Exciting projects but disappointing leadership, exploitation of BFDs and foreign employees - Program Officer ProVeg International Employee Review

Thank you very much for your feedback. I am sorry that you can't recommend ProVeg as a workplace. I would like to reply to your thoughts to explain the system of the BFDs more. For nearly 10 years, our organisation has worked with Federal Volunteers (BFDs). The Federal Volunteer Service is an offer from the German government to women and men of all ages to get involved in the common good outside of work and school for 6 - 18 months. Ideally, the next volunteer starts right after a volunteer service ends. This allows organisations with limited resources a great amount of help for work that otherwise could not be done. But it does not allow them to replace regular jobs with a volunteer. This is a fine line for most NGOs and not always perfectly easy to draw. But we at ProVeg are very careful here to not misuse the volunteer service. We don’t use BFDs to fill our entry-level positions. Moreover, volunteer service is a good way to increase the chances of a regular position. Because we do hire volunteers for permanent positions after their service often. In fact, this has been the most important source for our hires in 2020 - around 20% were hired from existing team members, mainly volunteers and interns. However, we are very careful with setting high hopes before a volunteer starts because there's no guarantee for employment after their service time. I know that my recruiting team makes that very clear right from the start. I am sorry if your hopes were disappointed. It seems to me rather destructive when you write that you experienced unfair termination, especially of foreign and female employees. This is not the case at ProVeg. We rarely terminate contracts on our end as we are interested in a sustainable, long-lasting work relationship. Sometimes, we can not prolong ending contracts due to funding or changing organisational needs. Maybe this appeared to you as a termination. At ProVeg, we value fairness and respect very highly and it’s engraved in our culture, not only by our Code of Conduct and the respect at work policy but also by our DEI working group and the work council. It is simply not true that people are treated unfairly. I hope that my explanation helps you to understand the BFD system better now. I wish you all the best in your future career. Nora from HR