Working hours
Our full-time contracts are based on a 35-hour working week – but we are always keen to explore other options with you.
Flexible start and finish times subject to the job and team requirements and your managers' agreement. You may vary your start and finish times so long as you work through the core hours of 10am to 4pm and complete your contractual hours each week.
We believe in allowing our staff to work flexibly, in a way that suits their lifestyle and commitments. We find that flexible working increases staff motivation, which benefits our teams. We fully support flexible working, and depending on your job requirements, we can arrange a flexible working option to suit your personal circumstances. Examples include part-time, job share, compressed hours, part office/part home-based or home-based working.
We recognise that there are times when you may be required to work longer hours or different hours (perhaps at the weekend) to meet the Chartered Institute's needs. To ensure you can rest and recuperate after these additional hours with the consent of your manager, you will be granted time off in lieu (TOIL).
Work base
Most of our roles can accommodate home/remote working or be in the London office or a mixture of these. We are working towards a 'hybrid model' where we jointly agree to a work base that works for you and your role and team. At your interview (or before), let us know your preferences.
Whether you work remotely at home, or in the office or a mixture, we believe that contact with your colleagues is essential and so we do expect all staff members to join our all staff events and team and other meetings as necessary.
Our office is at Canopi, 7-14 Great Dover Street, London SE1 4YR. map
We use an online system for staff who want to use the office to book a desk on the day(s) they wish to be in.
We are easy to reach by public transport: The office is 2 mins from Borough tube station and a 10-15 minutes' walk from London Bridge rail and tube, Elephant and Castle rail or Southwark tube stations. We also have several bus routes nearby.
Canopi also has secure bike storage and free tea and coffee, as well as the usual kitchen fitted with fridges and microwaves.
We share the building with various other charities and social enterprises – some of whom are our members. Being near Borough Market and the London Bridge area provides excellent shopping, restaurant and leisure opportunities for lunch hours and after work.
Pension
We operate a group personal pension scheme which you will join automatically after three months. We will join you on the minimum level of 2.66% contribution of your salary with an employer contribution of 5.35% made by the Chartered Institute. You may elect to pay more than this minimum percentage, and the Chartered Institute will contribute double the amount you pay up to a maximum of 7.5% of your annual salary. Most employees choose to do this through a salary sacrifice arrangement.
Leave
We offer full-time staff 25 days annual leave plus public and bank holidays, increasing to 27 days after completing three years' service and 30 days after five. If you work part-time, you'll get a proportion of the entitlement, dependent on the number of days you work each week.
Additionally, we are closed on 24 December and throughout the Christmas period (you are not required to use your annual leave to cover this period). As part of our commitment to being an inclusive employer we allow staff to use up to 3 of these paid Christmas closure days to cover other faith (or days of personal importance). Those who do this work the corresponding number of days between Christmas and New year. We are piloting this approach in 2023.
We offer all staff regardless of their nation base 9 bank and public holidays. These are based on the dates provided by https://www.gov.uk/bank-holidays . If you are not based in Scotland the extra day given is the Scottish bank holiday in early January. If you work part-time, you’ll get a proportion of the entitlement, dependent on the number of days you work each week
We encourage volunteering, and any employee may take up to two days of paid leave annually to volunteer for a registered charity provided the activity does not bring the Chartered Institute into disrepute and provided that the voluntary organisation follows similar standards and ethos to the Chartered Institute. If you don't know who to volunteer for, we have worked previously with a charity near our London office.
Personal Chartered Institute membership
You will automatically become a member of the Charted Institute and benefit from our members' information and access.
- Membership Plus is a package of benefits available to Chartered Institute Individual members and employees. You can take advantage of high street store discounts, such as cash-back cards at high street stores and supermarkets, discounts on car and house insurance, and discounts on package holidays
- My Career: career planning tools and information, self-assessment and other tools to help you plan your career.
Communication
To help you keep connected with your colleagues, we have weekly all-staff meetings online, team meetings and regular all-staff meetings (some are in person, and some are virtual). We also use the usual tools to help, including softphones, Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
Learning and development
We place a high value on developing skills and expertise to support you in your role and beyond. We have a learning & development framework to support this which offers amongst other things:
- Management and leadership training- in both soft and technical skills
- Virtual working courses – helping you to adapt to remote working – e.g., virtual management, managing your virtual day, virtual communications
- Technical skills courses, linked to your job e.g., software training, copy writing, event planning
- Informal ‘Lunch and Learn ‘drop-in training sessions to help you get to know about us and the sector we operate in
- Access to our own professional development short courses and conferences, helping you understand the fundraising sector and meet those working in it
- And if you are new to us a comprehensive induction plan to help you understand your new role and how it fits with the Chartered Institute and how we do things
You will jointly agree on your development needs with your manager on joining us and then regularly meet to review and adapt these as needed.
Social & well-being activities
Keeping our staff safe, well and happy is a priority for us. We also work to enhance the well-being of fundraisers. We actively encourage social and well-being activities for our employees and have supported the following activities to enforce this.
- Social: (pre-pandemic): payday drinks • summer picnics • staff breakfasts • whole Institute events such as bowling or barbecue • face to face and online quizzes • book club • other suggestions are always welcome
- Encouraging relaxation: free access to the Headspace app for all employees and pre-pandemic head and shoulder massages at the London office - other suggestions are always welcome
- Staff networks and feedback: we have an active and engaged staff forum – working with us to enhance the employee experience and regularly survey our staff to see what they like and what we can do better (anonymous and attributable).
We provide an employee assistance programme which includes a free, confidential telephone helpline and counselling services, a free online support service and advice on family, financial and health matters issues 24 hours per day, 365 days per year.
- Enhanced Sick Pay If you are absent from work due to sickness, we want you to take the time you need to ensure you return only when you are well enough to do so. To support this, the Chartered Institute has a sick pay scheme which in most cases will be equivalent to normal pay for a period beyond the usual statutory sick pay obligations of an employer. We also provide sick pay from day one of your employment
- Occupational Health Support If we have any concerns about the effects of work upon your health or the effects of a health problem –on your performance or attendance at work, we have access to a professional occupational health team to help us support you.
- Family support: we recognise you may have caring responsibilities and commitments – for young or old and so offer a range of leave and other packages to help you, such as maternity, paternity, adoption emergency dependant and Shared Parental leave. If you are eligible for statutory benefits for maternity, paternity or adoption pay, we will top up your pay, and if you have been continuously employed by the Chartered Institute for a year or more, we offer a further enhanced pay scheme to enable you to spend valuable time with your child.
Loans
- Cycle to work Scheme Once you have passed your probation, you can benefit from an interest-free loan to purchase a bike and equipment to help with your work commute
- Interest-Free Season Ticket Loan Once you have passed your probation, you can benefit from an interest-free loan to purchase an annual standard class season ticket between home and work.
You can purchase a bike via the Cycle to Work salary sacrifice scheme (see above)
Pre-pandemic, we ran fitness activities/classes – yoga, Pilates and a running club. Other suggestions are always welcome