Bromford’s CEO: Trust Is At The Core Of Everything We Do – Both With Colleagues And Customers

This high performing housing association with the core purpose of "inspiring people to be their best" has now beaten the likes of Expedia and Facebook to become the UK’s 3rd Best Place To Work 2018. Priding itself on being a "bit different", Bromford has a trust-based culture which gives colleagues greater autonomy to shape their roles and the inspiration to realise their own potential and that of their customers. To find out more, we caught up with their CEO, Philippa Jones, who not only leads one of the top rated UK companies but also featured as a Highest rated CEO in 2017. MDT: How do you help build a great company culture? PJ: Our purpose is inspiring people to be their best, believing that if we offer them the right home and build the right relationship with them every one of our customers can achieve more. We’re really clear about that and we look for people who buy into that shared vision – whether you’re a director, a neighbourhood coach working on the frontline, or part of our central service teams. We ask leaders to be trusting, supporting and challenging so we can shift away from traditional management approaches towards empowerment of colleagues using coaching techniques. What do you do to foster employee trust and engagement? Trust is at the core of everything we do, both with colleagues and with customers. Bromford is moving away from traditional office thinking and embracing new, more flexible ways of working, with a view that “work is what you do, not a place you go”. Colleagues are loving the greater autonomy offered by trust-based flexible working as it empowers them like never before to take control of their own role and shape it the way they see fit. It’s about setting clear outcomes and holding people to account for delivering them, rather than telling colleagues what to do and watching them do it. Transparent communications is key too – we try to be open and honest with colleagues, just like we are with customers. Your employees love working here as we see the strong rating on Glassdoor – How do you make this a great place to work day in and day out? Our aim is that whatever touchpoint people have throughout the business, they should get the same sense of what Bromford stands for. That starts early with our Bigger Picture induction where I spend half a day with all new recruits to make sure they hear a consistent message about where we’ve come from, what we do and where we’re going. We know we’re not there yet but we are working hard to deliver this consistent colleague experience, with leaders really trusting their teams to do the right thing to contribute to our shared purpose. And although what we do is seriously important we do manage to have a bit of fun too! What is the best part about working here? Feeling that you are making a difference day-to-day is why most colleagues say they love what they do at Bromford. Considering our geographical spread from Shropshire and Staffordshire in the north to Gloucestershire and Buckinghamshire in the south, and everywhere in between, we’ve also got a really close-knit group of colleagues. A regular theme of our internal surveys is that people like who they work with and new colleagues always comment on how friendly and helpful everybody is in the company. Recently we’ve started welcoming new recruits aboard using personalised videos, so they start building those relationships before they even start working with us. What do you look for in informed candidates? We come from a belief that ‘you can coach people to learn additional skills, but you can’t teach people to add value to our culture’. We look for a fit with the four strands of our Bromford DNA: Be Good, Be Brave, Be Different and Be Commercial. These include characteristics such as being positive about change, working with integrity, trust and fairness, and adding a bit of you in everything you do. We invest effort into helping candidates understand what we’re about and what the job will really be like, before they’re even at the interview stage, so we expect more informed candidates who can add greater value to the recruitment process. It’s a two-way process and a continuous investment. Even if a candidate isn’t successful initially, we want them to have a constructive experience so that they consider us again or tell their friends and family. How do you retain talent – what are some of your best practices? It’s an interesting question particularly in today’s climate where people are more likely to have a life full of jobs than a job for life. Historically we’ve been quite strong at retaining talent, partly due to the importance we place on personal development. Our ‘grow your own’ mantra means we encourage people to consider not just traditional career-ladder opportunities but to broaden their experience through sideways and quite diverse career moves as well. I’m probably the most extreme example of that, having worked in almost every part of the business over my 26 year journey from area housing manager to chief executive – but you’ll find lots of colleagues who have worked in two or three very different areas of the business and that is testament to our belief in using people’s talent instead of losing it.

How do you recruit the best talent? We are keen to attract the very best talent from a wide range of backgrounds and experience, not just housing, to help us deliver our ambitious strategy and live our brand. We like to think the activity we promote externally paints a picture about the work we do, and how our colleagues already deliver in these roles. How we position ourselves on our website and on social media – and sharing real-life, tangible stories through our people – all helps to give others a sense of what working for Bromford is like on a day-to-day basis. What are some of the coolest or most unique perks and benefits you offer? Perhaps the biggest draw about working at Bromford is the opportunity to be part of an organisation with such a clear sense of social purpose, where you are trusted to use your judgement and do the right thing to help unlock the potential in our customers and colleagues but also in yourself. We also offer competitive rates of pay and a range of additional benefits: from free drinks machines, collaborative open-plan offices and trust-based flexible working, to an open approach to social media, childcare programme, and attractive annual leave packages coupled with a generous pension scheme.