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Job Title: Housing Officer

Contract Type: Secondment for 18 months

Salary: £32,002.39 (£33,634.59 is achieved after 12 months successful performance in the role)

Working Hours: Full-Time 35 hours

Working Pattern: Monday – Friday

Location: Liverpool (Hybrid)

For your application to be considered please attach a current CV and cover letter.

Applications may close before the deadline, so please apply early to avoid disappointment.

Why Riverside?

At Riverside, we’re a housing association with a difference – enhancing the everyday for all our customers. For 90 years, we’ve been revitalising neighbourhoods and supporting communities by providing the homes they need to live full, fulfilling and rewarding lives.

We have a portfolio of over 75,000 affordable residential and retirement homes across the UK. Our work ranges from homelessness services to social care, employment support to retirement living, and we need the best people on board to help us.

Working with us, you’ll enjoy:

• Competitive pay & generous pension
• 28 days holidays plus bank holidays (Full Time Equivalent)
• Flexible working options available
• Investment in your learning, personal development and technology
• A wide range of benefits

The difference you will make as a Housing Officer Job title

The role holder will will maximise the economic viability, social sustainability and self sufficiency of the tenancies in their patch through targeted support, services and action, establishing and maintaining strong relationships with customers, acting as an ‘Account Manager’. You will advocate for the customer to ensure that other teams are providing services to the expected level. Delivered through flexible, self-led and resourceful processes putting customers first.

About you

We are looking for someone with:

• A proven track record of delivering a high quality customer service function, preferably in the housing sector
• Effective stakeholder management, both internally and external to the organisation.
• Customer focused with excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, with the ability to work at all levels within the business.
• Excellent attention to detail with the ability to work under pressure, deliver to strict deadlines and manage conflicting priorities.
  

Job Purpose

The Housing Officer will maximise the economic viability, social sustainability and self sufficiency of the tenancies in their patch through targeted support, services and action, establishing and maintaining strong relationships with customers, acting as an ‘Account Manager’, advocating for the customer to ensure that other teams are providing services to the expected level. Delivered through flexible, self-led and resourceful processes that enables the front line worker to put customer first.

Role requires you to:

• Pro-actively manage, maintain and improve designated social housing neighbourhoods; dealing with all aspects of tenancy conditions, including service failures, creating, promoting and adopting a culture of customer care in accordance with agreed processes, standards, timescales and targets.
• Accountable for maximising and increasing income collection, working in partnership with Shared Service colleagues to ensure good payment practices are established from tenancy start, support customers with benefit claims, signposting for advice and carrying out home visits during arrears pursuance process.
• Represent the Group in Court for all cases brought against customers in your designated area, ensuring cases are progressed effectively and efficiently and relevant stakeholders are kept up to date with developments and outcomes.
• As an “Account Manager” for the customer and property, be responsible for identifying issues which can be resolved with early intervention, be responsible for liaising with internal & external stakeholders to ensure services and actions are effective and efficient to build lasting, satisfactory and sustainable tenancies.
• Accountable for ‘patch profitability’, minimising void rent loss, identify cash leakage, working in partnership with Shared Service colleagues to carry out inspections, property viewings and managing tenancy sign ups and new tenancy visits.
• Manage a delegated discretionary budget, making decisions regarding the allocation of your budget, ensuring Group financial controls are adhered to robustly and effectively.
• Provide quality assurance for all communal areas in your patch, escalating contracted service failures to the relevant contract owner for resolution, and resolving other issues using the relevant procedure.
  
  Other Information
• You will be required to work a range of shifts on a 24 hour, 7 days per week rota basis.
• You will undertake regular training to enable you to deliver your role safely.From time to time you may be required to undertake additional duties and responsibilities of an equivalent nature, in consultation with your Line Manager.
• Commission, direct and influence other teams as appropriate to resolve low level anti-social behaviour issues, hate crimes, domestic abuse and issues impacting community cohesion, escalating complex cases to the Community Safety Team as appropriate.
• Maximise the use of mobile technology to ensure the provision of an efficient and proactive customer service to customers.
  Champion and promote usage of the online self-service facility, to contribute to ongoing financial efficiencies across the Group by reducing the demand on front line resources.
• Work collaboratively with a range of stakeholders to deliver customer involvement objectives and stakeholder management within a specified area, attending community meetings where relevant to the Group and its customers.
• Build effective and strong relationships with customers, identify customer’s needs and aspirations, provide targeted support and use of customer intelligence to drive tenancy sustainability.
• Provide clear, supportive and accurate social housing advice to customers, colleagues and other stakeholders, including signposting where appropriate, to ensure awareness of the service and the effective progression and resolution of cases.
• Act as an advocate for customers, both internally and externally where appropriate to ensure their expectations are maintained and they are receiving the appropriate levels of service.
• Work with customers to minimise and resolve issues and complaints, liaising with the Customer Complaints Team to resolve escalated complaints as required.
• Promote opportunities for customers to engage with and be involved in key decision making through our customer involvement function, to ensure the delivery of a service that meets their needs.
• Work with regional colleagues, providing local intelligence on neighbourhood level issues to contribute to the regional planning process.
• Ensure internal business processes are followed in line with the Group’s policy, procedures and statutory requirements.
• Maintain accurate records using appropriate systems, ensuring the integrity and quality of Social Housing service data, to enable regular analysis to be carried out and reporting to be completed as required.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of processes and procedures.
• Accountable for organising your own work, priorities and objectives to meet the organisational goals, with the focus being “self-led” with customers need and requirements at the forefront to improve the areas for which you are responsible for.
• Respond flexibly to any necessary changes in work priorities and undertake other duties when required to support the effective operation of the service.
  Build relationships with local stakeholders in order to foster partnership working to deliver shared neighbourhood improvement.
• Ensure that all data protection requirements are met in accordance with the Group’s policy, procedures and statutory requirements.
• Ensure that health and safety requirements are met in accordance with the Group’s policy, procedures and statutory requirements.
  
  

Person Specification

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

Essential

• Proven track record of delivering a high quality customer service function, preferably in the housing sector.
• Effective stakeholder management, both internally and external to the organisation.
• Customer focused with excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, with the ability to work at all levels within the business.
• Excellent attention to detail with the ability to work under pressure, deliver to strict deadlines and manage conflicting priorities.
• Proven track record of successfully solving difficult problems.
• Proven track record of demonstrating initiative to proven activities.
• Ability to remain calm in a pressurised environment.
• Proficient use of a range of IT packages including Microsoft Office.
• Excellent team player who can work flexibly to meet business requirements.

Desirable

• Experience of agile/flexible working.
• Experience of forecasting and managing a budget.
• Experience of setting work priorities and arrangements, being self-led and working with minimal supervision.