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The Social Housing Charter – Aspiration Or Baseline?

Hopefully, 2021 will be the year when the measures outlined in the 2018 Charter for Social Housing Residents white paper will be implemented in law. This should give residents a stronger voice and lay down clear expectations for the safety and condition of their homes. Coming legislation also promises a common set of tenant satisfaction measures against which social housing providers will be measured.

Standardising expectations will be helpful. But we should look at whatever measures come into force as a baseline to build from. While there are common needs and expectations that apply everywhere, there are also factors with special significance for each provider and group of residents. Above all, performance monitoring for property services partners should be about driving improvement rather than just meeting targets.

In every one of Osborne’s property service partnerships, KPIs always have a local flavour. These are focused on our customers’ and residents’ most important needs, rather than being copied and pasted from other contracts or being what’s easy to measure.

Demographics

One fundamental reason why service delivery and performance management must be flexible is that demographics are unique for each location. One of our property services partnerships has a high proportion of elderly residents. As a result, we implemented a shorter working day and offer a more traditional customer contact service.

An example of how expectations can be taken an ‘extra step forward’ is the Tenant Inspector programme. Tenant Inspectors conduct mystery shopper calls to our call centre and inspect completed works (alongside our supervisors). We use our training centre to upskill the inspectors and help them develop auditing skills. This is truly putting residents at the heart of performance monitoring.

Efficient Data Collection

Performance monitoring and improvement run on data. The secret is to make it easy to collect and process the data that really matters. Platforms such as Microsoft Dynamics 365 simplify how we collate, schedule and monitor work requests, and collect key performance data such as first time fix rates.

Technology such as our In-Touch platform also helps improve communication with residents and collect vital satisfaction data efficiently.

Effective performance management leads to improved resident satisfaction and better value for money. It’s important to remember that these objectives go hand-in-hand rather than being in conflict.

To find out more, visit our Property Services webpage, where you can sign up for free access to a range of resources.

OSBORNE PROPERTY SERVICES

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