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IMPACT Initiatives

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Avoid unless you want in country experience - Anonymous employee IMPACT Initiatives Employee Review

1.0
2 Sept 2024
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

- Talented national staff - Good annual leave (36 days) - Decent benefits and pay if you are a young professional that is international staff (salary, housing allowance in some contexts, per diem, flights 2x per year, good health insurance)

Cons

- HQ support functions are nonsense. HR in particular is totally useless. Regularly don't respond to you for weeks at a time about serious contractual matters, are rude, cannot assist staff with basic things that they are meant to. - Many staff are working remotely from countries (for example, you may be based in Jordan working for the Yemen mission) but you are actively not allowed to work from your actual home country due to a no work from home policy, which makes little sense) - Many international staff are working in countries without proper documentation or paperwork which is very problematic. - Mostly young, white and much less experienced international staff are hired in senior management positions. Highly capable and intelligent national staff are rarely promoted and are paid significantly much less. This leads to high staff turnover and a lot of dissatisfaction. - Country directors are often inexperienced, are not people managers, are often very immature. This influences the overall view people have of Impact in the sector. Overall the organisation has a poor image in the sector exactly for this reason.

Explore other reviews about IMPACT Initiatives

2.0
25 June 2023
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

Depending on base, the work can be interesting. Quality of data/research varies, but is often well-presented. High career mobility (but varies, not based on skill/experience but on filling staffing gaps as they arise)

Cons

Chronically understaffed, often leading employees to work 70+ hours a week, at low wages. This is the standard, not the exception. -Very poor work-life balance, high rates of burnout. Poor benefits and living conditions. -HQ is out of touch, in every sense. They are not helpful when issues arise and expect the burntout staff in-country to handle everything by just working more and sacrificing their personal life and mental health. -You can request 'surge' support from HQ, but rarely will it happen. Even if your mission can afford the surge, they prioritise which missions they support based on how much money the mission brings to HQ and their political/financial interests. -They are primarily concerned with expanding their portfolio, not with implementing quality projects or filling information gaps. -Cult-like dedication required to the organisation and your complaints will be ignored or reframed to gaslight you. -High-skilled national staff rarely get opportunities to expatriate, however they pretend this is a goal of theirs. -HR/Finance units at HQ are understaffed and often don't even respond to your requests/questions. -They will lie shamelessly during recruitment process.

17
1.0
11 Apr 2019
Anonymous employee
Recommend
CEO approval
Business outlook

Pros

If you need a job, this is a job. Get six months of experience and then move on.

Cons

- They are primarily concerned with expanding their portfolio, not with implementing quality projects. - There is no clear system of promotion. Some people get fast-tracked to higher management within six months and others are left doing the work of a manager but denied the promotion. This exists across multiple countries and programs. - They severely understaff their projects so everyone is forced to work around the clock. - They pressure employees to skip their vacations and expect people to work through burn out. - One senior manager grossly mismanaged a project and made considerable effort to cover up and then blame others for the problems he created. The same manager regularly made veiled threats that people would be fired. - They are closely aligned with ACTED as well who are among the worst of the worst. - One colleague who had been working with the organization over a year in a complex, understaffed program requested a raise and was told they were "being greedy." The fish rots from the head and I highly suggest you avoid any long-term career plans involving this NGO.

21
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