09 October 2008
Southern Housing Group's internal Investor in People inspection team. (Pictured left to right - back row) Phil Conway, John Austin, Edwin Desewu and Saiqah Sohail (front row) Dawn Powell and Lynn Bates.
Southern Housing Group has been awarded Investor in People (IiP) National Standard accreditation for the next three years (2008-2011).
The Group is very proud of its achievements as it shows that Southern Housing Group is as committed to staff learning, development and management as many FTSE 100 companies (50% of these have Investor in People accreditation).
The Group has held Investor in People (IiP) accreditation since 1996. Within that time the qualification process became significantly more difficult to achieve and Southern Housing Group expanded, almost doubling its staff. The Group realised, given these circumstances, that reaccreditation would be more challenging so they produced an Internal Review Strategy and assembled a team of internal assessors (pictured above) to review group practices from the Investors in People's point of view. They worked alongside an external assessor, interviewing some 90 members of staff from all levels of seniority, lengths of tenure and from all parts of the Group.
Alene Wilton, Director of Corporate Services, says Southern Housing Group is delighted to have been awarded the Investor in People National Standard accreditation.
"Our teams have worked hard and rose to the challenge to earn the enhanced Investor In People accreditation. We all share in this success; our staff from our investment and commitment into their development and our residents and customers who benefit from a higher quality of service provision from Southern Housing Group staff. There is no doubt that our staff development is vital to the continued success of the Group."
Investors in People measures procedures, behaviour and practice against 10 indicators (containing a total of 39 criteria). The highlighted findings include that Southern Housing Group empowers its staff to take ownership and responsibility, and that staff are involved in decision making (especially when it came to cross cutting project teams and focus groups). The findings also showed that the Group actively encourages and provides opportunities for its staff to learn and develop effectively, operates a culture of equality of opportunity for the development of its staff, and that it values and recognises its staff's contributions to the organisation.
The Group's £0.5 million investment into the training of employees, effective programme of regular one-to-one meetings, the appraisal system between management and staff were commended by Investors in People. The recent successful roll out of the integrated management project designed to improve the level of service to residents by Southern Housing Group was also highlighted.
Bill Crabtree, the IiP Managing Assessor assigned to Southern Housing Group said: "The performance in this assessment was impressive in many different ways. Managers and staff at Southern Housing Group deserve to be congratulated."
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For more information please contact Karen Bermingham Communications Team on 020 7553 6479 communications@shgroup.org.uk
Notes to Editors
Southern Housing Group Ltd is one of southern England’s largest housing associations. Founded over 100 years ago, we own and manage 24,000 homes for more than 66,000 residents, employing more than 900 people and working with more than 80 local authorities.
Our activities centre on four-key areas: the development of quality-affordable housing, housing and neighbourhood management, a range of rent and home ownership and social investment.
We believe that building communities is as important as building homes. So as well as developing and managing quality, affordable housing for rent and ownership, we invest considerable resources to provide an environment where people really want to live.
Southern Housing Group Limited is a Charitable Industrial and Provident Society No. 27412R.