I sympathise with the above. I worked - briefly, very bruefly - for the company and can honestly say this is not unusual practise.

IBDG offers 'trageted stratergy meetings' with companies 'who have expressed an interest in your company's product'. They promise (during the initial call) 7-13 meetings 'so prepare for a busy day'.

All good. no?

Let me start with the new hopeful employee joining IBDG. He or she will be interviewed by either the Company or Sales Director in a cafe around the corner from the office 'because it's to busy in there, you can't hear yourself think'.

This cnadidate will be responding to an advertisment from a company called Aida Recruitment. Check the website. Aida promote themselves as a recruitment agency for jobs in the EC1-EC5 area.

After your meeting with the IBDG director, you are rung by Aida to ascertain what you think. If you do not give the 'right' answer it goes no further.

Ther is only one or two interviews. Once you have started (and gotten over the shock of the office which looks like a travel bucket shop) Aida will ring you again to find out what you think. Again your future depends on giving the 'right' answer (ie. everything's great, positive, am looking foward to get going etc).

If at any time you give the honest answer you are sacked. You see, Aida oes not exist. It is one girl in the IBDG offic next to the company director. The jobs they advertise are asll for the IBDG Londn office on Gower Street. It is all the same job but marked as at 'Farrendon' or 'The Barbican' or 'EC1'.

The new starter is expected to make 120 calls a day using a turgid four page script from which you cannot divert. At all. IBDG specialises in areas of IT, Human Resources, Financial Sevices, Pensions, etc. A team of four or five individuals to each sector.

The canddate is given a contract of employment which states you canot work for another company like IBDG when you leave and cannot complain about IBDG when you are gone.

Illegal.

If you do not sign, you are fired.

Sales leads are taken from magazine advertisments, other events with no reference to the Corporate Preference Service. The reason why IBDG was so keen to seal the deal early is that the company's dogma is 'get them on the first call'. If they ask for some proof the line is 'Well, I can send you a PDF but we are extremely protective of our unique (sic) business model. What is it that is troubling you?'

Anything to get the sign up there and then.

All calls are recorded by the candidate on a hand held recorder (supposedly for training purposes) and also on disc at head office (Milton Keynes) for sales leads. The company you are talking to are not told this.

This breaks OFCOM rules.

Sickness policy is interesting. Your contract tates you must phone the company director but gives you no phone number. If you do manage to have the misfortune of falling ill, you are called by the office on your first day of sickness to ask when you are coming back.

This is against recent EU laws and can be construed as undue pressure. Indeed, the Sales Trainer broke her leg and was told if she did not turn up on the second day of her injury she would not have a job to come back to.

The Sles Director broke his Achiles tendon and was given a similar ultimaum.

During the phone call to an interested company, the agent will ask the company who they consider their competition 'so I make sure no one here books them, we've got a massive office you see'. They then ring these other companies and say the first company is interested so 'you should be'. If anything is mentioned on the day of the meetings, the first company is told that 'Unfortunately when we talked they were aready booked'.

The 7-13 meeting in reality is about 3 (if you are lucky). On the day the sales agents run around trying to fix up any meeting with anybdy. In other words, a complete waste of time. Business from these meetings is scarce.

The reason for the high pressure/underhand selling is these IBDG agents are given little or no training and 3 months (on the outside) to make a sale. If they dn't. they are sacked. Staff turnover is at about 95%.

Look at the IBDG website. There is no accreditation from any company. If they send you their PDF with a list of companies who have used IBDG. What they don't tell you is that is the list is about 90% delegates. They are invited for free under false pentenses of a topic they might be interested in, a free lunch, etc.

I was once witnes to one f their managers falsifying a 'Green Agenda' to get a sale. Complaints would be dealt ith on th day. Lest you think this be a new member of staff, this as someone who was the Company Director's right hand woman and had been there five years.

IBDG's London office failed (to a heavy fine) the local Council's Health and Safety inspection. (Employers' Insurance was not considered necessary.) Their details were reported to the DTI. They have gone through two Sales Directors in two years.

Should the Company Director of IBDG see this (a paranoid, volatile man) and wish to dispute this (under a psuedonym as his is usual practise) all the above is documented. Those hand sized recorders come in handy for things other than taping calls.

Avoid this company (whether you are a prostective employee or a prospective advertiser) like the plague.

Sir, you have my condolescences.

Former Employee

I also worked at IBDG and to say they are short term in their thinking is to put it mildly.

The organisation is nothing short of shambolic. The MD is too tight with his money to invest in quality software to ensure the matching process actually works. What you are left with is what is known as blagging on the phone, i.e lying to prospects. Coupled with some very smooth talkers than you have some semblance of a business.

I am suprised the company is still operating. The whole operation is based on a premise of lie to the delegates to attend, lie to prospects by telling them the directors are interested in your services and then hope for the best at the event. It is all about lying on the phone and by speaking to enough people, you will eventually smooth talk a mug punter.

There is no planning, direction or training for staff just a bucket shop with people who believe they are joining a quality company. They realise their mistake very quickly and the turnover is nothing short of shocking. The MD if you can call him that is nothing short of a shyster.

He is aware of the lying and he is happy as long as money comes into his pocket.

You have been warned !!!

Yes, I totally agree with formers comments. I used to work there too. The training is practically non-existent, and 95% staff turnover, I would describe as pretty accurate.

AIDA is the same company as IBDG. It is their recruitment arm, although I don't know if they recruit for any other companies.

I was given a pitch about much money you can earn etc etc.

It's all one big scam, with people hired and fired for fun.

There business model, is not to invest in staff, but to rather, hire and fire staff.

It happens all the time and happened to me too.

They do illegally record calls, and bullshit a lot on the phone. You are epxected to get past the gatekeeper, and speak to the highest person in every company. If you don;t pitch the CEO of the firm, and happen to pitch the Marketing Director for example, it doesn;t count.

Maybe I got IBDG wrong. Maybe after all this time, they have turned a corner and are in fact a truthful, factual, prosperous company that looks after its staff.

Then again maybe not.

In response to this thread, IBDG have released a semi literate and ill conceived piece of PR on a couple of websites stating how wonderful they are. One of the more spurious 'facts' quoted in the release is that IBDG have grown '60% despite the rececession'. This being when the country's GDP is only 0.1% and China, probably the world's biggest economy, posted figures of 8.9%.

IBDG has grown 60%.

Incredible. Mal Donnelly has obviously hit upon a winning formula and surely is more deserving of the position of Business Czar than the current encumbent Sir Alan Sugar. (After all, he is more used to saying 'You're fired' than Sir Alan.)

In fact, I have posted this thread and Mr Donnelly's PR to the offices of the Prime Minsiter, David Cameron and Nick Clegg (who I met recently through a different matter) suggesting not quite that but that something along the lines of 'Please look at this'.

Similarly, I have given copies of all my evidence to my MP (who was 'apalled' after hearing of their practises) to knock on a few doors to stop this flouting of the law/exploiutation of staff.

I suppose I should tell you a little about myself: I have over 10 years experience in the new technlogy marketplace, starting a 150 seat call centre from scratch (including customer service and sales training) and was awarded 'Investor In People' in the first year; a feat which only a third of businesses achieve. The company grew and attracted the interest of one of those Russian oligarchs and the structure and atmosphere inevitably changed. Our staff rotation climbed to 33% whereas my department - despite it being a sales environment, traditionally a higher turnover - had a 93% staff retention.

That's staff retention, IBDG.

The company was eventually sold and I was the proverbial 'last man out' who switched off my lights. I looked for another challenge and fell for IBDG's lies.

That and its unethical and illegal activities did not sit well with me.

I also confess to having a Lone Ranger syndrome. I would hate other people to be taken in as were I and my colleagues on this thread.

As usual with IBDG, the release carries very few truths. Let's have a look at some facts:

The release states the London office has grown by 50 staff in 2009 and has plans to tak on a further 75 in 2010. That office is not big enough to accommoate more than 40 staff. So let's say there was a base level of 30 staff when these new ones joined, not only will they be packed in there so tight they would be looking at sardines enviously, I would sggest they would be exceeding the levels of their insurance.

As I mentioned previously, it is also a fact that IBDG did not see fit to have any employer insurance. Indeed, a varifiable fact (rare when you're talking about IBDG) is that they failed the local council health and safety check, not only due to the stateof the office (which has all the charm of a public urinal), its lack of insurance and its sickness policy.

By the way, those self same numbers of 'new staff' were quoted to me at my interview four years ago. Exact same numbers, exact same nerw overseas offices.

I guess some things do not change. Of course, Mal does not say how many of those new staff have since been fired. Going on past form, it would be 95%. That 60% growth is looking more and more questionable, isn't it?

I would suggest that any company who is onsidering taking part in one of their seminars or any employee thinking about joining, check with the council. IBDG had been going four years before they were fprced to get employers insurance and this from a company that purports to be (according to the release) a place that is great to work at/return to.

As usual with IBDG, the returning staff member quoted is unnamed and therefore unprovable.

In the release Mal Donnelly quotes a number of blue chip companies who have used IBDG by way of proof of the company's professionalism. Notice he does not distinguish if these companies were delegates or sponsors. We have already spoken on this thread about the duplicitous ways they attract sponsors.

Do these companies know their reputation is being used so cavalierly to prop up what amounts to an illegal sweat shop? I would suggest that companies of this calibre have a responsability to their workers but also their agents and people who use their name.

Any company considering attending as a delegae or sponsor should do due dilgence. Visit the office spontaneously, after all you are investing over £10,000 in this. The office is at Laser House, 2nd Floor, 132-140 Goswell Road, London, EC1V 3DY.

I am sure we (ex employees) are being branded as 'a few malcontents'. The reason why there are so few here is because of the IBDG contract. As I did not sihgn it, I feel no need to keep it private.

Indeed, my solicitor took one look at same and said 'it is asking you to sign away your basic human rights'.

For example, 'Normal hours of work will be from Monday to Friday 9.00 am to 17.30 pm Monday to Friday, with a one hour break for lunch each day...' Once you start, you are told that to get enough leads fopr yourself you will be expected to work at least another two, three hours a day scouring the web or magazines for advertisments/contacts or 'you won't have enough leads and you will be fired'.

As I said earlier, IBDG refused - despite me quoting this contract twice in leters to thm - to pay me holiday I had accrued. They said they 'had not received my letters'. Funny, they did receive the Employment Tribunal's letter that followed.

Again from the contract 'On the first day of any absence due to sickness or injury, the employee must inform Mal Donnelly by 9am...' Unfortunately you are not given Mal's number even if you ask for it.

Also 'The Company reserves the right to dismiss an Employee during sickness absence regardless of continued entitlements to statutory sick pay.'

That is also illegal.

Under 'Confidentiality' it states 'It is an express condition of this agreement that, at all times (both during and after th termination of Employee's employment), the Employee shall keep secrets of the Company, and shall not divulge or make known to anyone whomsoever, or use for the benefit of anyone (other tha the Company) any of the secrets of the Company or any information of a confidential nature relating in any way to the Company's databases, he Company's products and services. Client or supplier lists, finances or personal information relating to tjhe Company or supplier, Director or Employee of the Company.'

Al;so 'The Company does not recognize any trade union and so there are no collective agreements in place to the Employee's emplyment, nor are there any work plave agreements'.

This is from a company that held a seminar recently called 'Retaining and Development Talented Key People'. Hypocracy is the least of IBDG's crimes.

I asked arlier if those blue chip companies knew of all this; they do now. Also, as a dutiful tax payer, I feel it is only right that the Inland Revenue know of IBDG's 60% growth as well.

Please beware of this company.

I don't normally comment on petty discussion groups like this, but all of the above is pretty unfair and completely one sided... I'm actually surprised the moderators let it stay!

I work at IBDG and yeah, there's a high turn-over of staff, but those people cant cut it. It's sales, It’s tough and the rewards are high. This environment will suit only the most talented individuals and those DO succeed. The people we sell to are experienced professionals who do their own due diligence and are not spending their own money but marketing budget designated for generating sales. Like it’s staff, IBDG treats its clients with respect and the intelligence they have to make informed decisions.

People are sacked or leave IBDG because they haven’t the talent our strong leadership look for. For your information we have now moved office and have full insurance and can more than accommodate projected growth. Any previous issues were an over-sight and dealt with swiftly by the company lawyer who did a full audit and implemented changes. There are plenty of successful and happy people at IBDG. I happen to know of one individual who returned after maternity leave – if that’s not commitment to a company they clearly like working for, I don’t know what is!

As for recording of calls; yes this is done “for training purposes only” and perfectly within the law. You will be aware of the recorded message when you call a bank/ insurance company which stipulates that calls may be recorded in this fashion. I would say this demonstrates IBDG invests in training and developing its staff as well as improving the already exceptional product!

Well well, it must be Mal replying. Lets have a closer look at the above response.
"
work at IBDG and yeah, there's a high turn-over of staff, but those people cant cut it. It's sales, It’s tough and the rewards are high. This environment will suit only the most talented individuals "

Talented individuals, do you mean people who can fabricate over the phone. That is what I was told to do. Rewards are high, when I was an employee, three or four longserving members were doing ok. The rest were scratching a living.

I recall having to provide references and struggling on numerous occasions, even though the business had been trading for five years and had signed up hundreds of clients. No exageration.

IBDG treat their clients with respect. I certainly did not, I had to lie to get a deal and then face the clients wrath at the event.

The only saving grace for IBDG at the event is that the account handlers work like crazy to arrange additional meetings. I am sure without this process there would be a higher number of complaints from clients.

Companies do have limited success, but what the salesman presents is way of the mark in terms of targetting. Lets face it if it was so successful, why do IBDG have to cold call so aggressively ?

Why are companies not calling IBDG if it so successful ? Also 10-15 qualified 1-2-1 meetings is surely worth more than 10-15k.

Why has the website not changed in five years.

IBDG treat people with respect !

I have never witnessed people being treated so unproffesionaly
in my 30 odd years. Truly disgusting, the MD has no loyalty to anyone.

One of Mal's closet colleagues, had a baby and was then denied her job. It would be interesting to find out how many people
have taken IBDG to a tribunal.

IBDG now has employee insurance, well done. What do you want a certificate for complying with the law.

Comparing banks and other companies who record telephone calls.

Hello dimwit, they let you know when you call thereby not breaking Ofcom rules.

This demonstrates that IBDG invests in staff. Well they obviously have not invested in you as you would know, you are making no sense.

If you are seduced into working with them. I suggest you ask for succesful case studies from satisfied customers.

Nice try Mal

Message from IBDG UK

It’s not unusual for anonymous postings on sites such as Daniweb to act as a route for former employees to complain about firms they used to work for and perhaps to seek to seek some form of revenge when they feel they have been hard done by. Such human reactions are understandable and, given such motives, it’s not surprising that contributions may be more emotive than factual.

But, as a matter of record, IBDG wants to correct a number of inaccuracies that contributors to this string seek to make fact by repetition:
• The firm’s London office has never failed a Health and Safety inspection
• It has never been fined as a result of such a failure
• All the firm’s insurance obligations are and always have been in place

It’s regrettable that people who have left us, sometimes because they found the high performance culture of our business difficult for them, may want to try and harm our business and so hurt the 150 people who now work for us in our offices in London, Milton Keynes, Amsterdam and Berlin.

The last two years have seen the most challenging business environment that has been seen in this country in living memory.

The start of the period coincided with a reorganisation of sales management in London under a new management team who initiated a new performance management programme. At the same time a number of senior sales staff were recruited whose task was to grow the business rapidly. These staff were drawn from a wide range of backgrounds, all of which were strongly sales orientated, as is our business. Unfortunately, not all of them proved as readily adaptable as we and they had hoped to the new environment they found themselves in and this, together with the economic background, meant that a number of them subsequently left the company.

Following their departures, the IBDG business has grown successfully. From a small core team at the beginning of 2008, the firm’s London office is now 65 strong and works from 6,500 square feet of office space in Queen Street, in the City, close to the Bank of England. In all, IBDG now has a team of 150 people and as well as operations in London and Milton Keynes has offices in Amsterdam and Berlin.

We make no apologies for being a business that is ambitious, that seeks to achieve much and likes to work with people who have similar aspirations.

We are sorry for those ex-employees who did not enjoy their experience with us. While the period we went through together was undoubtedly difficult and painful for some, it was exhilarating and satisfying for many others. We wish those who have left us well in the new career that they have chosen.

I am also a former employee of IBDG. Spin and lies were commonplace during my experience there. This is why the last statement posted here means absolutely nothing to me. It sounds great to the reader who doesn't know the organisation, but there's nothing behind it at all.

When I questioned the lies I was told to relay to potential clients on the phone, I was told by my sales manager that's just called being 'clever' in this industry. That being said, the client satisfaction ratio during the several events I attended was about 1 happy to 6 unsatisfied and even livid. The event was successful for some occasionally but it was usually due to the persistence of the client or the rep that was taking care of them on the day of the event.

This type of company is the perfect example of who I wouldn't want to be associated with, ever again.

Well, well. You go on holidayy for a couple of weeks and all sorts of people start hanging around here. And I'm not talking about Former Truth but rather IBDG Employee and IBDG.

Firstly, let me congratulate Former Truth and Marshall Scott. They give a very accurate picture of what it is like to be in the middle of IBDG.

Secondlly, I agree with Marshall Scott. IBDG Employee is undoubtedly Mal Donnelly, IBDG's CEO (even though he tried to 'street it up' by putting a couple of 'yeahs' in there). The IBDG post will be Mal's solicitors, Gillian Rolls associates.

Looking at Mal's post first...His line that 'Yeah, there's a high number of staff turnover but those people can't cut it'.

Charming. That's the CEO, folks. Not 'IBDG wasn't right for them' or 'They didn't fit in at this time'. Just they 'couldn't hack it'.

Let me add another category in there, Mal. 'Those who couldn't stand it anymore.' Couldn't stand anymore the sale-at-all-costs atmosphere, the constant hustling, the constant lying to clients.

Sales is not a job one has to be ashamed of anymore. It is respectacle occupation because the majority of companies sell with ethics and integrity. Not the way IBDG does it.

It is true, as Former Truth and Marsahall Scott said, that on the day of the event any success is more than down to the hard work of the staff. Mal prowls the hotel like a cat and screams a you if one of the sponsors is sitting there without an appopintment. When you point out they weren't scheduled one, he will just say 'Find one'. This usually means a helpful employee from one of the councils.

A number of councils are invited to attend as delegates and will send one employee on a fact finding mission. They are usually more than willing to sit and listen to someone's presentation (even though they have no real interest in it). I kid you not. So if you wre a sponsor and made a presentation to a council and it never got anywhere, that might be your answer!

By the way, while wandering around the sponsors nd delegates, Mal will not identify himself. Strange, no? I wonde what he is afraid of?

The OFCOM comment doesn't bear commenting upon' the depth of ignorance in IBDG is staggering. But remember, ignorance of the law is no defence.

Next, to the IBDG response. It is incredibly rich to criticise anominity on this thread when both the company CEO and his solicitors use it as well. Anominity is both a right and a necessity I would have thought if you had signed the draconian IBDG Contract of Employment which, if you recall, not only disallows divulging 'company secrets' but restricts the employee's next employment. (see my previous posts.)

You will forgive me but the soplicitors lack credabilty with me. They were the ones who told me IBDG had not received my first two letters but did receive notification (the third letter) from the Employment Tribunal. Just imagine how many big cheques IBDG are missing out on if they are only getting two out of every three letters? How much bigger could their much touted growth be if only for a better postal system?

Trotting out the excuse 'that was a previous management's fault' is not only blisteringly unimaginative but it such an old get out, it is practically a dinosaur.

Would this be the the first sales director? the second? or the third? that IBDG has had in three years? Of the fourth that Aida is currently advertising for?

I'm not sure how they would take to being categorized as the problem when we have already had a taste of the CEO's attitude and is a comment that as solicitors you should know i dangerously close to libel.

With the comment from IBDG about always upkeeping health and safety, well, I'm afraid we are going to disagree. When my colleague left IBDG and reported the company to the council's Environmental Health, he asked if I would back hm up. That Environmental Health Department was unable to cntact me by phone at the time and sent me an email after their inspection. They confirmed the areas of defecit that were rauised with them - namely, the convoluted wiring everywhere, the lack of an accident book and company health and safety policy and that there was no insurance. This email has a name, job title and duirect phone number to it. They asked of me whether I could supply evidence of another area of concern, that IBDG forced its employees back to work from being sick.

Whether I supplied the concil with the evidence is moot. However, as previously discussed, the IBDG Contract of Employment states 'The Company reserves the right to dismiss an Employee during sickness absence regardless of continued entitlements to statutory sick pay' so what do you think?

The above email is wth my solicitor.

Again, we hear of IBDG's growth. If it is so, it is built upon a foundation of disgruntled employees, illegal Contracts of Employment and more than a few lies.

I look forward to the stated growth figures being reflected in IBDG's returns to Company House. (These are available to all for a nominal fee.) I will be looking.

In relation to absolutely nothing at all, I include the following information:

OFCOM is available from 9.00 to 17.00 Monday to Friday on 0300 123 3333.

The Employment Tribunal is on 0845 795 9775. Their central London office is on 0207 273 8603.

Any complaint about any company should be directed to th CIB. That is the Companies Investigation Branch located at 21 Bloomsbury Street, London, W1B 3WD. Their phone number is 0207 596 6100 and their email address is enquiry@cib.gsi.gov.uk

If you have any problems with a solicitor, there is the Solicitors Regulation Authority on 0870 606 2555.

I refuse to believe that any company that uses a fake recruitment agency to gather staff and does not identify themselves as for IBDG solely, has changed. (In fact, Aida bills itself as an agency that covers 'top jobs for companies within the EC1-EC5 area'.) It even uses Aida to procure information from the employee on what they think of IBDG.

How can you as a company start with your employees from a position of mistrust?

I also refuse to believe that any company that uses such a horrendous (and illegal) Contract of Employment has suddenly developed a caring side.

This is also reinfoced by a former colleague of mine having just left IBDG. He took the job against my advice and said, after leaving, that everything I and the othe legitimate posters have said is still true.

Two final thoughts: the first, if there are any IBDG Managers reading this you should be aware that one Manager still working there is on 47K basic and one who left was on 45K. Knowing Mal as I do, I'm sure there are a few not on anythin like that. Ths is your ideal time to confront Mal. IBDG, we assured, have gone through unprecedented growth and you have obviously played a part in it. It is the ideal time to ask for wage parity.

The second, this whole thread started off with IT George. His complaint has been on this bopard since September. Surely someone at IBDG is concerned? I prided myself on never having one dis-satisfied customer. This 'new' IBDG should have contacted IT George months ao to see if they could resolve his issues? That is what any good, professional, client orientated company would do, isn't it? It is too late now but what about taking advantage of this company growth and refunding his £17,000?