the financial investment company (not the hotels). Family member recently been approached by the for an interview

Mands · 30 January 2013 at 12:15PM

James_147 wrote: »

Doies anyone have an update on the Devere Group - the financial investment company (not the hotels). Family member recently been approached by the for an interview

As far as I'm aware little has changed with regards to their methods of operation or their reputation since this thread began.

You'll note that the thread has been edited numerous times by the forum team.

Mands

deVere group

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