Our people and culture
Our people are integral to helping us respond to the ongoing challenges we face. By remaining true to our vision and values they'll help us retain a supportive, customer focused culture.
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Our Executive Director of People and Performance, Lynn Stubbs, talks about the importance of our people and ensuring we continue to develop a culture that enables them and our customers to thrive
Our mission is to make Longhurst Group a great place to work, where everyone is committed to our purpose and has the knowledge, skills and support they need to deliver high performance and great customer service.
The challenges facing the Group and our customers are well documented throughout this report and we know that by remaining true to our vision and values and ensuring we have a supportive, customer focused culture, our people will be fundamental to helping us reset our foundations for future success
Recognising that we need to do more in some areas, our people are taking personal ownership to get things back on track, looking to improve how they work together and with our customers.
Motivated by their passion to improve the lives our customers and enhance their communities, our colleagues will continue to work smarter together as one team fully focused on performing to their very best and learning and developing every day.
Our employment offer
The recruitment market remains extremely competitive, and this has led to increased staff turnover right across the public and third sectors.
We’ve continued to review our overall employment offer to ensure we’re doing everything we can to retain our strongest performers and attract people who are aligned with and inspired by our vision, values and purpose.
As well supporting our colleagues through the cost of living crisis by providing pay increases that are sustainable to the business, we’ve also enhanced the benefits our people can access. This includes a range of services and support that boosts our colleague’s health and wellbeing and enhances their economic resilience.
We’re also working hard to ensure our people have access to the best possible learning and development and have introduced better succession planning so that we can identify and develop our stars of the future. We’ve continued to modernise the way we recruit, installing a more insight-led approach and proactively appointing the best possible talent through tools like LinkedIn.
We offer a comprehensive package of colleague benefits, including a Westfield Health cash plan
Caring and campaigning for our carers
As part of our ongoing commitment to the Harry’s Pledge campaign, our carers network provides support for colleagues caring for a relative or friend who, due to ill health, physical or mental illness, disability, frailty or addiction, can’t manage without support.
Our colleagues and customers enjoy free access to Carers UK’s Employers for Carers Network, which includes a range of advice and resources for people juggling work and care.
Three years on from the launch of Harry’s Pledge, more than 100 organisations are now supporting the campaign, with over 60 signed up and regularly demonstrating their commitment to make progress in four main areas.
During the three year anniversary of Harry’s Pledge, which took place during Carers Week in June 2023, the Pledge welcome three new organisations, as Warrington Housing Association, NCHA, Hightown and CHP all signed up.
The campaign also continued its work in influencing politicians to introduce policies supporting carers and those who require care.
As a founding member of Harry’s Pledge, we’re committed to supporting our colleagues who are also carers
A diverse and high-performing workforce
We’re committed to maintaining our focus on equality, diversity and inclusion and take purposeful action to ensure our opportunities are accessible to everyone.
Resilience and adaptability will be critical to enable us to function successfully in an increasingly challenging operating environment, and we need diversity of thought, ability and approach to respond strongly.
The need to drive efficient and effective ways of working that deliver high levels of operational and financial performance will help us reduce the repairs backlog and improve our performance.
In the coming months we’ll be launching our new People Strategy which is fully aligned to and informed by a new initiative we’ve recently introduced called ‘5 for 25’.
This new programme is helping us to refocus our efforts and strengthen our foundations to ensure we make progress in five key areas by 2025.
These areas are clearing the backlog of repairs, voids and complaints, focusing on our colleagues, improving the services our customers receive, ensuring the way we operate is efficient and improves performance, and enabling the business to grow.
In the last year, we’ve continued to recognise colleagues who have gone the extra mile to provide a heartfelt service for our customers through our Living Our Values awards, with over 50 people receiving a quarterly accolade.
We’re looking forward to celebrating all these achievements at our annual in-person awards event later in 2023.
In September 2022, our Community Investment Team was a finalist in the UK Housing Awards 2022, after being shortlisted in the Resident Employment and Training category.
This recognition reflects our commitment to our customers and supporting them through the challenges they face.
Jenny Brown, Group Board Chair, presenting an award at our Living our Values awards ceremony