A toxic workplace culture is driving charity staff out of the sector, a new survey has found.

Research conducted by Welsh charity recruitment website, Charity Job Finder, revealed a number of issues embedded within the sector, such as poor leadership, workplace toxicity and burnout.

Toxic workplace culture was the most common result for people leaving the sector, with 62.1% of people citing this as the main reason.

This was closely followed by poor management (13.8%) and low salary/lack of benefits (9.7%).

The findings, of over 300 respondents found employees overwhelmingly described their workplaces as toxic, chaotic and stressful, citing excessive workloads and emotional strain.

Major issues included leadership failures; just 1% of respondents rated their management as excellent, while 52.8% described it as mediocre. Meanwhile, 70.3% of respondents reported frequent or constant stress

Fair and transparent leadership (40.7%) and training and development (20%) were the top factors that could have encouraged staff to stay.

"These findings should serve as a wake-up call for the third sector. Employees want better leadership, clearer career pathways and fairer workplaces but we also need to recognise the challenges that managers face," Charity Job Finder senior partner, Bev Garside said.

"Many are navigating complex demands with little support, limited funding for professional development and few opportunities for peer learning. Management can be a lonely and difficult role and without investment in leadership training and mentoring, even the most committed managers will struggle to create the positive workplaces we all want to see.

"If we truly want to improve staff retention, we must build a sector that supports not just frontline workers but also the managers tasked with leading them."

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