RNLI
Happiness score is 69 out of 100
4.1 out of 5 stars.
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RNLI Employee Reviews

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United Kingdom106 reviews

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4.2Work-life balance
4.0Pay & benefits
3.6Job security & advancement
3.5Management
3.9Culture

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The RNLI is a good organisation to work for. Due to an individual manager I will be leaving, but don't let that put you off. Like all large organisations it has it's faults but overall it's a good place to work. I can say 99.9% of the staff are professional and understand the role and adopt the culture of One Crew. The RNLI does look after their staff. As a charity it does have to look after the donated funds so has to draw a balance between salary and income. They are aware of the employment market and do their best to keep salaries competitive. If you want to work for a good cause and salary isn't the number one consideration, the RNLI is a very good option.

Pros

Out and about, great people, fantastic locations

Cons

For me one manager. Pay as with all charities.
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Supportive business. Poor management and project focus.

Working with the RNLI through the pandemic, I could not have wished for a more supportive, kind and caring employer.However, their application to project work and the need to engage ever increasing numbers of people to manage key work is unnecessary, prompts project lag and becomes ever frustrating. Nothing gets completed, yet meetings and more meetings are ever present in a typical working day.When projects are almost complete, a change of focus or idea brought into the project team by a new person deviates the focus and adds to the all too familiar project lag.My immediate manager was kind, caring and supportive. However, the departmental manager was uncaring, unsupportive, rude and obnoxious. Characteristics highlighted by multiple members of the department and institution as a whole. If you want to work in a supportive culture, but with a distracting, challenging project management application, the RNLI is the place to work.

Pros

Supportive culture. You feel part of a small and wider team.

Cons

Nothing ever gets completed. Frustrating, challenging environment.
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Insights into RNLI

Based on 16 survey responses
What people like
  • Ability to meet personal goals
  • Ability to learn new things
  • Clear sense of purpose

Great to do a job that makes a real difference

Great place to work. Joined after moving to area and breath of fresh air to work somewhere safe, and with flexible working . Recently had some some difficult family issues and team and manager have been great; really makes a difference. Nice job and nice to feel you make a difference to something worthwhile!

Pros

Flexible work hours, safe and great team to work with

Cons

Seagulls eating your sandwiches at breaks
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Crews do amazing work saving lives, bullying culture to paid staff by managers

Would got out sooner but had bills to pay. Managers bully staff and fight between themselves. The volunteers on the coast do an amazing job but don't go for a paid job here unless your desperate.
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Excellent job

Great job as a lifeguard but only seasonal. Enjoy being outside and working with some great people. Can be boring at times but also very exciting at other times. Very worthwhile job.

Pros

Working outside on the beach

Cons

Not valued by RNLI, Won't give a reference as apparently RNLI policy, Also did not help with any furlough during covid
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Productive, Interesting and Fast Paced work place on busy days

The job is a diverse experience within days, switching pace sometimes in hours. The pay is fair and the work place can take interesting turns throughout the day.

Pros

Working on the beach in the sun, good pay

Cons

Travel between beaches, the level of fitness/skill
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A good employer if you get the right manager

Sometimes they avoid responsibilities but overall a great place to work. After almost 20 years service, I was let down. But on the whole it is a good employer.

Cons

You have to pay to park on site
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Sadly lost its way recently

When I first started in the ALC it was a very inclusive and motivated place to work with high engagement from the rest of the RNLI. This didn’t last long though and the ALC soon became the 3rd class citizen of the RNLI, to the point where nobody in the ALC knows who most of the senior people in the RNLI are. Alongside this the benefits of working there were slowly removed, now it’s just the pension. I enjoyed my time there but got out at the right point. The experience working in the wider RNLI would seem to be far more positive than the ALC. The good managers don’t hang around long. If they can turn around the current culture it would be a great place to work again!

Pros

Pension

Cons

Absent management/support functions
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Regional Engagement Officer - Placement.

I was lucky enough to be accepted onto the summer graduate media engagement programme. I was flown to Poole for three days if training which was incredible. I absolutely LOVED this role and I’m gutted it was only a temporary role!

Pros

World Class Training, Supportive Staff, Great Experience!

Cons

It was only temporary!
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Great company to work for

Great company to work at full of amazing people building boats for heros love every day here would never change job as it amazing buying the sgannon lifeboat
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Management are the Biggest issue

My experience at the RNLI was that of the shop floor of the ALC. I was so excited to work for a cause and for a place that I knew I’d really be making a difference but it soon became apparent that it was a tough place to work if you actually wanted to ...... well work. Management positions are awarded to managements friends and not the ones that deserve it. The management do NOT listen to anyone that has first hand, on the tool management and only really care for KPI’ and the obvious hard work of a few goes ignored. I was there for a couple of years and I think I saw a manager come to the shop floor maybe 2 times and not once did they thank the hard work of the absolutely amazing talented trades man that they have working away to make sure that these amazing boats get put out on time. If you needed a technical drawing changed, good luck. The engineering office is so backed up and understaffed that it could take weeks or months to get any changes arranged. The ability of some trades are completely overlooked. A great example of this is engine rebuilds. When an engine is taken out of a boat, you would think that the incredibly well qualified mechanical technicians would get to work on these said engines but instead it is given to sub-contractors to do. This resonated strongly with a lot of staff who knew they had the ability to refurbish an engine and most of the staff completely willing to do this. The best thing that kept me going was the people I worked with. It was an amazing team effort to push these boats out to a super high quality. Your opportunities are - 

Pros

Free coffee

Cons

Too many to list
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Great until you have any concerns

I had the chance to work at the RNLI twice. Sadly I left for the same reason the second time. There is a bullying culture within the RNLI. If you agree with your manager everything is fine. If you question whether Etsy HQ is really in the best interests of the volunteer crew and supporters you are quickly shunned. Millions could be saved by removing paperwork activities going back to the 70s

Pros

Fantastic Charity

Cons

Bullying - old fashioned
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Nepotistic, lazy, slackers.

If you're the sort of low-life that wants to do absolutely bugger all at work but spend your day stood around chatting and still get paid extremely well by a charity. Latch on.. You are the sort of limpet the RNLI East Cowes factory is populated with.
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Official response from RNLI

25 August 2020
The RNLI Inshore Lifeboat Centre in Cowes has always received excellent scores in our employee engagement survey. The most recent survey included high agreement with the statements ‘I would recommend this organisation as a great employer’ (88%), ‘I feel motivated to go the extra mile to help the RNLI succeed’ (86%), and ‘I speak positively about the work of the RNLI’ (97%). I am sorry that your view and statement does not reflect this majority view, reflected in the strong loyalty and commitment of our employees.

Avoid!

Worked as a boatbuilder, don’t care about you as long as the job is done. Cell leaders are brainwashed by the clouts upstairs, if a job has a mistake they will punish you big time for it wouldn’t recommend the place unless you are a robot

Pros

Half day on a Friday

Cons

No respect
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Official response from RNLI

22 July 2020
We are sorry that you feel this way about working for the RNLI. We strive to create an inclusive workplace where individuals are given the support they need to do their job well. In our recent staff survey, feedback showed an 83% positive response to the statement ‘I find my line manager supportive’ and a 90% positive response to the statement ‘My line manager demonstrates they care about my safety’. If you would like to talk about your feelings/experience further, please do get in touch with our People Team by emailing people_advisers@rnli.org.uk

Decent and worthwhile place to work

It’s a worthwhile and rewarding charity to work for where you actually see the difference they make. There is a big ethos of getting it right rather than that’ll do. If you’re not sure about something you’ve done being done right, you’ll not get criticised for re-doing it until you’re happy with it. People are going out in our Work, risking their lives to rescue people in the worst weather. The last thing they need is something failing In a force 10 storm, due to it being a “that’ll do” job.

Pros

Pension is amazing! Really do look after their staff.
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Official response from RNLI

16 July 2020
Thank you for your great review and shining a light on how you and your colleagues contribute to saving lives at sea - I'm sure your views are shared by many in the All-weather Lifeboat Centre (where we make the Shannon Lifeboat).

Ruined by Payroll

Staff morale in the place is so low because of the balloon-heads at payroll. They mess up everyone's wages, lie when I phone them and basically are laughing at everyone when we try to get our wages that we have worked hard for. Get rid of the imbeciles at payroll and we will all be so much happier to be there.

Pros

Some decent colleagues.

Cons

Payroll gets away with murder
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Official response from RNLI

16 July 2020
Our payroll team, along with the rest of the organisation, has been facing a complex series of unprecedented challenges due to the impact of COVID19. Every effort has been made to pay our employees on time and correctly, however some errors have occurred.Paying employees correctly is incredibly important to the RNLI, as it is for our employees. The payroll department have been working hard to correct any errors made and have been communicating directly with those affected.Your frustration is understood, but please bear with us while this is rectified. If there is anything outstanding, please speak directly with the payroll department or your line manager.

Busy but enjoyable workplace

You could choose your shifts, however we had limited lifeguards so people were always having to cover. Pay is good for a teenager still in education. You learn responsibility, concentration, extremely valuable First Aid and life saving techniques.
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RNLI is a volunteer environment

The organisation is fully funded on the back of donations, which they manage well each and every year. I feel strongly about the RNLI as they save lives, most of the time at the risk of their own.

Pros

help a very worthy cause

Cons

very slow pace
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Great reason to go to work

Try to get out to the coast to the stations when ever you can really makes the job, good training in ERP provided, a bit ex Navy but ok overall, decent budget too.
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Great workplace and rewarding

Wonderful working environment and thoroughly rewarding. Providing support to a great lifesaving institution that gets no government support, and is a wonderful community organisation.
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Very nice. Warm friendly staff

Would of liked to be even more involved. Warm and welcoming but a bit of a closed shop. Office very nice but a bit quiet in a remote area. I lived a long way from the office. Would of liked to have stayed but a bit of a close shop 🚢 . I hoped to have been more involved.
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Overall rating

Based on 111 reviews

Ratings by category

4.2 out of 5 stars for Work/Life Balance
4.0 out of 5 stars for Salary/Benefits
3.6 out of 5 stars for Job security/advancement
3.5 out of 5 stars for Management
3.9 out of 5 stars for Culture

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