Top 5 Recruitment Tips for Income Teams: How to Recruit the Right Staff Painlessly
Recruiting for any position can be a daunting and challenging task, but recruiting for an income team in social housing can be especially tricky. When it comes to managing arrears cases there’s often a lot of complex work to be done, so having the right team in place is crucial. More and more social housing providers are realising that recruiting for characteristics and personable skills, rather than just experience, is the key to success. If your organisation is encountering challenges in recruiting for income teams then read on as we’re about to bring you five invaluable tips for recruiting the right staff, painlessly…
Look Beyond Experience and Qualifications
One of the biggest mistakes that social landlords make when recruiting is focusing solely on experience and qualifications. While these are important, they are not the only factors that should be considered. You can teach the technical skills, but you can’t teach someone empathy, understanding and a positive mindset. Instead, focus on finding candidates who have the right personality traits and characteristics to fit the role. Consider things like communication skills, problem-solving abilities, and cultural fit.
Move Away from Traditional Interviews
Traditional interviews can be highly structured and may not give a true reflection of a candidate’s ability to perform in a role. Instead of relying solely on interviews, consider other ways of assessing a candidate’s competency. For example, you could have them complete a task or project that is similar to what they would be doing on a day to day basis in the role (i.e. formulating a plan to contact and resolve an issue with a ‘difficult’ tenant). Although a candidate may not have first-hand experience of the particular situation, looking at how they approach the issue in terms of planning, communication and how they measure the effectiveness of their actions will give you a better idea of their ability to perform the tasks required and a more accurate representation of their skills and abilities.
As tempting as it may seem to tick another hire off your To-Do list however, hastily hiring a candidate or candidates can lead to problems down the line if the those you recruit are not the right fit for the role.
Mark Walker – Mobysoft Income Maximisation Director and former Head of Income at Optivo & Amicus Horizon
Don’t Recruit Just to Put Bums on Seats
Considering the staffing and retention crisis the social housing sector is currently facing, it’s easy to fall into the trap of recruiting just to fill a vacancy. As tempting as it may seem to tick another hire off your To-Do list however, hastily hiring a candidate or candidates can lead to problems down the line if the those you recruit are not the right fit for the role.
Instead, take the time to find the right candidate for the job. This might mean being patient and waiting until someone comes along who you’re confident will fit in with the team culture and succeed in the position, but trust us, that wait will pay off in the long run.
Get Your Induction Programme Spot On
Once you’ve found the right candidate, it’s important to ensure that their onboarding experience is a positive one. According to recent studies, 12% of people starting new jobs since the pandemic are leaving within the first 6 months due to a poor induction programme.
Make sure that your induction programme is comprehensive and covers everything the new employee needs to know to do their job effectively. This will help them to settle in quickly and become productive members of the team, something that is imperative for you as a recruiting manager.
Can the role you’re recruiting for be changed to accommodate without compromising workflow and working practices? These are the things you need to consider before making any hiring decision.
Nick Beasley – Mobysoft Income Maximisation Director and former Income Recovery Team Leader at Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council
Be Realistic About Hybrid Working & Location of New Hires
The Covid-19 pandemic has changed the way we work irrevocably, and many social housing providers are now offering hybrid working arrangements. However, it’s important to be realistic about whether this is feasible for the role you are recruiting for. For example, if the role requires visiting tenants, you may need to consider whether hybrid working is possible, or whether the candidate will need to be based in a specific location.
Take time to assess the day to day realities of the role you’re looking to fill and how flexible the position could be in order to fit a particular candidate. After all, you don’t want to forego hiring your dream candidate over something as little as not being able to allow them to WFH on Tuesdays due to their childcare commitments. Can the role you’re recruiting for be changed to accommodate without compromising workflow and working practices? These are the things you need to consider before making any hiring decision.
The Bottom Line
Considering the current climate in which many social landlords are having to operate, it’s evident that recruiting for an income team in social housing requires a careful and considered approach. By focusing on personality traits and characteristics, moving away from traditional interviews, being patient, and getting the onboarding process right, you can recruit the right staff painlessly.
At Mobysoft, we understand the challenges faced by social housing organisations when it comes to staffing issues. That’s why we offer products such as assisted automation and RentSense, which can help to alleviate some of these challenges by making what are often viewed as time-consuming, labour-intensive, repetitive tasks by staff, streamlined and ‘painless. Our assisted automation solutions can help to reduce the time spent on manual processes, freeing up staff to focus on more valuable, and perhaps most importantly in terms of recruiting new employees, engaging tasks.
If you’re a current Mobysoft customer and are interested in finding out more about how Mobysoft’s products can help with your staffing challenges, then make sure that you sign up for our insightful Recruitment and Retention: How to Get it Right webinar happening in the coming weeks by heading over to our dedicated event page and registering your interest.
