My journey to the other side finished a couple of weeks ago. By this, I mean working in house for a charity. The charity I had the pleasure to work for was Family Fund and I am so grateful for the experience. The good thing is, it isn’t goodbye, as both myself and Charlie will be continuing to work with the charity in a consultancy capacity.
I just though I would take a few minutes to share my experience. I initially began with the charity in November last year on a 3 months contract and was delighted to stay for has (unbelievably) now been 11 months! As part of my own personal development I knew I always wanted the opportunity to work for a charity, having spent many years (17 in fact) working with numerous charities supporting with recruitment, but never directly on the other side. I couldn’t be more grateful that the organisation I got to do this with, was Family Fund. I can honestly say I have enjoyed every second. In my contract I felt I was able to make a huge impact but also learnt so much along the way. The experience was invaluable, and I will certainly look back on my time there with extremely fond memories.
I am not going to lie in that it has certainly been a crazy, busy few months with not just considerable volumes of recruitment, but a few curve balls thrown in the mix too – one of which came in the shape of a global pandemic! This huge curve ball meant we had to totally change the way we recruited, but more importantly it had a significant impact on the charity as a whole and the families we supported. I was both proud and amazed, in equal measures, with how as an organisation we all adapted to the ‘new norm’. At first recruitment was put on hold, and I had the opportunity to work on some really interesting projects including the buddy project and wellbeing guidance. The recruitment freeze didn’t last for long, and after a couple of weeks we were ready to go again. As a team, we tackled the immeasurable challenge of changing the whole recruitment and onboarding process to make it entirely virtual and online. I think, on my last count, I have carried out over 100 virtual interviews in the last few months. I have to say I have also been super impressed with how all the line managers adapted to this, naturally there were some nerves around this new way of working but everyone took this in their stride and as a result we have been successful in recruiting countless amazing key staff members via our new virtual methods. Adapting quickly to this virtual world certainly hasn’t been without its personal challenges! For me, this has involved my lively and rather entertaining 5 year old making rather dramatic entrances to team meetings and having to conduct interviews by candlelight during impromptu power cuts! I'm sure the local postman is placing bets with his friends on how often he can interrupt proceedings by appearing at precisely the wrong moment!
I feel honoured to have been part of this fantastic organisation, at such a crucial time, and it’s been a genuine pleasure to watch the way in which the live and breath their values.. The most popular interview question I got asked by interviewees is ‘what do you enjoy about working for Family Fund. My answer to this was simple, and always around the culture, and the fact that we were providing vital support for families who need it the most and going about it in the most incredible way. Although I wasn’t providing frontline services I believed that by supporting the organisation to recruit talented staff this enabled us to deliver our mission… Everyone I met, and worked with, across the charity was extremely welcoming, professional, supportive and passionate about achieving the aims of the organisation and I have found this truly inspiring.
I felt particularly supported by my line managers in trying to juggle a busy workload with the challenge of having the children at home. I have to say, I really am not used to line managers asking me to stop working and forcing me to take holidays! The rest of the team are all simply amazing, and it was particularly great that Charlie has more recently been able to join us as an extended team member working as a consultant alongside me.
I will always be grateful for this invaluable experience and that I was able to support the charity through one of the biggest challenges they will probably have to face. Both Charlie and I have also learnt so much that will enable us to have a better understanding of the charity landscape and have actually had first-hand experience of what it has been like to work for a charity in these strange times. We now both feel that we can bring this valued experience to other clients that we have the pleasure to support and feel incredibly equipped to tackle what the future brings by way of recruitment and more!
Thanks for having us Family Fund and long may our working relationship continue.
Thank you for your message. We delighted to be receiving a high volume of enquiries and CVs through to our inbox and want you to know we read each one with interest. If we have something suitable to discuss, or any further questions in regards to your message, we will come back to your directly. If you don't hear from us straight away, rest assured that your enquiry is in safe hands and we will be in touch.
Take care, and stay safe.
Oops, there was an error sending your query.
Please try again later