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Key Forensic Services

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Get enough experience for your CV then leave! - Laboratory Technician Key Forensic Services Employee Review

2.0
4 Jun 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Looks amazing on my CV. Amazing coworkers who are now lifelong friends. The heads of Toxicology and the head of R&D are friendly and highly experienced individuals.

Cons

Where do I start? The CEO made an entire department of 20+ individuals redundant, then joked that the room looked emptier than usual in a site meeting. Consistent COSHH and Home Office drug license violations. It took a 17-year-old apprentice (with no prior experience) to point this out to them. I would consistently raise potential issues to middle management, which were ignored due to their arrogance; these issues then actualised and caused significant disruption. An extremely low salary of £17,000. I earned far more working for BetFred. In what world does a cashier at a betting shop earn more than a forensic laboratory technician? Consistent hostility from laboratory middle management; coworkers would burst into tears almost daily due to this. Rapid staff turnover (unsurprisingly), it has been 2 years since I worked there, and only 2-3 of my original coworkers are still employed. My line manager consistently hyped up my performance in 1-1 meetings, then undermined me a week later in a meeting with the department head. This led to me being fired with no written warning due to a clause in my contract stating my probationary period was 2 years long, as opposed to the usual 6 months.

Explore other reviews about Key Forensic Services

5.0
1 Feb 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

The company is a good one to work for when you put in the time and effort into the Job, it’s not your average everyday office job and requires a high level of professionalism and a good work ethic. The management are very understanding of their staffs situations and try to accommodate the best they can while also ensuring the work for the company is covered too. There is great opportunities to progress in your career, I’ve seen lab techs become analysts and analysts become supervisors. Me personally have had the opportunity to train in a number of different areas of experience within my role.

Cons

The biggest Con that everyone says is the salary, which is lower than some other companies in the same sector for the level and type of work that is performed. However as a private sector company which has to turn a profit, they are very good at once a year (sometimes more) giving out their staff a pay rise to show the appreciation for all the hard work performed. Yes it’s frustrating for the staff to start on a lower wage, but everyone’s gotta start somewhere and for the level or experience most staff have coming into the job (most fresh out of Uni), it can’t be expected to be earning higher figure salaries.

1.0
17 Dec 2025
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

No pros. Quite simply a mistake to ever be there

Cons

Under valued Under paid Unrealistic expectations Supervisors gossip and are mean Supervisors think it’s popularity contest and don’t keep confidentiality

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