British Heart Foundation Reviews

Pros

Collegaues and immediate line managers were among the best people I've ever met and were pleasure to work with. Company offers coniderable benefits package - 30 days holiday, gym subsidy, dental insurace and the like.

Cons

Before anything else is said I would like to mention to whoever might be reading this that this review portrays the situation specificly at Ebay department in Leeds, please consider this while reading the overall reviews for BHF which are mostly made for jobs at local stores and by volounteers which might not neccesarily be indicative of what awaits you at Ebay position. Over my nearly five years working at BHF I've been witness to the slow, gradual decline of the company from the best place I've ever worked at to a very unique blend of a ruthless corporation and charity organization which somehow manages to offer the very worst of both worlds without the benefits of either. Upper management seems obssesed with targets and will push hard for high performance completely disregarding the reality of the situation on the ground, stock levels are often times simply too low or of too low quality to consistently achieve demanded targets and while on the surface level management will acknowledge that there is a problem they will still require you to meet the demands all the same - whether by rushing at exausting pace or worse by processing stock that has no chance of getting actually sold just so that the numbers on the end of week report excell sheet look good. There isn't much to be said about career progression or development because those simply do not exist, everything ends on dangling empty promises of promotions and useless in-house courses that never end with anything substanial. Current staff is most of the times overlooked or completely ignored when better vacancies open. I wouldn't have to use fingers on both of my hands to count the number of people that got advanced to a higher a role during my time at BHF. Especially in recent years the company has been increasingly having this sweatshop feel with the ever higher employee turnover, disregard for long standing loyal employees that still choose to remain and difficult work enviroment with poor equipment - all this while offering salary that is below market average. When asking about pay, equipment or suggesting changes to the way stock and work in general are being handled the suggestions and ideas are quickly dismissed under the argument of BHF being a charity and being unable to afford any investment into the staff all the while openly boasting about record high sales week after week in the company communcations - however when talking to you about targets and performance BHF undergoes momentary transformation into "we are business and we need to make money" resulting in nothing ever changing aside from staff morale consistently sinking. While my time at BHF has been an overall good memory, mostly because of the early years and friends I've made at it's current state I would say it's probably decent enough as a part-time job for a student or someone looking for something quickly while in-between jobs but I could not in good faith recommend this company for anyone looking to start a meaningful career.

Pros

The BHF is very focused on their values to be brave, compassionate, driven and informed and promote a good work environment in which these values can be expressed. The blend between Charity and Retail leaves an interesting and friendly community dynamic with full time employees, volunteers and supporters/donors. Ultimately working toward the goal to "Beat Heartbreak Forever" adds value and pride to the work that you are doing. Healthy work-life balance with realistic opening and closing times. Good opportunities for volunteers to progress into paid roles.

Cons

Low pay for an Assistant Manager role, with not many opportunities to progress upwards from the position. Largely hands off on some of the big decisions that affect your day-to-day operations.

Pros

Excellent people to work with, seeing the great research work that results from the income raised. Leadership which enables you to do your best work.

Cons

The challenges of working in a pandemic.

Pros

Good sized company, lots of interesting projects

Cons

Severely lacking in technical and project resources. No staff pay rises in two years (not even at inflation rate)