fundraiser

philanthropy manager

support worker

locality manager

development coordinator

Alzheimer's-Society

Poor salaries, weak management, unresponsive personnel team, and constant mistakes with pay. The Society relies enormously on workers paying for their own travel to clients' homes, reimbursing expenses on a monthly basis when staff submit claim forms with receipts. I suspect the Society would not survive as a charity if it weren't for the staff's generosity and forgiveness. Some leave because the unreliability of the organisation causes them great financial inconvenience. The expenses and pay mistakes leave people, already on low wages and short-term contracts (with pay increases per year of only 1% if they are kept on beyond the end of the financial year, which is RARE) thoroughly broke - some clocking up around £150 in expenses per month. You would assume they could, like most employers, offer an interest free season ticket loan, or an imprest, but no. Volunteers are much relied upon and there are some good volunteer officers in the company. But the downside is there is little leadership for those officers, few 'thank you' events for volunteers, and most volunteers are not actively encouraged to claim their travel expenses. As for management - it is hard to know what is happening. A new strategy was put forward this year and staff on all levels were to offer their thoughts, but in reality it was a fait accompli - everything was decided before staff could comment, even the colourful pop styling for the corporate identity, intended to attract the youth of today: designs which were a simplistic answer that showed little insight or imagination.  An embarrassing aspect of the new strategy was political bias. The strategy was named the New Deal on Dementia, revealing the Leadership team's allegiance to the Conservative party, borrowing the name of the party's historic back to work scheme for young people. As an inclusive Society for all, political language such as this should have been put to one side and especially in light of the Conservative government's swingeing cuts to disability benefits and the introduction of the Bedroom Tax. This bias will not attract London donors who might more readily support Alzheimer's Research UK. Communication is also a huge problem across the Society. Every month staff receive a teleconference announcement from the Leadership team which they listen in to by way of a dial-in system. But they listen. They do not participate. It is more of an old fashioned radio speech than a forum. Staff are not encouraged to offer their views and everything is very top-down. Overall, staff are generally dedicated and hard working. But as salaries are low and job security negligible, unfortunately the quality of candidates applying for roles seems to be rather below average for the graduate workforce, which is not good in terms of efficiency. Some posts require several attempts at recruitment as candidates are unsuitable. Even so, there is a 'make do' attitude and the best of the weak candidates get recruited anyway. Often I wonder if the Society could operate with a smaller workforce of more talented staff, with more staff rewards. I have regularly witnessed colleagues whose mother tongue is English struggle with basic English, which has been awkward at times and does not give a professional impression to service users. Clumsy language in letter correspondence is the last thing a recently diagnosed person can contend with - it comes across as insensitive, thoughtless and disrespectful. Had my family received such letters, I would have posted any such letter back with an acerbic complaint to show I was no mug, dementia or not. My impression is that staff on the whole have the best of intentions and are good-hearted, but the main issues are weak leadership, few staff rights and benefits, and a weak grasp of quality control as the organisation has grown at a fast rate. No one knows who is who. After several years at the Society by the time I left I did not know who the different heads of departments are as staff are not encouraged to talk to each other beyond their immediate teams or loacalities.

•Organising, publicising and facilitating events, activities and experiences ranging from tea dances and dementia cafes to pamper days and awareness raising sessions
  
•Through self-directed learning built up sound knowledge of ‘Singing for the Brain’, which was used to develop an exciting and uplifting repertoire of material for a highly successful singing group

•Taking the lead, working in partnership with other agencies to develop a community allotment group, the benefits and good practice of which were presented at conference

•Used initiative to set up consultation groups to enable ideas and opinions to be contributed to The National Dementia Strategy and Dementia Friendly Communities agenda

•Successfully co-ordinating the existing project, while taking on a secondment role, at short notice, to maintain a vital support service

•Promoting and strengthening collaboration with external organisations and developing extensive knowledge of their remit, which is essential to ensure people get the right information at the right time

•Demonstrating resilience and an ability to remain calm and non-judgemental in safeguarding and family crisis situations understanding the boundaries of confidentiality

•Recruiting and managing a team of 12 volunteers, encouraging their personal development and also helping them to work through certain conflict  to retain their loyalty

•Chairing steering group meetings and demonstrating responsible stewardship of the project

I loved working for the alzheimer's society; it was a lovely job and i really felt like i was making a positive difference to the people i was supporting. Unfortunately, the management structure is a joke and i will be truthfully honest and say that it is formed of a continuous string of incompetent people, who were all very chummy and kept each other afloat in their roles. Noone of a senior position seemed to have any backbone or any genuine concern for the service users and they did not address matters of concern regarding poor performance with team members and complaints raised against management (and trust me there were many). Their interests lay in safeguarding their jobs, within which they did absolutely nothing. Also i'm afraid money was wasted continuously and simply thrown down the drain, yet not utilised where it should have been to actually make a positive difference. As a result, i now refuse to donate to this charity, even though i feel very strongly about the cause. 
however the day to day job was fantastic and thoroughly rewarding and the work/life balance was the best i have ever had; left on time without question, full lunch breaks etc and a casual attitude to day to day roles and responsibilities.

A typical day at the office is varied and no two days are alike.
Depending on co-workers, environment was warm, friendly and relaxed.
Line Manager was brilliant and essentially a people-person, good listener, empathetic and empowered me to reach out to my full potential.
The most difficult part of the job is contract stipulations can be quite high and challenging.

The most rewarding part of the job is to actually see the difference staff are making to the lives of people living with dementia and family carers.

To also get other local organisation coming to the team for support, knowledge and information on dementia.The Society new strategy and new deal on dementia has also meant restructuring posts but with a good training portfolio, new team will carry on the banner.
I am proud to have had a lengthy work experience with the Alzheimer's Society and it has helped to shape up my skills in other positions and helped me to be more independent, to be resourceful and a quick learner.

I will most certainly recommend the Alzheimer's Society has a good place to work.
There is no perfect organisation, but they are passionate about dementia as I am.

Working for The Society has been very challenging, Goal Posts move very quickly and  flexible working is required to keep up with some of the changes.  Communication from Senior management could be better time managed to allow staff to deal with changes in more time.  The hardest part of my Job role has been moving my entire service in a short space of time and ensuring that everything in both premises were being dealt with appropriately.  Whilst maintaining all Service Users to remain with in my service and settle into a new unfamiliar building.

I have managed a team of nine staff and nine volunteers, who wo0rk very well within a team.  They are very supportive and encouraging towards each other, which ensures for a friendly, fun working environment for all.

Sadly our service is being closed at the end of this month, I am saddened and relieved that the service is coming to an end and look forward to new exciting challenges.

I have thoroughly enjoyed my time working for the Alzheimer's society. The team have all been very welcoming and possess a very good work ethic. A usual day volunteering in the office includes helping out on I.T problems and completing different administration tasks. This can include photocopying and creating newsletters and packs for fundraising.
I have developed various skills through working at the society; one would be adapting to an office environment as well as enjoying being given challenging tasks to complete. I have also been given chances to help out on various fundraising events, for example the Middlesbrough memory walk. The most enjoyable part of working for the Alzheimer's Society has been gaining the feeling that I am making a contribution, no matter how big or small. I have also made new friends through working for the society.

I am a volunteer within Alzheimer's Society. Therefore, I only participate in the Tuesday group sessions. Throughout these particular sessions, I help people with Alzheimer's/Dementia to integrate within a group and also help to keep their brains functioning as much as possible. 

Myself and other volunteers take part in arts and crafts sessions in which the members of the group are able to create their own name badges which helps them to identify others among the group without difficulty. In addition, we also play games such as musical bingo - This enables the members of the group with the illness are able to listen to songs of their generation and think back to memories linking in with those particular songs. 

The most enjoyable part of volunteering with the Alzheimer's Society is simply seeing how happy the members with Alzheimer's/Dementia are when being treated as normal human beings, despite them being ill.

My day to day role is extremely varied- one day is never the same as the next! My role primarily involves maintaining a caseload of clients and providing them (either people living with dementia, or people affected by dementia) with one to one support. I will assess each individual client's situation and provide any necessary information or guidance, with the aim of maintaining their independence and improving their wellbeing. If necessary I will signpost to, or liase with, local services and organisations e.g. social services, memory clinics, benefits advice teams. I also facilitate Alzheimer's Society support groups and activity groups, and role manage a number of volunteers. Additionally, my role involves raising the public profile of dementia. I attend local events and conferences with the intention of improving awareness of dementia among both professionals, and members of the general public.

I work with complete autonomy and plan a portfolio of projects whilst ensuring the business analysis and requirements are also effective. The company has a very important agenda and thus the culture is one of ensuring that our contribution adds value to meet the objectives.
What i like most is the work life balance of working remotely whilst still maintaining effective communication and the autonomy to make decisions on projects,  whilst supporting the stakeholders.  In addition  I am usually busy.  The most difficult part is sometimes having to rely on the actions of others to progress some parts of the projects but that is project life and  it just means I have to handle challenges, which is not an issue for me.

The Society is currently going through a large change programme and as a result a number of people are embarking on a redundancy programme. The second phase of the change programme commences in the Autumn. The moral dilemma is that job vacancies are still being advertised knowing that in the Autumn a number of positions will be affected by the change programme. So my advice is to check whether the position you are applying for will be affected. 
In considering whether voluntary income is well spent on supporting people with dementia you need to look at senior manager salaries for the answer.

Top Job Titles	Average salary
Fundraiser 13 salaries reported	£36,338 per year
Philanthropy manager 5 salaries reported	£42,322 per year
Support worker 1 salary reported	£22,761 per year
Locality manager 4 salaries reported	£40,909 per year
Development coordinator 4 salaries reported	£28,085 per year

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Working at Alzheimer&#39;s Society: company overview and reviews

Alzheimer's Society

Alzheimer&#39;s Society ratings

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Salary satisfaction

Working at Alzheimer's Society: company overview and reviews

Alzheimer's Society ratings

Popular jobs at Alzheimer's Society