With a staff count of nearly 15,000, including volunteers, the RSPB know all about HR and looking after their staff….or so you would think.
Once candidate shared his recent experience of applying for a job as an £11.42p an hour ‘fundraising officer’, and it makes for shameful reading.
The role was to work three out of four weekends and commit to a robust sales target of £431,000 per annum.
The applicant, who we are choosing not to name, provided an application with an astonishing level of experience and details about the expectations of the job.
When he received a response from the RSPB’s HR department it immediately became clear they had not even looked at his CV details and instead told him only: “Many thanks for applying for the role of Wildlife Fundraiser. Unfortunately the position for this role has been filled.”
Somewhat taken aback by the curtness of the response, the candidate decided to raise the experience directly with the CEO, Beccy Speight. In that email he chose to outline some of the previous feedback published on HR website, Glassdoor. And it makes for shameful reading for any charity, let alone one as influential as the RSPB.
Some highlights of that public feedback include:
· “Abuse from management, harsh targets, not listened to by management, discrimination, pay very poor..” anon.
· “Sometimes many tiers of management.. before getting ideas past..” anon.
· “Not enough career progression opportunities..” anon.
· “Working alone almost every day..” anon.
· “Ludicrously underpaid even for the charity sector, barely enough to live on (and I know some site staff had very high salaries).” anon.
· “Very unhappy workforce with high turnover of staff..” anon
· `Middle Management are morons. anon
RSPB Reviews. 78 • Poor. Trust pilot score: 1.9 over 5 stars ratings
The candidate then pointed out what former senior staff had said about working at the charity.
What do RSPB's supporters and former senior employees think about the organisation?
· “..The jobs of hundreds of staff have been reviewed, some posts and people are going, others are having to choose between new jobs they don’t much fancy and not having a job at all.” Paul Avery Sept 2024
· “..people thinking of leaving a legacy: we’re so useless we can’t even manage our own nature reserves effectively – support some other charity! If that is what’s proposed the RSPB’s enemies are going to have a field day.” Bob (anon)
· “..Will membership growth continue once boomers have popped their clogs?” Executive Chair regional wildlife trust
It looks like it is not just the public who realise the RSPB has a real problem, but their own supporters and staff too.
Again, when these issues were raised with CEO, along with some extremely detailed suggestions of improvements that could be made, the response was damming. Rather than even respond herself, Beccy Speight had her PA, Kate Milne (she/her/hers), reply only: “I am responding on behalf of Beccy Speight to acknowledge receipt and thank you for your email and the material you have included.
Best wishes
Kate”
There is no way a privately run organistion would adopt such a disinterested approach to their own internal management and recruitment. The RSPB seem to take their existence for granted, with little attention to the toxic corrosiveness inside the charity.
It begs the question, if the charity are so arrogant about their recruitment and don’t listen to any of the constructive feedback it receives then why on earth should anybody – the public or policymakers – pay any attention to anything it says anymore?
Its record speaks for itself. The sooner the charity is closed down the better everyone will be, not least the UK’s wildlife.