CEO of one of UK’s largest car dealerships who secretly worked at his own firm for Undercover Big Boss reveals he was surprised by employees who lacked confidence and realised maternity pay needed to be higher
- Robert Forrester, chief executive of Bristol Street Motors will appear on show
- Adopted the persona of history lecturer called Tom Gough to watch employees
- Says the most shocking thing was noticing his employees lack of confidence
The CEO of one of UK’s largest car dealership groups said there’s been ‘a lot of change’ at his company since appearing on Undercover Big Boss.
Robert Forrester, chief executive of Bristol Street Motors, one of the largest car dealership groups in the UK, decided to secretly watch his employees after expanding his business during the pandemic.
He posed as a history lecturer in search of a new career to film the global hit series, which has been rebooted for ITV after originally being aired on Channel 4.
Appearing on This Morning today, Robert said that after working among his employees he decided to enhance maternity pay, and introduce programmes to stop lack of ‘confidence’ blocking career progression.
Robert Forrester, chief executive of Bristol Street Motors, one of the largest car dealership groups in the UK, will appear on Undercover Big Boss tomorrow evening
Robert adopted the persona of history lecturer called Tom Gough, who was supposedly making a documentary about looking for a career change, post pandemic
‘One thing we’ve done is enhanced maternity pay, that was something I don’t think we got completely right,’ said Robert.
‘The big finding for me was there was a lot of talented people, but they didn’t have the confidence to progress their careers.’
Robert has since put in place leadership schemes to help employees advance in their career, but said that he wasn’t ‘majorly shocked’ with any of his workers or company policies.
‘We ended up at the end of the programme having a meeting seeing what was good, bad what we needed to sort out. Nothing majorly shocked me to be honest,’ he said.
Appearing on This Morning today, Robert said that after working among his employees he decided to enhance maternity pay
He told hosts Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford (left) he has put in place leadership schemes to help employees advance in their career, but said that he wasn’t ‘majorly shocked’ with any of his workers or company policies
The four-part series will see bosses from across the UK roll up their sleeves and join workers on the bottom rung of the ladder, with the second episode airing tomorrow at 9pm.
With 149 dealerships across the UK and over 6,000 employees, Robert’s company was selling one car every four minutes. When the pandemic hit, he was forced to close his dealerships and furlough the workforce.
But with other businesses downsizing, Robert took a gamble and purchased 30 new dealerships, investing millions of pounds of shareholders’ money.
To ensure his staff were working to the best of their ability, Robert adopted the persona of history lecturer called Tom Gough, who was making a documentary about looking for a career change, post-lockdown.
He revealed that while nobody questioned his appearance, his voice did give him away to a few employees while filming.
As a self-confessed ‘data geek’ who graduated from Oxford, Robert had never actually worked on the shop floor or sold a car in his life
At one point in the show, Robert was faced with employee Gervan who teared up over the difficulty to achieve his sales targets, revealing that ‘nobody asked if he was okay’ after not selling a car for nine months
As a self-confessed ‘data geek’ who graduated from Oxford, Robert had never actually worked on the shop floor or sold a car in his life.
At one point in the show, Robert is faced with an employee who tears up while opening up about the difficulty to achieve his sales targets, revealing that ‘nobody asked if he was okay’ after not selling a car for nine months.
‘That was probably the trickiest moment of the programme’, said Robert. ‘Because he was upset. He’s actually a very talented sales guy, so we had to decide how to handle that.
When asked whether he was shocked to see the day-today of employees at his company, he replied: ‘Not really.
‘Im used to travelling around the dealerships and with the lockdown I hadn’t been able to, so I jumped at the chance I thought it was a fantastic opportunity.’
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