Undercover Boss - Episode 3 - Paddy Power

First broadcast:
Monday 16 July 2012 at 21:00
Channel 4
Studio Lambert Ltd.

Well, I decided to watch this programme because I had got myself all settled down ready to watch The Riots: In Their Own Words on BBC2.  Unfortunately, a court judge prevented this programme being shown (grrr), so I switched over to Undercover Boss.

For those who have never seen it, Undercover Boss involves someone who is very high up in a company, such as the director, going undercover and posing as a new employee in their own company.  They do the dirty work at the bottom of the chain, and get a feel of what it is like, and what needs to be changed in order to increase profitablity.  They then invite the employees they met to head office (in this case - "Power Tower" - oh dear), and put right the wrongs they discovered.  This is usually in the form of a pay rise, or a free holiday.

I actually think the concept is really strong - it is really interesting to see how the big guys cope doing the dirty jobs - but only if the company are prepared to research into every branch and every employee in their chain, to make a fair change.  

Paddy Power has 400 branches, yet the undercover boss, William Reeve posing as Sam Palmer, only visited 3 or 4 of these shops, and met around 5 employees.

Yes, it is wonderful that he was able to meet these employees needs' and reward them for their hard work and effort.  I am not saying that these people do not deserve it, but what about the large number of other employees that "Sam" did not bother going to meet? They could be more hard-working and in more need of help.

One employee got given the chance to go and work in a branch in Australia, after his application to change jobs within the company had previously been lost.  Had they checked if any other applications had been lost? How could they?

Two other employees got given a £5000 holiday each for them and their families.  He then issued a company-wide extra day's holiday.  It's hardly the same thing.

One manager was thanked for her hard work and told that the company would put £20,000 into relaunching her shop.  Yes, this is beneficial to the company, and not just one employee, but 1 shop of 400 is hardly a monumental change.

I would be very intrigued to see a follow up programme to all episodes in the Undercover Boss series, highlighting the differences the show has made to the individual companies.  I worry that this programme would only consist of a couple of refurbished shops and some holiday snaps.

I think the idea behind the programme is genius, but conducting company-wide research is one aspect that I would like the programme to introduce in future series.

Image from www.channel4.com/programmes/undercover-boss