SBHG People Strategy

1. People Strategy
2020
Mulliner House
Flanders Road
London
W4 1NN

2. Shepherds Bush Housing Group
People Strategy 2020
1. INTRODUCTION
Shepherds Bush Housing Group (SBHG) is made up of a diverse range of businesses comprising
Shepherds Bush Housing Association (SBHA), SBH Developments Limited (SBHD), the registered
charity, Staying First.
Established in 1968, we now own and manage around 5,000 homes. We operate throughout West
London, whilst maintaining a strong local, community ethos in our core areas of Hammersmith &
Fulham, Hounslow and Ealing.
Staying First is now a diverse social enterprise offering home improvement, debt and welfare benefit
advice, Furnish furniture re-use, small repairs and adaptations to a wide variety of clients. Our
development team carries out site procurement for retail and private residential developments.
Domus is our repairs and maintenance service. Umbrella offers income-generating paid-for services
to subsidise other services.
Our role continues to change and evolve with new duties and responsibilities, a new regulatory
framework and a revised scrutiny regime. The political environment brings constraints and
opportunities.
We make a positive difference to people’s lives and we strive to be recognised as the best in London
for our homes, services and social enterprise initiatives. Key to achieving this ambition are our
people, the core strength of SBHG.
We aim to be an employer of choice where all employees are able to excel, feel valued and
supported in a safe and healthy environment. We want our people to know and take pride in how
they are personally contributing to building and sustaining thriving and aspirational communities for
our tenants and service users.
The People Strategy is a key driver for culture change, capacity building and performance
improvement. However, on its own it will not succeed without the commitment of our managers
and staff across the organisation to make it a success and to underpin the changes we have to make
in order to respond to future challenges. The People Strategy is an evolving document that will adapt
and change over time in response to changes in our political and operating environment. The
Strategy will be supported by a detailed action plan.

3. 2. VISION
We are proud of our people and the work we do. We want to be the best housing association in
London for our homes and services and to improve resident satisfaction by listening to and putting
their needs at the core of everything we do. Our success as an organisation depends on this and we
will not excel without inspirational leaders and skilled and motivated employees.
3. MISSION
We want to be recognised as an Employer of Choice. Through our approach to people management
and organisational development, we aim to foster a culture of high performance and one which
attracts, develops, rewards and retains highly skilled and innovative managers and employees.
4. THE CORPORATE BUSINESS PLAN
The People Strategy will be aligned with the delivery of the Business Plan:
 Green, growing and high quality
 Delighting our residents
 Involving and influencing
 A top performer
 Social heart, business head, local impact
These five objectives underpin the development of the People Strategy.
5. VALUES
Our values are at the heart of SBHG’s culture. They describe the behaviours we expect in our
managers and employees in their interaction with volunteers, residents, customers and
stakeholders.
Our values are integrated into all aspects of our People Strategy. We want all our employees to live
the values in everything they do, demonstrating:
 We put the Customer first
 We are Passionate
 We are Focused on Performance
 We Respect Others
 We have Integrity
 We are United

4. 6. PEOPLE STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES 2015 – 2020
6.1 Excellent Leadership and Management
Excellent leadership and management are at the core of leading and developing our
employees in delivering excellent services.
Our Focus:
Equipping leaders and managers with the skills to:
 Have confidence and be accountable for taking difficult decisions;
 Challenge and empower employees to be innovative;
 Empower employees to embrace and pursue challenging goals;
 Develop conducive working relationships across SBHG.
How are we going to achieve this:
 Clarify expectations and responsibilities of leaders and managers;
 Review existing leadership and management development initiatives;
 Develop and implement a leadership and management development framework;
 Deliver various initiatives to build leadership capability, including coaching, job
shadowing, and secondments.
6.2 Innovative Recruitment and Onboarding Processes
Within the context of a growing recruitment market we need to ensure that we continue to
seek out innovative recruitment campaigns together with providing a positive and engaging
onboarding experience.
Our Focus:
 Developing creative, cost effective recruitment campaigns to deliver “first time”
recruitment success;
 Reviewing recruitment and onboarding processes;
 Reducing recruitment to employment timescales;
 Reducing heavy reliance on recruitment agencies for permanent recruitment.
How are we going to achieve this:
 Develop the use of social media (Linked In, Twitter, Facebook) in our recruitment
processes;
 Utilise other recruitment channels – job centres, schools, colleges, Buzz;
 Robust contract management of out-sourced pre-employment screening service to
deliver reduced timescales between recruitment and employment;
 Robust contract management of recruitment services for the provision of temporary
staff to deliver outcomes of efficiency, cost-effectiveness and credible candidate
pools;
 Review of Recruitment & Selection and Induction & Probation policies;
 Re-launch of the corporate induction programme.

5. 6.3 Employee Engagement
Pro-active engagement and listening to staff is pivotal in developing a motivated, engaged
and informed workforce.
Our Focus:
 Meaningful two-way communication ensuring that all employees, including “hard to
reach groups” are encompassed.
How are we going to achieve this:
 Conduct annual staff surveys and other pulse surveys;
 Implement a pro-active exit interview process to gather insight into why people are
leaving, identify what has been good and not so good;
 Review staff consultation processes to ensure timely and meaningful consultation;
 Hold staff focus groups to get feedback on ways we can improve on how we engage
with employees;
 Develop initiatives on Senior Management Team visibility and engagement;
 Develop the Staff Conference as a powerful means of engagement.
6.4 Organisational Culture
The culture of SBHG is our DNA. It defines “who we are”, “what we stand for”, “what we
do”. We need to continually evolve and develop our organisational culture if we want to be
the best housing association in London.
Our Focus:
 Embedding our organisational values into everything that we do;
 Identify ways to facilitate better working together across SBHG.
How are we going to achieve this:
 Re-visit and refresh our values;
 Identify cross-functional, collaborative working initiatives to address silo working
and improve efficiency;
 Review our systems and processes;
 Implement targeted learning and development initiatives.
6.5 Performance
A pro-active, fit for purpose performance management system is pivotal to delivering our
strategic direction and Business Plan.
Our Focus:
 Ensuring the performance appraisal process is meaningful, light of touch and is
consistently applied across all levels of the organisation.

6. How are we going to achieve this:
 Review the current appraisal process;
 Review performance management policies and procedures;
 Ensure managers are equipped with the skills to manage individual and
organisational performance;
 Deliver a suite of learning and development initiatives that will equip managers and
employees with the skills to perform effectively.
6.6 Development
We aim to create a high performing, inclusive learning and development culture that will
enable employees to achieve their full potential.
Our Focus:
 Developing employee capability in their roles;
 Identifying and developing skills for the future.
How are we going to achieve this:
 Analysing development needs to inform targeted training and development
initiatives;
 Undertake a skills audit;
 Implement a talent development and succession framework;
 Research the viability of a graduate trainee scheme.
6.7 Reward and Recognition
Reward and recognition for our employees is a key component in achieving our aim to
become an Employer of Choice.
Our Focus:
 To ensure we have in place median market led salaries and an attractive benefits
package that is aligned to general movements in the market.
How are we going to achieve this:
 Undertake market salary review for implementation in April 2016 and subsequent
three year periods;
 Review our benefits package to ensure it remains attractive as a recruitment and
retention benefit;
 Consider our approach to performance pay;
 Look at developing non-financial initiatives for rewarding success such as:
o “Going the extra mile” awards;
o Employee/team of the month;
o Profiling employee excellence in Team Brief, Beehive, My Place.
6.8 A Healthy and Safe Working Environment

7. Promoting a safe and healthy work environment is essential for motivated, engaged and
productive employees.
Our Focus:
 Is to reduce our sickness absence levels;
 Develop a positive and healthy culture;
 Encourage employees to take ownership for their own health and wellbeing.
How are we going to achieve this:
 Promote healthy lifestyles through various health and wellbeing initiatives;
 Provide managers with the skills to pro-actively manage sickness absence;
 Promoting initiatives to support positive mental health;
 Continue to embed the services of our Occupational Health provider.
7. EVALUATION AND REVIEW
The success of the People Strategy can only be determined through effective dialogue with
managers and employees in SBHG and measurement of performance and outcomes. We will do this
in a number of ways:
 Communication with managers and employees across SBHG
 Staff survey results
 Resident satisfaction results
 External benchmarking
 Sickness absence
 Turnover ratio
 Candidate feedback
 HCA Governance and Viability rating