The housing association where workers are an ‘effective team’

Matt Thomas, CEO of Hundred Houses Society. Pic: Hundred Houses Society. (Image: Archant)

And so not-for-profit organisation Hundred Houses Society was born.

A decade later full charitable status was achieved. Since then it has expanded and it currently owns and manages more than 1,400 homes in the greater Cambridge area with plans to expand by developing more new, affordable homes every year.

Its CEO, Matt Thomas, took over last year after working for other housing associations in Norfolk and Bedfordshire and is assisted by executive operations director, Tracey Spencer, and executive resources director, Sean Kent.

With a turnover of nearly £8m a year, Hundred Houses continues to develop and as a Best Employer, winning the Most Improved category, it aims to look after the people who work for it as well as the people in its houses.

Evidence of this is the fact they recently spent a whole day away from the office to focus on employee and team development. They also run regular initiatives to encourage employees to focus on their wellbeing. These include local nature walks during lunch breaks and supporting local community events which complement their other benefits to provide flexible and healthy working arrangements.

Hundred Houses places an emphasis on training and staff development and is using coaching as a key tool to achieve this, with most employees having had some coaching training.

Its wider mission is to provide more homes in Cambridge, to deliver better customer service but also to develop 'motivated and effective people.' It has enabled this with a clear corporate strategy and aims of providing 'Great Value, Better Services, More Homes' through core values of 'innovation, being customer focused', effective and through collaboration.'

These messages are delivered clearly to employees with communication internally aided by regular team briefings and an explanation from the executive team of their new rolling corporate strategy which is also on its website.

Mr Thomas said: "We recognise the benefits to everyone of developing 'motivated and effective people.' We believe that this is best achieved by a diverse team who are focused on continual improvement. We recognise the clear link between employee satisfaction and customer satisfaction and want our employees to feel engaged in delivering good and flexible customer service to our tenants."