Depends on your department - Housing Navigator Community Action Program Belknap-Merrimack Counties Employee Review

You have the opportunity to change people’s life every day.

You don’t have much opportunity to grow when you are the senior center manager, so you can be in the same job position year after year.

-Paid time off is generous -Lots of holidays -Good workplace for parents -Ground level employees care a lot about the mission and each other -The clients are often amazing, fun, or interesting to work with

This organization just feels broken and soulless, like it exists to make money off of people's problems instead of truly caring about them. There is no 'oomph', no energy, no fire, no spirit, or passion. You feel like a cog in a machine that is just spinning its wheels because someone keeps fueling it despite it being broken (i.e., state and federal contracts). If this was a for-profit business, their management practices would have driven it into the ground long ago. Unfortunately, it's propped up by government contracts, which means it has no incentive to improve or change other than by their own desire. -They are not mission focused (focus is on getting by with the status quo) -Poor organizational culture, just feels like a 9-to-5 job where most don't care (lack of holistic teamwork and camaraderie) -Upper leadership gives the impression that they are unqualified and don't care about you or the clients, because of their words and actions that don't prioritize clients or staff (see more below) -A lack of understanding about clients and their needs or how to connect with them (Why buy ads in a pay-for-view newspaper when the people we serve can't even afford basic necessities most of time?) -No fraud, waste, and abuse best practices (money is spent thoughtlessly, no tracking of resources, problem employees are enabled. I reported someone for asking me to commit fraud and they still work there) -No tracking of property except for maybe IT things -Rarely any fundraising or community events -Cybersecurity issues that puts clients' data at risk (no training about this at all until I asked HR for some and then it wasn't even relevant to our jobs and only my department received it. Now there's phishing issues!) -No hiring or promotion best practices (favoritism focused, they rarely fire bad actors, open positions aren't always posted for all to apply, interview and hiring is based on instinct) -Concerns brought to HR are often ignored, excused, or brushed under the rug (I've brought many concerns to HR, along with others. Some were addressed until that HR director quit) -Barely any training, no development -No reviews and raises (except for when I went to HR with complaints about pay) -Pay inequalities (had to fight for raises and equal pay in my department and still not everyone received the pay bump. I found out later) -Pay is not competitive. Many staff use our low-income services while upper leadership banks a comfortable living -No transparency (important info is passed through gossip or withheld) -Rampant internal communication issues -A focus on organizational image management over real impact (community outreach is almost non-existent and mostly media focused. Myself and others had no idea what this is organization is or does despite it being around for decades, and needing the services at times in our lives) -Illogical decision making that negatively affects ground-level mission impact (e.g., we have clients who don't use internet, smartphones, or computers. Stop replacing things with QR codes. They can't use them!) -Outdated or ineffective mentalities (HR, business/staff management, IT processes and staff IT training, marketing, outreach, work culture, leadership practices, etc... you name it, it's probably outdated) -Rarely are there exit interviews or attempts to understand why people left, which is frequent -Newsletters that pat themselves on the back while misrepresenting the impact of our work (e.g., we say we have two mobile food pantry trucks to serve our communities but only one has ever been fully staffed and operational) I cared about the mission and clients but didn't feel that many others did, especially at the top. I could no longer associate myself with an organization that presented itself as fulfilling it's mission and promises while experiencing firsthand that they were barely functioning and that clients were suffering because of it.