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      VSO

      Engaged employer

      VSO Reviews

      3.4

      67% would recommend to a friend

      (187 total reviews)
      avatar

      Donne Cameron and Kathryn Gordon

      54% approve of CEO

      50% positive business outlook

      Ratings by category

      4.0

      Diversity and inclusion

      3.9

      Work/Life balance

      3.6

      Culture and values

      3.2

      Compensation and benefits

      3.2

      Career opportunities

      3.1

      Senior management

      VSO has an employee rating of 3.4 out of 5 stars, based on 187 company reviews on Glassdoor which indicates that most employees have a good working experience there. The VSO employee rating is in line with the average (within 1 standard deviation) for employers within the Non-profit and NGO industry (3.7 stars).

      Reviews by job title

      187 reviews
      4.0
      25 July 2016

      Inspiring place to work

      Programmes manager
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      Incredible opportunity to work in developing countries alongside and in support of local people. VSO has the credibility with developing country governments and civil society to influence policy and practice in meaningful way. Leadership focused on becoming more outcome driven and making a real difference in people's lives.

      Cons

      Systems and processes can be overly centralised and bureaucratic, rather than meeting the needs of staff implementing programmes in developing countries.

      2.0
      8 Dec 2020

      Chaos and no accountability

      Fundraiser
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      For some time it had a good social life culture which inspired staff to stay and work hard. That isn't there as much anymore. Some lovely people.

      Cons

      It's chaos. It takes an age for any decision to be made. There is very little accountability and a big fear of change despite a lot of rhetoric and money spent/wasted trying to make much needed changes by some. Not a good place for a fundraiser as it isn't valued within the org so you are made to feel like a nuisance by the rest of the org.

      1.0
      28 Feb 2024

      Culture of fear and disorder

      Anonymous employee
      Recommend
      CEO approval
      Business outlook

      Pros

      The country office programs and the staff are wonderful people. The concepts they regarding localisation and giving power to the programs are positive and well intentioned.

      Cons

      There is a prevailing culture of bullying, poor management, and lack of long-term vision on how to resolve these issues. Systems policies processes to enable in effective working are missing. There are aspects of gender-based discrimination and poor mental health support within the working environment. Limited options for promotion or training. Very low staff morale.

      avatar
      VSO Response
      2y
      Thanks for your feedback. We are pleased to hear that you enjoyed working with colleagues in our programme teams and appreciate VSO's approach of volunteering for development, working with the communities, and demonstrating the localisation agenda. We are very sorry to hear you felt there was a culture of bullying behaviour. We take all allegations around bullying extremely seriously and investigate these allegations in line with our Harassment, Bullying and Intimidation Prevention policy. We also have several channels for reporting these incidents to ensure we quickly respond and address these issues. We continue to support managers through a range of coaching, mentoring and more formalised training. We take wellbeing and mental health support very seriously and have a range of support systems in place, from our in-house medical team to an assistance programme for our staff and volunteers.
      Viewing 1 - 3 of 187 Reviews
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      ReviewsVSO reviews

      Glassdoor has 257 VSO reviews submitted anonymously by VSO employees. Read employee reviews and ratings on Glassdoor to decide if VSO is right for you.