It’s been an unsettling quarter, with much discussion around sustainability, governance and the survival of our most vulnerable, as we head towards winter. With the Queen’s passing in September, and yet another government leadership transition, came a collective, reflective focus on how fast times are changing, what the future will hold and how consistent leadership plays a fundamental part in how we deal with uncertainty and complex socio-political challenges.
Finding ways to operate well in such enduringly ambiguous circumstances has been top of the housing agenda. Our Senior Leaders Networking Event tackled some of the biggest challenges the industry is facing, and there was sense that collaboration will be key, both regionally and nationally, if we are to realistically achieve future net zero targets.
Adapting to continuous change
The cost-of-living crisis has been driving many to re-evaluate what tenant and employment support looks like. Industry leaders are starting to implement creative and outside-the-box initiatives to ensure our most vulnerable tenants and most valuable talent are cushioned and supported to thrive in an ongoing uncertain environment. Across the board, we are seeing a sea change in the way we carry out our services, and in how we attract, retain and develop our housing professionals, with an acceptance that personal and professional circumstances mutually impact each other more than ever before.
Understanding how the recruitment landscape is changing will be key to ensuring we are fit for the future and ready to plug the current and future skills gap widening across our industry, as we compete for the roles that are most needed to meet sustainability, net zero, and repairs targets. Inflation is impacting salary scales, and there is a question about how we ensure fairness, consistency and transparency, whilst acknowledging that supply and demand is creating a discord between the highest and lowest level earners across a variety of our most sought-after industry roles. How can we work collaboratively across the sector to become more efficient in producing, developing and supporting the future talent pools we will need to draw upon when it comes to building a sustainable future?
As an organisation in our eleventh successive year, we’ve learned that the key to success and growth, especially through times of uncertainty, is a simple recipe. Listen, adapt and respond. Listening to what our people and our customers need on an individual, collective and ongoing basis, and continually adapting our responses to reflect this, is at heart of everything Greenacre do, and what drives our values.
As an industry, learning to adapt and evolve means understanding that a collaborate mindset is needed to pump the vital bloodflow into the heart of our sector and out where it’s needed most, and this will take a collective effort. We are proud to be part of such an energised industry and will continue to support its growth and evolvement through our recruitment and leadership development channels and our thought leadership networking projects. To find out about our suite of services and what else we are doing to support the housing sector’s ongoing transformation, feel free to contact a member of our team.