Our new Scrutiny Panel has met for the first time and started work on its first project.
The panel of 10 customers was recruited earlier this year and they will review our services and hold us to account.
The first project the panel are looking at is the standard of our empty properties or voids. They will work together to assess the quality of our void properties, get feedback from customers, review key customer processes and then report back findings and recommendations to help us improve.
Our Chief Operating Officer Mads Nelson said: “It is brilliant that our Scrutiny Panel has met for the first time and the review into our voids is underway.
“It is so important that we involve our customers in our work and the work the Scrutiny Panel carries out will hold us to account.
“I’m looking forward to working with the Scrutiny Panel and seeing the panel members help us achieve our objective of improving our offer to our customers.”
This is the first of at least three scrutiny reviews the panel will take part in throughout the year.
Our Chief Executive Kevin Rodgers said: “It was great to meet all the members of our Scrutiny Panel and it is good to hear our customer voice at Citizen.
“I am looking forward to working with all the Scrutiny Panel members throughout the year.”
The Scrutiny Panel will report its findings directly into our Customer Assurance Committee, and then onto the Board. This means its work will feed into the highest levels of our organisation and exert real influence over our services.
We’re delighted our When You Look at Me equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) video is shortlisted for Best Video/Animation at the Institute of Internal Communication (IoIC) Awards!
We have been shortlisted alongside the likes of Virgin Atlantic and Three.
The IoIC Awards champion the impact that internal communication has on organisations, society and people at work.
The shortlisting comes after When You Look at Me won the gold award in the Best Use of Video and Animation at the Internal Communication and Engagement awards last week.
Our When You Look at Me video was developed by our EDI Forum and is the product of a collective effort to showcase our commitment and challenge people to think about what they can do to make a difference. It has become the foundation for our work to drive forward our equality, diversity and inclusion agenda.
Our Chief Executive and EDI Forum Chair Kevin Rodgers said: “It’s brilliant news that When You Look at Me is shortlisted for another national award – especially after it won gold at the ICE awards!
“The best videos are part of something bigger and help organisations to achieve outcomes. When You Look at Me is an excellent example of this. It has achieved our fundamental objective to showcase our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion and so much more.
“It has re-energised our work in this area, raised our profile and contributed to us achieving tangible outcomes aligned with the objectives in our equality, diversity, and inclusion strategy.
“I’m very proud of the video and of the work of the EDI Forum and Communications Team.”
The Institute of Internal Communication awards ceremony will take place on Friday 23 September at the Brewery, London.
We have won the Best Larger Employer award at Coventry City College’s annual Apprenticeship Awards.
The awards are held to recognise students and individuals who have gone above and beyond and also recognise employers who have supported students at the college.
We have worked with Coventry College over a number of years and in that time we have taken on apprentices, attended career events, provided work experience placements and have chatted to students about opportunities at Citizen.
Our Head of Learning and Development Lisa Robertson said: “We are thrilled to have won this award and it came as a complete surprise because we didn’t submit an entry for it. The college wanted to recognise the work that Citizen has done to support them and their students.
“I am so proud we have won this – we were only one of two employers who were presented with awards on the night. The other winner was for the Best Smaller Employer award.
“I appreciate the support of all the apprentice supervisors, line managers and the HR team who support our apprenticeship programme including apprentices from other colleges. Without their support in training and supporting our apprentices we wouldn’t have a scheme.
“Well done and congratulations to everyone involved!”
We have students completing Apprenticeships with Coventry College in Business Administration, Carpentry and Plumbing and have recently supported an Electrical work experience placement.
Supervisors who support our apprentices at Coventry College include: Maintenance Supervisor Andrew Freckleton, Maintenance Supervisor Andrew Stock, Maintenance Supervisor Phil Watson, Maintenance Supervisor Lauren Whittle, Maintenance Planning Manager Lorraine Crane, HR Business Partner Emma Lenton and HR Advisor Katy Turner.
We’ve signed a training partnership agreement with the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) as part of our commitment to support staff with professional membership and personal development.
The agreement means that we can now offer individual training plans for our members and get access to the CIOB continuous professional development events.
To provide more details on all the benefits of the CIOB training scheme, we’re inviting all our CIOB members to a membership session on Thursday 21 July at 9.30am.
Our Head of Learning and Development Lisa Robertson said: “I’m really excited about our new partnership agreement with the CIOB as it’s really going to support colleagues with their professional membership and personal development.
“As part of our training commitment at Citizen, we offer to pay for one relevant job-related professional fee per year and this new scheme with the CIOB is the perfect opportunity to help colleagues improve their skills and develop their career.
“At the virtual introductory session, the CIOB will be explaining about all the benefits of the scheme and how colleagues can make the most of their membership.
“The CIOB will also look at creating individual training plans to support colleagues with their career development and the best route to take to gain Chartership.
“We really want everyone to take full advantage of everything the CIOB has to offer and hope to see colleagues at the membership session!”
We have recently signed up to the Menopause Workplace Pledge demonstrating our commitment to actively supporting colleagues affected by the menopause.
The aim of the commitment is to ensure we provide a supportive and understanding workplace for colleagues going through the menopause.
Almost 900,000 women in the UK have quit their jobs due to the menopause. If people affected by menopause feel supported at work, it can help to increase staff retention, reduce recruitment costs, improve productivity, happiness, and wellbeing, and ensure a more diverse workforce.
The three standards in the Menopause Workplace Pledge state that we will:
Recognise that the menopause can be an issue in the workplace and women need support
Talk openly, positively and respectfully about the menopause
Actively support and inform employees affected by the menopause
Our Interim Head of HR, Nicky Hulse, said: “The menopause is a natural part of ageing for women that usually occurs between the age of 45 and 55, as a woman’s hormone levels decline. It can be a time of high anxiety and distress and impact women’s health and wellbeing for many years.
“By signing up to the Menopause Workplace Pledge, we’re joining the growing movement of likeminded employers, businesses and organisations across the UK by declaring that we understand the importance of supporting colleagues affected by the menopause.
“I’m really pleased to see that we’re already doing everything outlined in the pledge through our Menopause Support Group which is open to colleagues and our ongoing dialogue around the menopause.”
Our When You Look at Me equality, diversity, and inclusion video (EDI) won Gold in the Best Use of Video and Animation award at the Internal Communications and Engagement Awards last night (Wednesday 6 July).
Run by Communicate Magazine the Internal Communications and Engagement Awards highlight the impact internal communications has on a business, the role of the internal communicator within an organisation and the creative strategies developed to promote an engaged workforce.
Our When You Look at Me video was developed by our EDI Forum and is the product of a collective effort to showcase our commitment and challenge people to think about what they can do to make a difference. It has become the foundation for our work to drive forward our equality, diversity and inclusion agenda.
Our Chief Executive and EDI Forum Chair Kevin Rodgers said: “It’s fantastic news that When You Look at Me won Gold at such a prestigious award ceremony.
“The best videos are part of something bigger and help organisations to achieve outcomes. When You Look at Me is an excellent example of this. It has achieved our fundamental objective to showcase our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion and re-energised our work in this area.
“I am proud to feature in When You Look at Me and everyone in our EDI Forum and the Communications Team should be very proud for all their hard work in putting this together. Competition was high and to win shows just how brilliant this video is.
“Well done everyone!”
Watch our award-winning When You Look at Me video below:
It’s Rural Housing Week this week, taking place from 4 – 8 July.
The week, run by the National Housing Federation (NHF), is an annual campaign to share what housing associations are doing to support people living in rural areas.
The theme this year is levelling up rural communities.
We continue to invest in our rural homes in the same way as any other home we own however, over the last year we have secured additional grant funding to tackle specific issues affecting some of our rural homes.
Following devastating floods in February 2020, we invested in flood defence measures to 18 homes located by the banks of the River Teme in Tenbury Wells, Worcestershire. These homes had been severely impacted by flooding and there was the real risk that it would happen again.
The money was made up of a £40,000 grant from the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) which was administered by Malvern Hills District Council and was match funded by us.
We spent £5,000 on each home installing more efficient flood barriers on front and back doors, replacing automatic airbricks, voids in the brickwork were sealed, a waterproofing compound was applied to lower areas of the buildings and external sump pumps were installed. Once deployed the flood barriers and other measures help prevent any flood water from entering the home providing our residents with much needed comfort and reassurance that their homes are protected.
We have also been successful in securing a £1.2m grant from the Social Housing Decarbonisation Demonstrator Fund to improve the energy efficiency of rural homes in the Wychavon area.
The grant was provided by the Government Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and we applied for it in partnership with Wychavon District Council.
We are one of the first pioneering housing associations, along with a small consortium of other housing associations who are testing the viability of decarbonising our homes and gaining a deeper understanding of how this approach works in practice. The fund will allow us to retrofit some of our EPC D rated homes to help reduce the amount of energy needed to heat the home and to lower the amount of carbon dioxide produced as a consequence.
Our Director of Asset Management Paul Baker said: “At Citizen we are keen to invest in our rural homes across the West Midlands and it’s important we highlight this work as part of Rural Housing Week. The impact of fuel poverty in rural areas is a real concern due to a reliance on electricity to heat our homes.
“We are doing this work to help combat fuel poverty in rural areas and to help our customers feel comfortable and save money. It is vital that we help our customers who are struggling with fuel poverty.
“The work is also part of the wider Zero Carbon Agenda which is a target set by Government to reduce the UK’s carbon emissions by 2050 and to prioritise homes where residents may be at risk of being in fuel poverty, it’s brilliant that we are proactively playing a part in this.
“It’s important we mark Rural Housing Week to highlight important issues that affect our customers such as the risk of flooding and fuel poverty and what we are doing to support our customers who are living in more rural areas.”
For more information about Rural Housing Week, visit the NHF’s website here.
We are launching a new campaign for our online customer portal, My Account, today (Monday 4 July).
We are emailing all customers not signed up to My Account as well as customers that haven’t used My Account for six months to encourage them to either sign up or use our My Account customer portal throughout July and August.
All customers that sign up or use My Account throughout July and August will automatically be entered into a prize draw where they could be in with a chance of winning a £500 voucher to spend at a supermarket of their choice.
Our Interim Director of Customer Services Graeme Hall said: “We are really keen to get more of our customers signed up and using My Account.
“We want to encourage and support our customers to become digital first and we hope that the prize draw incentive will entice more of them to self serve via our My Account portal, whether it’s to check their account, pay their rent, or request a repair.
“Increasing the number of customers signed up and using My Account will help to reduce the daily demand on our Customer Service team.
“We’ve implemented My Account campaigns before, but this is the first time we are offering such a big incentive.
“After July we will review the uptake and impact to determine our next steps. I’m really looking forward to seeing the results.”
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