Trafford Housing Trust

Founded in 2005 Trafford Housing Trust (THT) is an independent housing company providing around 9,000 quality affordable homes within the Trafford area of Manchester. They are a “profit-for-purpose” organisation, striving for a society transformed, free from poverty, inequality and injustice. They are regulated by the Homes & Communities Agency (HCA) and enjoy the highest possible rating for governance and viabilty.

People are at the very heart of the business and delivering excellent service is paramount to the organisation. With over 500 employees dispersed across multisite locations and working remotely, the trust has worked hard to develop a culture of meaningful engagement with both their customers and their staff, believing that understanding what really matters to them will help them improve and develop their homes and services and their working environment. With over 9,000 properties and a £50m annual turnover, the organisation is a sizable and complex operation with several other brands within the group providing complimentary services and generating revenue to support the work of the trust. TrustCare is THT's independent living services business, providing home care, alert and response and housing with support to those who need it most. Lastly, Laurus is a the “profit-for-purpose” property development company owned by THT. Profits are reinvested to lend a helping hand through affordable housing and to achieve social and community projects in the areas in which they work.

Director of Customer Operations

In today’s ever more pressured sociopolitical climate, the need for housing associations to demonstrate exemplary practice and value for its customers is more relevant than ever. With supply-demand pressures mounting and the effects of an aging society compounding the need for more homes across Britain, the role of housing providers in tackling the housing crisis has become more and more prominent.

As part of their efforts to improve the lives of residents and customers in the borough of Trafford, THT had recently embarked on a number of ambitious projects to generate additional revenue and profitability for the organisation, enabling improved service delivery across the group, including a number of key strategic partnerships and joint ventures with other housing organisations, the further commercialisation of their core fee-earning services within Trustcare and the development of a brand new, purpose built, £20m health and wellbeing hub in the heart of Old Trafford (see - www.limelightoldtrafford.co.uk).

To maximise the return on investment and ensure delivery of a 'best in class' customer offer, the decision had been made to create a new opening for a Director of Customer Operations. The role would take full responsibility for both commercial and operational delivery across the Customer Operations directorate, a dispersed multisite team incorporating Business Development, Customer Contact, Field Services, Income Management and Quality Assurance. In addition the Director of Customer Operations would spearhead the development and delivery of Limelight, continuing to add value for the community and achieving a profitable return on investment for THT.

The Search

To achieve maximum impact in the role, THT required an exceptional leader, capable of exemplary delivery across both operational and commercial remits. Leading a dispersed team of over 200 colleagues through a significant period of change, the success metrics would include a consistent upper-quartile NPS score, delivery of all core services under the Trafford Housing Trust brand and excellent performance against targets including revenue, debt, surplus, customer acquisition and retention and customer satisfaction. To find a competent candidate, capable of excelling in each of these areas, would require an executive search partner with reach into both public and private sector realms, and an ability to scrutinise competencies at the highest level.

Sherrington were appointed by THT in 2018 to recruit a new Director of Customer Operations and got to work with a targeted yet inclusive search campaign that considered candidates from a range of sector backgrounds. Desk research was carried out over several weeks, with referrals gained from a number of trusted sources across the North West housing sector. At the client's request, the team also considered candidates from a number of adjacent sectors, where strong leadership with complimentary skills and ideas could be attracted. As such, a diverse long list was presented to the client after four weeks. A selection of six candidates were chosen from the long list for Sherrington's team to assess using a combination of competency and biographical interviews as well as carefully chosen psychometric assessments.

The Result

After fully assessing the short list, our team deselected down to a final group of four candidates for the client to interview, and went on to facilitate interviews with THT's board and executive team. After several subsequent stages, a candidate was chosen and went on to join the organisation, delivering significant impact and remaining in post for six years.

Commenting on the experience of working with Sherrington Associates, Trafford Housing Trust's Chief Experience Officer, Angela Hunter said...