A lovely place to work, completely transformed over the last couple of years - Anonymous employee British Society for Rheumatology Employee Review

Some of the employees are great to work with and are clearly passionate about their jobs. Work life balance is good. The office location is good and it is a nice building. Salaries are in general pretty good and average for the industry. There are some good employee benefits and support for staff available.

Leadership is weak and directionless. Too much power, influence and control is given over to certain teams. Work tasks are reactionary and pushed onto staff without a strategic plan, and there is no follow-up or review once tasks are completed, it just moves onto the next project. They are in danger of alienating some membership with the direction they are travelling in when thinking about outputs. Despite well written policies and employee handbooks, some decision making is opaque and unclear which is problematic in a small organisation. While small organisations can be great places to work, a downside is the lack of development opportunity in the organisation.

BSR is a progressing not for profit organisation supporting the Rheumatology community in the UK and overseas. The SMT is proactive in developing the organisation, including the staff, and has made a number of improvements to working and other conditions over the past few years. Although being a SME has its limitations, it allows staff to be well connected with each other and to work collaboratively. The Society adapted really well to working from home because of the pandemic, and was ahead of the curve in terms of adapting its building and policies to accommodate the new 'normal'. BSR is a friendly organisation to work for and I enjoyed my time there, working with some really good colleagues. I always felt valued and supported and I think I made a bit of a difference and a contribution by the time I left.

As a SME, opportunities to progress are limited. I think some areas of the organisation need a more development or need to be re-thought. Cultural change takes time but I think BSR is on the right track.