By using Glassdoor, a website that gives employees the opportunity to tell their employers exactly what they think about working for them by leaving reviews, we're able to get an insight into how happy charity workers are with theiry employers.
As a crowdsourced site, it is often difficult to know whether or not how often these are genuine reviews and it is well documented that those who have had bad customer service experiences are more likely to leave reviews than those who have had good experiences.
However, when many of the comments touch on similar issues it is likely that many employees are having similar experiences.
When we did this before in 2016 we discovered that some of the most popular charities in terms of happiness were museums, international aid organisations and health charities, whilst service delivery charities were among the unhappiest, citing poor pay and working conditions.
But In 2019 however, there is a great deal more variety in the charities with the happiest staff, as well as the charities at the bottom end of the scale. Though many museums, health and international aid still charities rated highly, with 6 museums appearing in the top 25.
Like in 2016 we averaged staff rankings on the site for the largest charities, according to the rankings in our Charity Top 100, whilst ignoring those with fewer than five reviews.
Top 10
- Historic Royal Palaces
- Action for Children
- Education Development Trust
- British Heart Foundation
- Citizens Advice
- Sue Ryder
- Orders of St John Care Trust
- Hft
- WaterAid
- Oxfam
Historic Royal Palaces moved up from third to first overall with a score of 4.2 out of 5.
Staff said the charity was a “delightful place to work” and is a “phenomenal organisation with a great cause”. Multiple reviews highlighted that working there provided “great opportunities” to further your career. The one common negative among most reviews were that the hours were very long.
Action for Children came second in the top 100 charities on Glassdoor, with a total of 29 reviews rating the charity a score of 4.0 and 88 per cent would recommend working for Action for Children to a friend. Many reviews highlighted how highly the charity values its staff, while a number of comments highlight the difference they feel they are making by working for Action for Children, calling it “a place you can make a difference” as well as having “a really strong focus on doing the best for children and families.”
Chief people officer at Action for Children, Michael Knight, said: “Keeping our staff happy is an absolute priority for us. The more we can do to promote the happiness and wellbeing of our workforce, the richer we will be as an organisation.
“We will continue working with staff to strengthen their voice, encourage more of them to take part in decision-making, improve our reward and recognition package and make everyone feel proud to work here. Key for us an organisation, particularly with a large proportion of female staff, has been our flexible working policy, which incorporates part-time, term-time, job share and remote working.
“This year we’ll be launching a whole host of new initiatives to support staff including an option to buy and sell annual leave, a new benefits discount portal and subsidised access to a mindfulness website. We’re also planning a pilot course to train mental health first aiders and will continue promoting our recently-introduced mindfulness course, online support for healthy sleeping, eating and exercise, and cheap loans and debt advice.”
WaterAid continues to be rated highly by its staff, appearing in the top 10 both in 2016 and this updated list, as 49 reviewers gave it a score of 3.9. One employee of WaterAid said that there is a “collaborative, relaxed, friendly culture” while another stated that there was a “great working environment, friendly staff, nice office and real sense of purpose and commitment to the mission” as well as “great people focused on a shared mission”.
In response to our findings Gillian Guy, Chief Executive at Citizens Advice, which placed fifth overall, said: "We’re pleased to see that so many staff and volunteers, both in our national office and across local Citizens Advice offices, feel the organisation is a great place to work. Coming fifth in Civil Society’s ranking is a real testament to this - but we are not complacent.
“We’re passionate about helping people find their way forward - whoever they are, and whatever their problem. This passion is something our staff and volunteers demonstrate every single day."
At the bottom
The charity with the lowest score was social care charity Turning Point. 94 staff reviewers gave it an overall score of 2.0 citing issues with safeguarding, low pay, low staff morale and high caseloads with poor direction from management.
A spokesperson for Turning Point said: “The dedication, commitment and hard work of our employees enables us to deliver high quality services and so staff experience is very important to us. We don’t believe these reviews are an accurate reflection of the experiences of our 3,800 strong workforce as a whole.
“We have a range of mechanisms to gather feedback and we continue to listen and act on what our people are sharing with us. Unlike other organisations, we have not actively engaged with Glassdoor but this is something we may review.”
Some 65 reviews gave RNIB an average score of 2.4, with one reviewer stating that the “constant restructuring and redundancies mean moral is very low”, as well as “poor communication”.
In response to our research Hannah Lee, head of HR at RNIB, said: “At RNIB we want to be a great place to work for everyone.
“We regularly read the reviews on Glassdoor and use these, alongside a number of other tools such as one-to-ones and staff surveys, to listen to colleagues and make sure we're continually improving as an employer. However, we know we can be better and it's always helpful for us to learn about any negative experiences a former colleague has had.”
The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) also received low scores, averaging a review rating of 2.2. The problems most often highlighted as an issue were “a lack of transparency of decision making”, high staff turnover and high levels of bureaucracy.
An NMC spokesperson said that: “Our people are our greatest asset and we hugely value the work they do. We’re grateful that some of our employees have taken the time to give us feedback on Glassdoor and we know that there’s always more we can to ensure that we’re a great place to work.
“Central to that is our recently introduced people strategy that prioritises employee engagement and investment in our people. We’re excited about the plans we have for our future and we will continue to listen to and work closely with our colleagues.”
Scope scored an average of 2.5, with comments including “uncompetitive salaries”, “non-existent benefit packages”, “high staff turnover” and an “underlying current of bullying”
Janina Vallance, executive director of people and change at disability equality charity, said: “Our people are hugely important to us and fundamental to the delivery of our ‘Everyday Equality’ strategy. Following the transfer of our regulated and day services in April 2018, we relocated our London office to an accessible workplace that encourages an open and positive working culture.
“As an organisation we care deeply about the wellbeing of our people. We invest in services to support this such as our Employee Assistance Programme and undertake regular staff surveys. We continually strive to learn and improve. We listen to comments and encourage and act on open feedback. We recognise we’ve been through a massive period of change, and we are now moving ahead with our exciting new direction. We are working together to sustain a positive working environment.
“I’ve been at Scope for a few months now, and I’ve been struck by people’s commitment to living our values and their dedication to working together to achieve equality for disabled people”.
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