West Midlands Police
Work wellbeing score is 63 out of 100
3.6 out of 5 stars.
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West Midlands Police Employee Reviews

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United Kingdom174 reviews

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3.2Work-life balance

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midlandorganisationwestcrimeofficerpublicforcedealing

good place to work

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Very rewarding job and good immediate supervision. it is an inclusive organisation and as an ethnic minority , I felt welcomed and included. Sometimes , there is too much demand , however colleagues are happy to support
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Decent start

Enjoyable work, mixed management, rewarding when you actually went out and performed work otherwise a lot of paperwork and sitting around.Hiring management also needs work
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Insights into West Midlands Police

Based on 78 survey responses
What people like
  • Ability to learn new things
Areas for improvement
  • Sense of belonging
  • Energising work tasks
  • General feeling of work happiness

West Midlands Police

Like being in the dark ages. Senior staff do their own thing & don’t listen to any advice. No active OH standards, policies or procedures, poor, non visible management.KEEP CLEAR

Pros

Ni

Cons

Treated like a drone
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Good Place

Great environment and a great place to work. Very busy at times but and a varied role by all accounts, regular promotion processes so good for those who want to progress
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No interview, still waiting on a coat after a year. Work 2 weekends out 3. Overworked and underpaid.

You could be doing anything but mostly you will be watching someone in hospital who does not need to be there. You are just a number at the start and treated poorly.

Pros

Paid lunch break but you won’t get a break

Cons

Unsocial hours, always start early and finish late.
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Unsustainable workload

Working here consists of long hard hours without basic support from both line management and the SLT. Officers are regularly off late and there is little to no support available. The likelihood of getting any sort of break on a late or night shift is slim.People within the organisation are honestly great. The problem is that SLT keep expecting more and more from us without any consideration for our welfare. The workload we are given is growing every week, the amount of training available is lacklustre. It’s only a matter of time before a lot of staff start going off with stress.Do yourself a favour and look elsewhere for a career.

Pros

Camaraderie, decent pay

Cons

Long hours, lack of support, work life balance, stress
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Stress stress stress!

Non stop stress trying to placate members of the public desperate to have police attendance when there aren’t enough officers to go round. Expect to make life and death decisions with little to no back up and if it hits the fan you’re on your own! Senior leaders are only concerned with bums on seats, low morale, good staff trying their best on a sinking ship.
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Excellent and best job

What is the best part of working at the company?A very challenging and rewarding job. Several opportunities to progress on to a different role What is the most stressful part about working at the company?Deal with some very sensitive issues What is the work environment and culture like at the company?Excellent, opportunities for all kinds of people to progress and develop. What is a typical day like for you at the company?Challenging and rewarding. Getting a chance to serve the community
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Company ok department awful

Awful department to work in.Treated like robots one call after the other no breaks other than lunch causing high rate of stress and burnout Calls are targeted (yes that right you are measured on how many calls you take and how long you spend them) despite the fact you can not control this. Some Bad supervisors giving bad advice and very inexperienced in leadership, a lot of double standards happening. Staff views not listened too No support, bad training but high expectationsUnfair and unequal development recruitment practices Culture of quantity of quality, but if you go below quality be prepared to be spoken too like you're stupid from all angles. Impossible to get Annual leave due to constantly being understaffed, there are a lot of retention issues. Overworked and underpaid for what's expected Good bits Good team work Some nice supervisors Secure job as long as you don't make a serious mistake Large company so good hr practices to protect you It's just sad the department leadership has caused such disconnect and bad retention
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Productive Team Working

Working as agency staff on contract I was member of CID support team .Having worked in HM law enforcement agency for 25 years I had trained in all aspects of the law, which applied to that post. This was training in a new discipline and was excellent, including the driving test. Each day is varied but essentially the ingredients of any offence are the same ie to interview, gather evidence to prove a crime has been committed and wether it can be resolved between the parties or wether it is serious enough to pass on after consulting higher officers.

Pros

Team working with colleagues of varying degrees of experience.

Cons

Shift working
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Very Poor, lack of support!

There are some positives working for WMP. However, the negatives vastly outweigh those. Joining through the student routes on the face of it seems exciting. However you quickly learn that you are underpaid and are highly worked having to complete assessment after assessment, role plays, uni work and portfolios. Students are forced to work in departments they never applied for and often miles away from their home and are given pennies during training. Once put onto a team after training you quickly realise that everything you were taught goes out the window, standards, behaviours etc and you are forced to adopt this culture or not fit in. Students are looked down upon by the old fashioned officers who are reluctant to help students out. You are often sat alone with no support or training and this lack of knowledge then is looked down upon by management as incompetence. The viewpoints of many officers is outdated and if you challenge these viewpoints, it cannot be done in secrecy and you become isolated from the team. It’s a very oppressive and demanding workplace. There is no incentive for management to help students as they are overworked and often have No communication that you will be joining their team. A huge issue is that students are placed all over in rotations meaning that any meaningful connections (the most important aspect of the work!!) are lost and you are forced to reintegrate over and over. It is clear that many people in WMP are unhappy (many taking early retirement or leaving) there are some good people but not enough considering the type of role this is!  - 

Pros

Progression offered, pension, discounts

Cons

Poor pay, culture, shifts, no support, poor management
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Lack ofSuplort

Complete lack of support from managers and you are often left to your own devices to complete work. You feel embarassed to ask for help as you are sometimes turned away from your supervision. Avoid being a PC, there are better suited roles out there for individuals with those skills.
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Good company to work for

Over my 22 year career within the police force as Police Staff i mostly enjoyed it.I had success in a number of varied roles.However after the mass of job cuts which occurred around 2010-12 it got less so. Unless you were already in a decent role it got a lot harder to progress forward.I ended my time in the force after becoming frustrated with the lack of fairness and bullying which seemed certain people get away with, and no longer wanting to work strange shifts in a bad location to travel too 6 days a week..

Pros

Good pay, career progession

Cons

strange shift patterns, mangement
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Stable and secure

Having worked as a police officer for 27 years with West Midlands police i can recommend the company! The have good staff associations that support all and are a good mix of people from across the diverse area we live in! There are police & police staff roles to suit everyone and career progression and CPD is encouraged.

Pros

Flexible working, enable ( disability friendly)

Cons

Unsocial hours busy and can be stressful
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Nothing to add.

Okay staff but the job role is far too demanding. Not enough time given to those with family, the diversity also is a massive issue for those in minorities.
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stressful

extremely stressful, poor management. processes need to be looked at and returned back to basics, which will actually help the public. could be an amazing place to work
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Enjoy the work and freedom

It is a privilege to work for West midlands police. Sometimes you have your ups and downs but I can't complain. Everyone's opinion may be different. I started off in initial investigation and worked my way up to being a psi now a psio. I earn around £33000 so can't complain.
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Overworked and understaffed

Too much responsibility. Too little pay. Highly demanding - even a toilet break is sometimes impossible for hours! No recognition or support from management. Treated badly by rest of the ‘Birmingham is the centre of the earth’ force! Given more and more work and impossible to get annual leave - even over a year in advance! Demoralising, bad for physical and mental health. Expect to feel completely burnt out all of the time.
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Collaboratie and friendly place

Wonderful place o work. All staff members look after new junior employees. Company benefits are great and a there is a wholesome team effort in most departments especially IT. Work life balance is great.

Pros

Company benefits + remote working

Cons

Interview processes took 6+ months.
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Brillant work colleagues but poor management

Expect long days with no breaks and no time to eat. Expect cancel rest days with little to no notice. Team morale at an all time low.Work colleagues were fab and there is a sense of comadrie between the older officers. That culture is slowly dying out with the new inexperienced officers coming through the door.

Cons

Long hours, cancelled rest days and no breaks
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Overall working at police

Unless you want to give up friends and a social life don’t join west miss police. It is an environment where you are bullied and stressed most of the time. If you have children don’t be under the illusion you will be allowed flexible hours, you won’t. Joining us a mistake.
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Overall rating

Based on 183 reviews

Ratings by category

3.2 out of 5 stars for Work/Life Balance
3.5 out of 5 stars for Salary/Benefits
3.4 out of 5 stars for Job security/advancement
3.0 out of 5 stars for Management
3.2 out of 5 stars for Culture

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