Top 25 best charity organisation to work for

We have been named a Best Company to Work for, for 12 consecutive years and have recently gained one star accreditation and a Top 25 Best Charity rating in 2023. We recruit people who are passionate about what we do and we look after them well, because our success, and the care we provide families, depends on having a team that is motivated and committed to learning and sharing.

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    Flexible working hours

    to balance home and working life.

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    Employee Assistance Programme

    With remote GP, counselling, physiotherapy access, mental health, and financial support, including a 24/7 Help@Hand helpline.

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    Company car

    Family Support Workers and Front line Care posts come with a company car.

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    Rewards and discounts

    Access to the Blue Light Card Scheme, and other rewards and discounts.

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    Family friendly policies

    Family-friendly policies, emphasising staff wellbeing, backed by an active cross-organisational wellbeing group with year-round initiatives.

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    Generous pension scheme

    Pension scheme where we contribute 5% of your salary and you contribute at least 3%.

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    Leave benefits

    Flexi leave options: buy/sell annual leave, birthday, wedding/civil ceremony, plus an extra Christmas shopping half-day off.

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    Training and development

    Robust training and development programmes to support your learning and growth.

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    Other benefits

    Bike to work, season ticket loan and payroll giving schemes, as well as a recommend a friend recruitment bonus.

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    Mindful Employer

    We are committed to creating a supportive and open culture, and we aspire to appropriately support the mental wellbeing of all staff.

Read more in our Candidate Information pack (PDF)

Our full list of rewards and support

We understand that we all have different priorities at home and we therefore aim to offer a mix of financial and non-financial benefits.

  • Rewards and salary benefits
    • Fair pay: which is benchmarked annually to ensure we remain as competitive as possible
    • Performance related vouchers: If you have exceeded performed you will be thanked with a £100/£200 gift voucher
    • Pension: we will contribute 5% of your salary and you will contribute at least 3%
    • Expenses: You are entitled to claim any work-related expenses
    • Salary Sacrifice schemes: Cycle to work, payroll giving and pension
    • Payroll Giving: Choose a Charity of your choice to give back, straight from your gross salary (before tax is deducted) to receive immediate tax relief
    • Life Assurance: Death in service (three times your salary)
    • Recruitment referral bonus: Up to £150 voucher of your choice
    • Discounts: Financial discounts and cash back options in many high street shops, eye sight tests
    • Access to the Blue Light Discount Card, as well as Reward Hub for offers and discounts with many retailers.
    • Company Car: Family Support Workers and Front line Care posts come with a company car
  • Leave and holiday benefits
    • Annual Leave: Minimum of 25 days’ holiday, increasing over time to 29 days per year, plus Bank Holidays
    • Buying and Selling leave: Option to buy or sell up to 5 days (pro-rated)
    • Birthday leave: Happy Birthday! An additional day of holiday to enjoy your special day
    • Wedding/Civil partnership: Congratulations! An additional day of holiday to help you celebrate your special day
    • Christmas Shopping day: Half day Christmas shopping, to get Christmas ready!
    • Sabbaticals: Up to three month sabbaticals for those with five years continuous service
  • Communication and engagement
    • Engagement: Communication is at the heart of our success. We have loads of opportunities to talk and support each another.
    • All employee calls: Quarterly calls, gives us the opportunity to get together to hear about a range of topics from different areas across the organisation
    • HeRe to HeaR: These monthly HR sessions on Teams enable us to catch up on an informal basis, and check in with each other
    • Coffee with Chief Executive: Have the opportunity to informally meet the Chief Executive for a coffee and a catch up
    • Employee Voice: This employee group gives us a mechanisms for meaningful two way communication with SLT
    • SLT Roadshows: The roadshows allow SLT to visit each team and provide updates on all areas of the Charity and give each teams the opportunity to ask questions
    • SLT Briefing: A monthly e-newsletter from SLT giving top line information on the month’s highlights
    • Star of the month: A Star of the Month is celebrated each month, voted for by colleagues for going above and beyond expectations or demonstrating one of our core values; we listen and act, we have compassion and courage and we have inspired determination.
    • Buddy scheme: During your induction you will be given a “buddy” from another department who will be additional support for you.
    • Team meetings: support the collaborative approach which we encourage at Rainbow Trust. They provide a safe space for teams to discuss their work and projects, offer shared learning and a place to support one another.
    • Supervision/One-ones: You will have regular dedicated time with your manager to ensure you have access to support and supervision.
    • Situation-Behaviour-Impact (SBI) feedback: SBI is a tool that supports more effective feedback and enhances communication in a way that can be more clearly understood.
    • Annual surveys: Have the opportunity to provide annual feedback on all aspects of your work. We listen and act on this feedback and use the information to inform our strategy.
  • Social responsibility
    • Social Responsibility: We have a strong ethic around our social responsibility in all that we do and we are keen to support those issues that impact the world in which we operate.
    • The Green Team: is a dedicated group of employees who are committed to driving environmental change and sustainability throughout the organisation
    • Supporting other organisations: You have the opportunity to take one day in the calendar year to give back to another charitable organisation if you wish.
    • Equality, Diversity & Inclusion: We are committed to providing equality of opportunity in all that we do. We work in a respectful way and value diversity.
  • Health and wellbeing benefits
    • Health and Wellbeing: We recognise that your health and wellbeing is critical to our success, so we have processes and schemes in place to support you.
    • Feel Good: We have an enthusiastic and proactive group of employees who focus on wellbeing and engaging the organisation with top tips and a range of wellbeing ideas and initiatives all year round.
    • Menopause group: Our menopause group is open to everyone to promote a culture of openness and support
    • Occupational Health: We have access to external Occupational health consultants who provide advice on the type of support you may need to help you in the work place.
    • Counselling: Six free confidential counselling sessions to support you with any personal or emotions concerns
    • Non-managerial supervision: We understand that roles in care can be emotionally demanding, therefore we provide non-managerial supervision for all Family Support Workers and Managers
    • Employee Assistance Programme: We offer a confidential support service to all employees via our employee assistance programme provided by Unum.
    • Remote GP support: Unlimited video consultations with a UK-based GP
    • Mental health support: Up to eight consultations (including initial assessments) per year
    • Physiotherapy: Up to eight consultations (including initial assessments) per year
    • Medical Second opinions: Two second opinions per year from a UK-based consultant following a final diagnosis
    • Life, money & wellbeing support: Guidance and practical resources to support health and wellbeing, including a 24/7 helpline.
  • Learning and development benefits
    • Learning and Development: Your personal growth and learning is important to us, which starts on day one.
    • Induction: From day one, you can expect our full support to help you to do your role and to get the most out of it. We have a 2 month induction programme
    • E-Learning: We have a plethora of e-learning modules ranging from Managing stress to GDPR!
    • Anne Harris Skills Development Programme: This structured training programme for Care staff ensures you have all the skills you need to develop and grow in your role. You will receive a certificate for all modules and courses completed!
    • Shadowing: We support learning in all ways and recognise the value in having shadowing opportunities to learn
    • Management Essential Training: All new people managers are provided with in house management training
    • In house training: There are plenty of training opportunities ranging from bullying and harassment, difficult conversations, absence management, bereavement, first aid, recruitment, performance management and many more
    • Mentoring: We offer both internal and external mentoring. SLT mentor individuals identified in people planning as part of their personal development
    • Study Leave is available for those on agreed development plans, where accreditation is of benefit to both yourself and Rainbow Trust
  • Work-life balance benefits
    • Work-life balance: We offer a range of flexible working opportunities that enables you to balance your work and personal life
    • Flexible working hours: The support we provide is unique to families’ needs and therefore requires flexibility of hours, which gives FSWs the opportunity to work their hours flexibility around the families needs
    • Core-hour working: Our core hours in the non care team enable employees to balance home and work life by, for example, helping to miss heavy traffic on the journey to and from the office, giving the opportunity to participate in sports activities after work or allowing time for the school run. Non-care staff can begin their day at 8am and leave at 4pm or work between 10am and 6pm
    • Time Off In Lieu (TOIL): TOIL is available in all functions for example, to manage weekend and evening fundraising. By choosing when TOIL is taken, you can, for example, be at home to receive a delivery
    • Homeworking: enables employees to concentrate free from interruption on a ad-hoc basis following discussion with your manager
    • Random working: Supporting the family unit is at the heart of the service Rainbow Trust provides. If you ever find yourself in a position where your child becomes seriously ill, it is recognised that the parents may also require additional support and flexibility from us as your employer
    • Sabbaticals can be requested after gaining five years of continuous service at Rainbow Trust. Sabbaticals are unpaid and can be applied through the flexible working application procedure
    • Wind down/Step down processes are designed to assist you if you are considering retiring from Rainbow Trust

Employee health and wellbeing

We recognise that our employees are our most valuable asset and encouraging their health and wellbeing is therefore critical to our success. A number of processes and schemes are in place to support this, including the Feel Good group - an enthusiastic and proactive wellbeing group which is in place to ensure that our employees are able to share ideas and suggestions on how to better support their wellbeing, and get involved in wellbeing initiatives across the organisation, throughout the year.

Work-life balance at Rainbow Trust

We understand that people have different needs and that when work and home responsibilities are managed effectively, people are more engaged and productive. We are committed to providing a successful Work-Life Balance approach, which complements business benefit with individual well-being.

Our employees’ wellbeing is critical to our ability to operate across all functions and we recognise that all individuals have a life outside of work. Enabling our employees to balance work and their personal life in ways that benefit everyone – the organisation, employees and families – has a significant effect on employee motivation and performance.

Flexible working practices

We regard flexible working as very important, both for delivering the service to families and to raise the funds needed, and we try to accommodate flexible working practices such as flexi-time working hours, time off in lieu (TOIL) or working from home were practical.

Growth and development

Your personal growth and development is important to us, and this starts on day one. We offer a range of different training and development opportunities across all roles within Rainbow Trust.

Family friendly policies

Supporting the family unit is at the heart of the service Rainbow Trust provides – this principle is extended to our employees by having policies in place to support our employees and their families.

Diversity and equal opportunities

We value diversity and believe that a mix of backgrounds brings a variety of ideas, perspectives and experiences that will create a productive work environment in which talents are fully utilised and organisational objectives are met.

We are committed to providing equality of opportunity and we expect employee support in implementing policies to ensure that all employees are accorded equal opportunity in recruitment and selection, promotion, transfer, training, pay and benefits.

As part of this commitment, all our policies, procedures, and ways of working are assessed against National Equality Standards.

Environmental policy

We are committed to protecting our environment and have formed a Green Team to provide internal focus and make Rainbow Trust a “greener” place to work. We encourage all our employees to participate in green team initiatives all year round.

Advanced Practitioner quote image

I just need to say that it’s unbelievable how well supported we are as staff here at Rainbow Trust. From staff benefits through the EAP [Employee Assistance Programme] to Trustees giving us £50 out their own pocket as a thank you, half day Christmas shopping (I could go on and on!) to general day to day support I really do appreciate it all

Advanced Practitioner, Greater Manchester

Rainbow Trust Leaver quote image

I have thoroughly enjoyed working at the organisation and I have much appreciated all the support that has been given to me during my time at Rainbow Trust. I am very sad to leave such a lovely team… I would not hesitate in recommending Rainbow Trust as an amazing organisation for an employee

Rainbow Trust Leaver

Working in our Care Teams

Working in our Head Office

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