Issue 17 - May 2015 Sutton Housing Partnership Staff Newsletter

• ConferencePhotoGallery• GettingtoknowMearsstaff• ProcurementNews• Awards

Welcome to the 17th edition of your quarterly staff newsletter

Following what some of you are saying was the best staff conference so far we’ve included in this edition pictures, highlights and the best bits from day... including those all important photographs from the Minefield game.

Organising the conference was a team effort and we’d like to say a huge thank you to the staff who helped by giving their time, efforts and commitment to making the conference such a success, a special thanks to the team who were;

• Maggie Baria • Kennedy Steer• Roya Mohazzeb-Jahromi• Helen Mead• Lori Hyett• Rosie Trayfoot• Alan Barnes • Garry Tinkler

and also to all of the Communications and Governance team; Diane Richards, Alexa Loukas, Louise Allcock, Andrew Dwonga, Mary Fapojuwo and Steve Tutt.

We’re already looking forward to next year’s conference, so if you’d like to get involved in planning and helping with everything from

the games to the food, get in touch with a member of the Communications team - we’d love to hear your suggestions.

******************************************

Winners of this years “making a difference”

awards at the staff conference

Thank you to everyone who completed the staff conference feedback form.We had some really helpful views, comments and suggestions for next year’s conference and what you’ve said

will help us evaluate how worthwhile you thought the conference was.

One of the key things for SHP and staff this year will be taking steps to address some of the issues and suggestions highlighted in the staff survey last year.

Since the conference all managers were asked to work with teams to explore some of the issues highlighted in the survey. A number of ideas and suggesstions were put forward, thank you to everyone who contributed. Helen Mead, Head of HR, has gathered this feedback, grouping it into the key themes and has developed an action plan to be implement over the coming year.

The key areas for improvement are;

• Leadership and managment• Staff involvement/Cross team

working• Communications• Reward and recognition• Staff development

Listening to your views and acting on them

Key Theme - Leadership and Management Action Intended Outcome Progress and completion dateProvide a leadership programme for managers

A consistent approach adopted to management across SHP

This is ongoing and tier 3 managers are currently taking part in the programme

Directors and CEO to attend team meetings and walk the floor regularly

Increase formal and informal contact with executive management team

This is ongoing and this is to be monitored by HR - CEO has taken part in back to the floor with Income, Neighbourhoods and Sheltered teams.

Key Theme - Staff Involvement and Cross Team WorkingAction Intended Outcome Progress and completion dateExplore the option of making the 1st floor kitchen more available for all staff to use for lunch, etc

Staff have opportunity to get to know colleagues better and improved informal relationships

HR and Comms team to work with facilities - with options for staff to comment on highlighted by end of June

Key Theme - CommunicationsAction Intended Outcome Progress and completion dateDevelop an internal communications plan for SHP

Improved internal communications and staff engagement

Head of Comms to produce this by Sep 15

Here is a snapshot of some of the actions from the plan and the progress so far;

Key Theme - Reward and RecognitionAction Intended Outcome Progress and completion dateReview SHP’s approach to reward and recognition, eg the option of giving more control to managers to reward individuals for good work and/or rewarding team and individual performance

Staff more valued and more control to managers to reward performance

HR to lead review and put in place new arrangements by Dec 15

SHP’s Management Development Programme

Sue Douglas, of Work-Life-Flow specialises in helping people enhance

their leadership and management skills. Sue has been commissioned by SHP to work with us to deliever a Management Leadership Development Programme (MLDP) for operational managers.

The programme is designed to improve managers capabilities and help build their capacity – which will allow more strategic opportunities for SHP and our residents going forward.

The programme includes support, training and guideance for managers and has included 4 days training, 3 coaching sessions and additional coaching support through emails and face to face meetings.

The programme is structured into modules and the key learning elements include;

1. The role of manager and defining your role by building your level of responsibilities and authority

2. Getting the best out of others through team development and building team spirit

3. Getting things done through performance management, time and priority management, and delegation

4. Communicating simply and powerfully through stakeholder and relationship management; results-focused meetings; and using different leadership styles.

The programme also supports managers to address difficult situations at work; and helps them build their business area.

GOOD NEWS!Throughout the programme Work-Life Flow will ask managers to evaluate what differences the programme has triggered for them.

In the meantime, what differences have you spotted in operational managers? Let Sue know by emailing your comments and observations to: goodnews@worklifeflow.co.uk

Work-Life Flow will then feed this back to managers providing examples of what changes staff are seeing.

Well done to all those managers involved! We appreciate you have absorbed a lot of valuable information and skills, and will be transferring the learning to the workplace, not just over the period of the development programme, but over the coming months and years.

Thanks too, to Work-Life Flow’ Executive Coaches & Development Partners, Sue, Sandra, and Kate.

Personal and business benefits cited by previous participants include:

• Increased productivity

• Improved working relations and networking

• More motivated, more decisive, more receptive towards change

• Team now has a clear sense of direction

• Delegation faster and more successful

• Better able to promote Team and Self at work

• Better able to adapt leadership style to the situation and person

• Increased service quality

• Stronger, more focused goal setting

• Higher performance

Now in its third year, the Women In Housing Awards in partnership with WISH (Women in Social Housing) celebrate the amazing achievements of female colleagues within the industry.

There are 11 award categories, of which each award category is designed to recognise the achievements of individuals or projects who consistently demonstrate a commitment to excellence within their roles, their organisation and the wider sector. Each category will be judged by an independent panel consisting of professionals from across the housing industry.

You can nominate until Friday 3rd July within the following categories:

• Young Achiever – Housing & Community Development• Leading Female Mentor / Coach• Most Effective Woman Board Member• Best Community / Training Project to Rebuild Women’s Lives• Most Effective Project in Improving the Lives of Women or Communities• Best Female Apprentice/Trainee• Best Male supporter

We know that SHP has a wealth of talented women so we’re looking for your suggestions for nominations to these very worthwhile awards. If you would us to consider a nominee for one of the categories, please speak to your line manager who can pass your suggesstions onto the Communications Team.

Are you a woman in housing? ...

STAFFCO

NFERENCE

2015

“Great team building exercise - minefield well done. Atmosphere was much more relaxed. Well done to the project team”

“Conference keeps on getting better each year. Venue is great”

Your Feedback:

STAFFCO

NFERENCE

2015

“Conference keeps on getting better each year. Venue is great”

“I would like more opportunities like this to socialise/get to know our colleagues. It makes a real difference to know who we work with - makes trusting people easier”

“Great day, really positive with strong message”

STAFFCO

NFERENCE

2015

How well did you work together as a team?

“We worked confidently”

“We encouraged everyone to participate”

Did you trust each

other?

“Yes - we all got through the minefield”

“Yes - clear and concise in instructions”

What you thought about the Minefield

STAFFCO

NFERENCE

2015

“Yes - we all got through the minefield”

“Yes - clear and concise in instructions”

What you thought about the Minefield

“Lack of information sharing”

“Too many lines of communication - not absorbed”

“Inconsistency in application of rules/ procedures”

“Joint team building days to build trust and support”

“Transparency”

What are our potential

minefields this year?

What would help staff to work together in the coming year?

“Regular departmental get together e.g lunches”

th

As well as being responsible for communicating corporate messages to residents, stakeholders and staff, the Comms team are also here for all your communication and marketing needs and support.

We can offer guidance, support, creative ideas and design expertise that will help promote the services you deliver and SHP as an organisation.

To help with this, we have introduced a helpdesk, similar to the ICT helpdesk, to help us plan workloads, track jobs and give you the reassurance that your comms support request has been allocated to a member of the team with a set time target for responding to and resolving the enquiry.

You’ll be able to see who is working on your project and when you can expect it to be ready.

We’ve developed some standards for responding to requests, mainly around timescales, and are trialling these so please bear with us.

And please do let us know if you’ve any suggestions for how we can support your teams with communications or if you think something needs tweaking... that’s tweaking not twerking! We don’t do that in Comms!

Email all your requests to @commshd.

As of Friday 29th May, we have 107 members of staff on the YAMMER network - that’s brilliant! Thank you for signing up and engaging in this way - we hope it’s keeping you all connected and up to date on what each team is up to.

We’d love to hear from you if you have any suggestions or questions about how we use Yammer as an enagement tool for staff.

Here to help you

100

MAY EMPLOYEE OF THE MONTH

Paul Kelly was nominated for his work on our gas compliancy as well his can do attitude. He is always willing to go the extra mile to help his team and residents alike. He has taken responsibility for a number of high profile challenges, seeing them through success-fully.

Paul took responsibility and personally knocked on doors from early morning to late evening to ensure we gained access and

successfully carried out a successful survey, helping us achieve 100% gas

Mary Fapajuwo worked very hard on the documents and tables to accompany the changes in the tenancy conditions. The table is very clear for all residents to see how the new conditions effect them

Elaine was nominated for the way she embraced the challenges that have resulted from increased workload for the Complaints team during the period leading up to the general elections. Her engagement with local Councillors has seen really positive feedback and she consistently provides a high standard of correspondence, ensuring that all elements of enquiries are addressed.

A resident wrote into the external services team to thank Tim Andrews for his consistently high standard of work.“He is always hardworking and a pleasure to talk to...always happy to help with any problems. I have seen him take abuse and criticism from residents and he always remains calm and profressional. The estate always looks clean and tidy and Tim is a credit to SHP.” - Well done

From the feedback we’ve received on the conference, you enjoyed the awards and the chance to thank colleagues for the difference the make.

Why stop at the conference? Have you received or know of a colleague who delivers great service, excellent customer care or really goes above and beyond for residents or team mates?

Why not nominate them for Employee of the Month or Project Team of the Quarter? Nominations for June are open now, details on the Communication pages on the intranet.

Forgot to nominate?

SUTTON’S 50!

More milestones reached . . .Karen Connelly, SFTRA support worker celebrated her milestone 50th birthday on Friday 27th March. We all wished her a special day by signing her card, but her friends and

family also threw her a surprise party.

Karen told us: “Thank you so much for my card and Debenhams voucher. It was so kind of you all and for your lovely messages in my card and generosity.

I had a lovely weekend and was totally overwhelmed with a surprise do. I thought I was just going out for drinks but arrived to a party hosted by my family (may they be forgiven)! It was a great night, I didn’t stop dancing the night away and loved every minute of it.”

First council meeting in 1965. Sutton High Street in the

early 1960s.Did you know the London Borough of Sutton celebrates it’s 50th birthday this year. Sutton Carew, Carwalton, Fairlands, Wandletowns, South Wall-Car, Treeswater - these are some of the names proposed when the borough was first created! The creation of the borough was widely debated and people felt Sutton was too common a name.

A Mayor at the time had this to add to the debate: “I think more people are upset at the loss of snob value in coming out of the county of Surrey into Greater London.”

So where did theLondon Boroughof Sutton get itsname? Sir KeithJoseph, theMinister forHousing andLocalGovernment atthe timeeventuallyopted for Sutton.

Find more informationon the newLBS website(www.sutton.gov.uk).

SUTTON’S 50!

We’ve got some big projects underway to tender new contracts for;

• Grounds Maintenance service, currently being provided by Glendales• Repairs and maintenance service, currently being provided by interim contractor Mears• Gas maintenance service, currently being provided by Smith and Byford

Peter Lee, is leading on the procurement of the repairs contract, Scott Scarrow is supporting with the gas contract reprocurement and Dennis is leading on the grounds maintenance contract. They have been involving residents, staff and holding consultation meetings and consultation surveys online to see what’s most important to residents when recieving these services.

We’ve received a great response to the repairs consultation with over 735 responses (around 9%); and 365 additional comments from residents.

In May we also welcomed Martin Thomas, as our interim Head of Strategic Asset Management and Compliance.

In each edition of Flagship we’ll be bringing you a news round up from each directorate and this quarter it’s the turn of Property Services. We caught up with Interim Director, Jerry Austin, to find out what’s been happening with the asset, repairs and estate services’ teams:

PropertyServicesUpdate

Procurement

External ServicesThe team have been working in partnership with Carshalton College on a project at a small block of flats at Mill Lane, Carshalton. Students from the college have built a wall to the front area of the block providing greater security and privacy for residents.

The project is not only great training and work experience for the students it also provides a benefit for the community for many years to come.

Elsewhere, the team have put up a rockery at Crown Road with the support of local councillors and residents.

External Services managers will be continuing our British Institute of Cleaning Science (BICS) training for staff this year, by providing each caretaker with three additional units. We are already seeing the benefits this is bringing both in helping to support staff to do their jobs to an excellent standard and to improve satisfaction for residents.

AssetManagementUpdate

SHP’s Decent Homes programme finishes this year. On the back of this, the team have been working hard on gathering and improving our knowledge of the housing stock. We identified this as a much needed project to ensure we are prioritising our repairs and asset works.

Hopefully you’ll have seen from Yammer that the scaffolding is almost completely up at Chaucer House. Once this stage is complete, we will move onto the much needed external renovation of the block. On our box bathroom programme, we plan on installing 90 new bathroomsand we now have more details on the planned programme of DH works for the year ahead.We have also reached 100% on gas compliance, which is great news.

Property services thrill on the tour of the borough

Dennis Paul and Brian Burton were asked to lead the last tour of the borough for staff. Setting off on a sunny April morning, and armed with only a coach and some snacks, they spent the morning visiting some of our estates to showcase the external services, repairs and asset team’s work to some of our newer members of staff (and a couple familiar faces).

Thank you to those who attended, your feedback has been overwhelmingly positive and will go into making sure future tours are even better. If you would like a chance to see our work up close and personal, please contact a member of the Communications team, who organise the tours.

Terry celebrated his 25th year of service back in April!He joined the London Borough of Sutton on the 6thApril 1990, working on Durand Close for 20 years before moving onto Collingwood, where he has beenkeeping residents happy for the last 5 years.

Andrew Taylor attended the External Services teammeeting to personally congratulate Terry, and colleagues sent their congrats via Yammer.

WelldoneTerry

Martin Thomas, Interim Head of Asset Management and Compliance

RepairsProcurementupdate

This was one of the questions we asked residents. While some landlords have difficulty getting any response from residents we got a mini avalanche with a wide variety of views being expressed. Over 735 survey responses with 365 additional comments.

From their responses, we can see that doing a good job goes beyond the quality of the repair, residents also want to see a good attitude from SHP as well as operatives. We’re using all of this information to guide us in developing what the repairs service will look like under a new contract.

Leasehold consultation letters have already been sent out for the repairs contract and we are about to issue consultation letters for the gas contract (because leaseholders are charged where there are communal gas systems and communal water tank testing).

We are still on programme for both procurements and our first milestone is the Board meeting on Wednesday 10th June when decisions will be made on what happens next.The table gives you an idea of what we’re working towards.

If you’d like to attend the board meeting, please get in touch with a member of the Governance team.

Have some thoughts on the new contract?

GetintouchwithPeterLeetohaveyoursay.

“Whatsortofrepairsservicedoyouwantinthefuture?”

ResponsiveRepairs

Gas&Legionella

OJEU advert 22/06/2015 10/07/2015

Invitation to negotiate/tender

06/08/2015 07/09/2015

Final tender returned

26/10/2015 26/10/2015

Decision on which contractor to appoint

10/11/2015 13/11/2015

Board meeting 09/12/2015 09/12/2015

Leaseholder notice of proposal

10/12/2015 10/12/2015

Contract awarded

12/01/2016 12/01/2016

Contract commences

18/04/2016 18/04/2016

Ourcurrenttimetable

estor yhome.

Iwantoperativestorespectmyhome.

Iwantyoutoemployskilledandqualifiedoperatives.

Itshouldbeeasiertoreplacepoorcontractors.

OperativesshouldalwaysshowID.

What were you doing before joining SHP? I worked for Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust as a Radiology IT systems administrator.

What has been your most memorable moment in your role? Being the Resident Liaison Officer for Chaucer House required a lot of time and commitment and the project was definitely memorable in many different ways.

What do you like to do outside of work? I like to spend time with my family and friends.

Who do you most admire? People who manage to remain positive and smile no matter what life throws at them.

What has been your biggest challenge in your role so far? Chaucer House became very high profile and we found we had to be constantly one step ahead.

How do you feel you make a difference to SHP?I would like to think I make a difference by assisting residents so that they can proceed with having the Decent Homes works completed to ensure they benefit and enjoy a better quality of life.

What were you doing before joining SHP? I was working part time as a Market Research Assistant, which suited a people person like me, as I got to engage with a vast amount of people from all walks of life. The experience taught me a lot about myself!

What do you like to do outside of work?Spend as much time as humanly possible with family and friends, eating, drinking and socialising.

Who do you most admire?My mother who is the most amazing, strong woman full of substance, loving, classy, elegant, endlessly generous and beautiful!

What has been your biggest overall challenge in your role so far?Being a mum, which is a huge responsibility, creating a blue print for her life and moulding her personality. Whatever experiences I create for her will stay with her for life! Scary! Compared to that, everything else is a “piece of cake.”

How do you feel you make a difference to SHP? By having a positive mental attitude, adding little sprinkles of laughter and light in the midst of working in an extremely challenging, but rewarding environment.

Miranda Charles - Neighbourhood Officer

Nikki Fahy - Assistant

Project Manager

SPOTLIGHTON...

What were you doing before joining SHP? I worked for Epsom and St Helier NHS Trust as a Radiology IT systems administrator.

What has been your most memorable moment in your role? Being the Resident Liaison Officer for Chaucer House required a lot of time and commitment and the project was definitely memorable in many different ways.

What do you like to do outside of work? I like to spend time with my family and friends.

Who do you most admire? People who manage to remain positive and smile no matter what life throws at them.

What has been your biggest challenge in your role so far? Chaucer House became very high profile and we found we had to be constantly one step ahead.

How do you feel you make a difference to SHP?I would like to think I make a difference by assisting residents so that they can proceed with having the Decent Homes works completed to ensure they benefit and enjoy a better quality of life.

What were you doing before joining SHP? I was working part time as a Market Research Assistant, which suited a people person like me, as I got to engage with a vast amount of people from all walks of life. The experience taught me a lot about myself!

What do you like to do outside of work?Spend as much time as humanly possible with family and friends, eating, drinking and socialising.

Who do you most admire?My mother who is the most amazing, strong woman full of substance, loving, classy, elegant, endlessly generous and beautiful!

What has been your biggest overall challenge in your role so far?Being a mum, which is a huge responsibility, creating a blue print for her life and moulding her personality. Whatever experiences I create for her will stay with her for life! Scary! Compared to that, everything else is a “piece of cake.”

How do you feel you make a difference to SHP? By having a positive mental attitude, adding little sprinkles of laughter and light in the midst of working in an extremely challenging, but rewarding environment.

SPOTLIGHTON...

Ruth Scott - Resident Board Member

Why did you want to become a SHP board member? I wanted a new challenge while I was between jobs. I volunteered to assist on the Annual Report for Residents and really enjoyed working as part of a team and learning more about SHP, so decided to apply for the position of board member. As a SHP resident, I want to be the voice of residents at Board meetings.

In your own words, what do the board do? The board is responsible for several things such as approving budgets and making financial decisions, agreeing new policies, supervision and reviewing SHP's performance including making sure that SHP is being run lawfully and ethically and reporting on the management agreement between Sutton Council and SHP.

What has been the hardest part of being one of our board members? When I joined the board, it was a difficult time for SHP, there were huge concerns in regards to the performance of Rydon and as a new member, I was not aware of the history, which was difficult. However, I am more aware of issues now which puts me in a better place. I have to add, as a board member, I am learning constantly.

What are you looking forward to/hoping to achieve on the board?I am looking forward to being the voice of the residents at future board meetings. I hope that residents will be happy with my performance as a board member.

What are some of your hobbies/interests?I love to read especially Josephine Cox novels (my escape). I have two gorgeous dogs called Alice and Button and I particularly love the weekends when I can take them both on long walks.

At the staff conference in March, we asked staff to share a couple interesting facts about themselves – can you give us two or three interesting facts about you?I was adopted as a baby and I have 13 siblings (birth and adoptive), 8 brothers and 5 sisters. I have met them all now, I am closer to some than others.

I am a returning social worker, I left social work in 2006 and swore I would never go back to social work. I am now back working in Child Protection for one and a half years.

I have only ever owned rescue pets, dogs and rabbits. I refuse to purchase any animal as there are so many unwanted animals that need a caring and loving homes. I am a big supporter of Guide Dogs and Battersea Dogs & Cats Home.

WANT TO SHOW THE BOARD WHAT YOU DO? Read on . . . If you would like the board to have more of an insight into your service area, whether by seeing what you do on a day-to-day basis, or to see some of the challenges your team faces more generally, get in touch with Mary Fapojuwo to arrange for one of our resident, council nominated or independent board members to shadow your team for an afternoon.

Mears - 5 months on

In December 2014, SHP made the decision to move our repairs service from Rydon, who were not performing as we would expect. Of course, our residents still needed their repairs carried out, and the onus was on finding a repairs contractor who was able to mobilise quickly and provide a top knotch service to residents, particularly in our busy winter months.

Mears joined SHP in December, and our performance data for the first four months show that they have performed well, in fact, as at May, we have not received a formal complaint from residents about their service thus far. In April, Mears began taking on our voids (carrying out repairs to our empty properties so that we can re-let them). Voids performance has not been as high as we would have liked, but the management and repairs team are working closely with Mears and we will continue to monitor and work in partnership with the team to ensure targets are met and residents remain happy.

It’s not only about residents . . .

It’s important to learn from our past experiences, and one of the things we’ve learnt about ensuring a succesful contract is that we all need to work in partnership. That’s not just Repairs and Mears, we mean all of us. So, on the next couple of pages we’re introducing you to two office based Mears faces you should really know. Over the next few editions, we’ll be getting to know some of the rest of the Mears team, both office based and external staff, to ensure we’re all working as one unit.

It’s also important to us that our contractors get to know the community SHP supports. Recognising this, Mears have been working on a number of events and initiatives, in partnership with SHP and various other stakeholder and resident groups, to make a visible difference to our resident’s lives as well as their homes. Members of the Mears team will be on hand at the St Helier festival to speak to residents. They are also launching a door stop challenge, which we are advertising in Homefront.

We hope you find our Mears feature useful.

How did you get into Repairs?Although I’m new to this position, I have worked in repairs for

about 10 years and have worked with Mears before for 6 years and then worked 1 year with another business before starting this

position.

How did you get into your role?When I left school, I qualified as a carpenter and joiner and did an apprenticeship about 25 years ago at City & Guilds and just progressed in the industry since then.

What did you want to be when you were younger? It must have been something within sports, probably a footballer, or a journalist/artist.

What are you hoping to accomplish in your role?It is early days for me in this current role, but I am aware that Mears only have a short time to impress Sutton and show we can do the job. I am hoping to get the team fully staffed and running at their potential.

WhatwereyourfirstimpressionsofSHP?I actually came in twice for 2 interviews, one with Chloe (introduced in the last edition of FlagSHiP) and one with Brian Burton. I remember sitting in reception and noticing that tenants were not really kept waiting. People seemed committed to resolving issues as quickly as possible, which to me showed SHP is not a faceless business. I have worked on previous

contracts where tenants weren’t even aware of who their Housing Officer was or how to contact them.

What are some of your hobbies?I’m not sure if this counts as a hobby, but I really enjoy ferrying my children about. My son is very involved in rugby and boxing and I love driving him to lessons and watching him practice and compete. My daughter, well, I like the time spent driving and picking her up from this party or that one!

Who is your role model?Honestly, the mother of my children. Everything she does is for them always. It’s hard to compete with sometimes, but I’m trying!

What would you like to find out about SHP?

Getting to know Mears - Martin

Can you guess where Martin Cheeseman, Mears Repairs

Manager, is from?

Can you guess where Martin’s from?

I’m a Londoner through and through, but I’m also half Maori (Polynesian) as my mum is from New Zealand. If you get a chance, check out the Haka dance performed by the All Blacks rugby team.

Getting to know Mears - Phyllis

What do you do?My official title is Customer Care Officer, which means I handle any tenant dissatisfaction, deal with any walk-ins at reception, carrying out satisfaction calls, and handle any complaints - but we haven’t had any official complaints yet. I also attend resident meetings and estate walkabouts to scope out and organise community days and events Mears are involved in such as this year’s St Helier Festival. (More information on that in the Summer edition of Homefront.)

How did you get into your role?I used to work in market research but have worked in the social housing sector for 20 years, part of which was spent as a Resident Liaison Officer.

What did you want to be when you were younger?I trained as a nursery nurse and worked in that field for a while, before moving into housing.

WhatwereyourfirstimpressionsofSHP?I liked the friendliness and how willing staff were to help each other out.

What has been your best moment in your role so far?I would have to say moving to working with Mears.

What is the biggest challenge?Trying to change tenant’s perceptions has been difficult. It’s rewarding when they call to compliment our operatives, not knowing they were the same men and women working for Rydon.

What are some of your hobbies?I love helping with the various charity bake sales as I love to bake. I also love reading and being around

my three grandchildren, who love theme parks. And like everyone else, I like going out.

Who is your role model?Honestly, it has to be my sister. She raised me from age five and has been such a big inspiration. She’s currently working with a famous theatre personality on broadway in New York. (Let’s just say she’s close friends with Catherine Zeta-Jones - can you guess who Phyllis’ sister works for? Strike up a conversation to find out!)

I’ve flown a plane. I have three grandchildren.I was in the first film ever shown on Channel 4.

Quick facts about Phyllis:

Covering Customer Care

Covering Customer Care

But what am I expected to do??

... I think I need some training!

From time to time Customer Care need your help so we can attend team meetings and training events, but we know this can be quite a daunting experience for some staff.

We underwent a Lean review last year and made some changes:• booking our team meetings 3 months in advance• arranging cover 3 months in advance to give you as much notice as possible.

Demi’s here to offer some helpful insight into what’s expected of you when you cover customer care.

We don’t expect you to do everything Customer Care Advisors do (you can breathe easy now). You do not have to raise jobs, take payments or discuss rent arrears with residents.

What we’re hoping you will do though is answer the phone and direct the caller to the right team with as much detail as you can get. If you can help the caller yourself - please do as this improves their customer care experience and takes some of the pressure off other (already busy) teams.

We appreciate that it can seem really intimidating, and whether you’re a providing cover for the first time, or you’re a regular, we all need a refresh sometimes.

That’s why the team are happy to provide training to anyone between Tuesday and Friday (Mondays are our busiest!)

Training will usually not be longer than an hour. We’ll sit with you and will cover:• how to use the phone system (extensions, transferring and presences)• who to put calls to in different teams• handling general enquiries, and of course . . .

Some quick numbers for when you’re next down . . .

HCRMHCRM stands for Housing Customer Relationship Management, you might also hear it referred to as CRM. However you refer to it, this is the system we use to track and monitor our interactions with all our residents and leaseholders.

It’s important that anyone coming down to cover for us knows how to use the system. You’ll need to be able to find a resident’s details by searching either their name or address so you can note down what their call was about. You’ll also use this system to ‘send a CRM’ to another member of staff.

That’s all we expect you to do on CRM when you cover. Each team has a HCRM Super User. If you want some training on how to use the system, your Super User will be able to show you the ropes, but if you need further help, please contact Demi Hastain on ext. 2360.

Finally, thank you to all staff who continue to offer cover (especially at short notice) - we really do appreciate your time, effort and support.

Hunt group number Team What they can help with2480 Allocations • Viewing enquiries

• Terminations• Sign up enquiry• General allocations enquiry

2120 Asset Management • Decent homes• Gas (not Smith & Byford

repairs)• Lifts

2150 Income • Payments• Rent enquiries• Service charge enquiries• Garages• Rechargeable works

2281 Mears • Chasing up appointments• Missed appointments• Varied orders• General repair enquiry

2190 Neighbourhoods • Antisocial behaviour• Tenancy enquiries• Parking• Pets

2479 Repairs • Raising repairs• Chasing outstanding repairs• Booking inspections

2115 Sheltered/Community Development/Tenancy

Sustainment

• Enquiries relating to Comm. Development, Sheltered Housing or Tenancy Sustainment

2467 Surveyors • Repairs advice• Chasing• Surveyor enquiry