Unlocking potential for change
A combination of tenant-led groups and more sophisticated use of data can help establish a clearer picture of residents’ views and experiences
While the trend among housing associations that take a more sophisticated and modern approach to customer engagement has been to largely sideline tenant and customer boards, some still see a role for them.
Ellie Southwood is one of those people, but she has some caveats: they are only valuable, she insists, if they are designed in a strategic way and are used as just one of a wider set of tools that help landlords understand the people who live in their homes.
As chair of Habinteg, a board member at Paradigm and former cabinet member for housing at Brent Council, Southwood has experienced a range of different attempts to perfect the art of engagement.
Treading a fine line
From a tenant point of view, she says housing providers have to tread a fine line: “I think that on the one hand [they] have not been well engaged with over years, but then on the other they have been over-consulted, to the point where they lack confidence in the organisation’s willingness or ability to respond to what they’re hearing.”
That sense of being “over-consulted”, according to Southwood, comes from an abundance of surveys and – sometimes – tenant boards and committees, but at the same time a sense that little results from them. However, instead of dismissing such tools, Southwood says they need to be improved. She adds that the sector needs to ensure that it is “not underestimating the support that we need to put around processes if we want them to succeed”.
At Habinteg, the association has set up a Joint Strategic Influencing Group (JSIG), featuring board members and tenants. The group is chaired by a tenant, which means it cannot be a formal board committee but it meets on the same cycle as the association’s main board. Southwood says that it’s “really important” the group is tenant-led, which can mitigate against some of the issues she sees in some landlords’ efforts to engage with their residents.
The success of these groups requires full support of leadership and they must have unfettered access to robust information – from complaints to contractor performance data – in order to understand the full range of customer experience. Only then can they effectively inform operational or strategic decisions. Paradigm’s commitment to their Customer Experience Committee, and evolving this as it develops, is an example of how this can work well in practice.
“[Tenants] have been over-consulted, to the point where they lack confidence in the organisation’s willingness or ability to respond to what they’re hearing.”
True representation
This speaks to a recurring and difficult to solve problem for landlords: how to make sure the tenants you hear from truly reflect the concerns of the wider body, and how to ensure that the voices that are most comfortable making themselves heard aren’t the only ones that are listened to?
“I think one of the biggest risks is setting up committees with two or three tenants or customers and thinking that they are representative,” Southwood echoes. “And it’s something that I feel very strongly about because of previous experience in the charity sector, where some voices have become very dominant.”
That is why, at Habinteg, the JSIG is supplemented by other means for tenants to get involved outside of more formal governance structures. These include regional ‘listening forums’ where tenants meet neighbourhood managers and, on occasion, contractors, and at which board members are present in a listening-only capacity. In addition, Habinteg encourages board members and executives to visit people in their own homes to hear their concerns on the doorstep.
Southwood says this approach can address some of the problems around representation that all housing associations face. “It’s about being quite disciplined as a board about understanding what you’re hearing,” she elaborates. “Tenant A has a completely legitimate perspective and experience, [but] it does not mean that that is representative and it does not mean that therefore we should plough all resources into what they say is the issue.”
The idea is that, with a range of different sources of what Southwood still accepts is “anecdotal” evidence, if you are hearing similar concerns from each “then you don’t have to dismiss that anecdotal feedback – and sometimes that tells you [about] trends that are coming that aren’t showing up in other datasets”.
Ellie Southwood
Chair, Habinteg, and board member, Paradigm Housing
“I think one of the biggest risks is setting up committees with two or three tenants or customers and thinking that they are representative. And it's something that I feel very strongly about because of previous experience in the charity sector, where some voices have become very dominant.”
Sophisticated use of data
And, critically, this approach must be allied to a more sophisticated use of data. Southwood says that she is “quite horrified about how behind the sector really is” when it comes to data. That’s not to say it doesn’t collect data, so much as it not using that data to drive meaningful change for people.
“I think we've got loads of data in the housing sector [but] we've probably got quite a way to go in terms of using it responsibly but also making good use of it,” she adds. “The potential to get a really granular understanding of the customer experience through that data is huge. Whilst you might not call it engagement, understanding the basics of what tenants are telling us about their experience is a really good starting point for engagement. Because then you’re not at first base; you’re not saying to people ‘Oh, what do you think of the contractor?’”
“If you've already got the data that tells you that 70% of those tenants are unhappy with the contractor, then you can have a more sophisticated conversation which helps to build that trust. So, I think it’s our job to you use that data better.”
SHARE THIS PAGE
