British Council reviews

Struggling to maintain its relevance and an efficient working model in a highly competitive private B2C and B2BIG education sector. Currently going through a second global restructuring since C-19 including sweeping job cuts with chronic low morale amongst many staff who are anxious and uncertain about their futures. Huge discrepancies in salary and benefits between different staff cohorts e.g. UK appointed staff often have excellent benefits e.g. civil service pension, generous redundancy packages whilst some overseas appointments are poorly rewarded, sometimes with zero redundancy pay-off. Tendency to be UK-staff focused with systems, policies, procedures and benefits despite being a long-standing international organisation across the globe. Tendency to operate as compartmentalized business and service units (even within individual countries) rather than as a coherent, integrated and efficient whole which has led to loss of business and reputation. Weak leadership and lack of accountability at senior leadership level, especially in the People Function, which needs to addressed. Values and behaviours often applied inconsistently with more senior managers given a pass for some poor behaviour e.g. 'that's just him/her' excuse because no one willing/able to address whilst more junior staff are (rightfully) held to account. Performance evaluation process is outdated (numerical rating and references to bell curves), poorly understood and dreadfully managed by senior management (People Function) e.g. threats to global staff workforce of withholding bonuses for non-compliance with system when system is not even ready / fit for purpose; hugely differing approaches to staff evaluation leading to inconsistent ratings across staff; for internal recruitment, hiring managers do not even look at previous performance evaluations as no one trusts them. Academic excellence is sometimes sacrificed to save on costs e.g. job cuts resulting in poorer learning experience for customers.

Nepotism/favouritism is rife. Questionable leadership on a global scale. Pay is ridiculously low. Very little promotion & encouragement to progress-unless you’re a favourite. Very bureaucratic. Wrong people in the wrong roles - nothing gets done & there are frequent meetings, about meetings about meetings without getting anything done. People in senior positions cannot lead; bullying is common especially from leaders who are unable to appreciate & bolster team members who haven’t lost their morale yet due to incompetence, arrogance & ego. Money is mismanaged to a horrendous degree-overspending on vanity projects with no real results is common. HR is virtually non-existent-everything is being contracted overseas. Bonus system is antiquated & reflective on how much sucking up is done over your actual performance & ability in a role. Leadership takes no accountability or provides support for staff other than “speak to EAP” Colleagues taking Voluntary Exit have had very little communication, no support & many won’t be paid their severance package for another 3 mths after leaving - which is a disgrace