You are viewing 1 of your 1 free articles
Employees have to be engaged with when an association decides to take a new direction
Housing associations have undergone many changes in recent years and continue to evolve. Bjorn Howard says staff need to be fully involved and supported along the way
As we all know, the sector’s challenges – rent caps and grant cuts among them – have forced housing associations to consider what they do and how they can continue to do it. We, like other associations, have had to evolve to become more commercially focused while retaining our social purpose.
Yet, herein lies the challenge – this shift is massive and the success of an organisational change of this scale relies on our people.
“We, like other associations, have had to evolve to become more commercially focused while retaining our social purpose.”
At Aster we’ve adapted our model. We’ve used bonds to raise finance through the capital markets, leveraged our stock, focused on land-led developments and increased our portfolio of shared ownership homes. Along the way, we’ve recognised the need to invest time and money in nurturing our culture. We know that in order for us to be successful, our people need to feel invested in this vision.
READ MORE
This isn’t an easy task for housing associations. Our geographic footprints are often sprawling and our intrinsic links to local communities mean employees can have strong views on the purpose of housing associations in their areas. There’s also the challenge of bringing everyone on the same journey – people who joined two years ago may not have the same views on the sector as those who began 10 years ago.
The key is to first be open and clear about any changes being made and why they are happening. At Aster, all of our strategies are now no longer than one side of A4 – a small change, granted, but one that means everyone in our business can quickly and easily understand what our plans are.
“At Aster, all of our strategies are now no longer than one side of A4 – a small change, granted, but one that means everyone in our business can quickly and easily understand what our plans are.”
To encourage people to be supportive of each other as well as collaborative and engaged, you need to have the systems in place to support these ways of working. Flexibility has been crucial in getting our teams to work from different locations and remove silos, ensuring that all of our people can see the broader picture.
And we’re running a host of new internal events, as well as workshops to allow people to get a better understanding of our strategic direction. We’ve partnered with workplace consultancy Corporate Rebels, who have worked with some of the most pioneering organisations around the world, to help our managers understand their role in facilitating where our culture needs to be.
Our We Are Aster event, at St Mary’s Stadium in Southampton next month, will bring together our entire organisation – more than 1,000 people – to reinforce the message of unity, so everyone understands what we do, how we do it and, most importantly, why we do it.
It’s not about dipping in and dipping out. Housing association boards need to be constantly nurturing culture as they go on this journey. People in housing value the social ethos at the heart of the sector. This will always be true. But we must ensure our people understand why our models have changed.
Bjorn Howard, group chief executive, Aster Group
