Housing case study

---

How the Peabody Trust motivated its workforce

The Peabody Trust is a housing association which has provided good, affordable homes and tackled poverty for nearly 150 years.

It occupies a special position within the social housing sector and has a portfolio of almost 6,000 Victorian properties and a number of large housing estates in central London.

Asset Skills held a workshop to raise awareness of how trained staff can boost business performance.

Housing employers were asked to come and find out about the Adult Literacy, Language and Numeracy (ALLaN) scheme and how it can help improve their everyday working practices.

The ALLaN work that Asset Skills promotes has had a positive impact on staff recruitment, retention and productivity. One of the employers who attended was the Peabody Trust.

"Some of our staff were experiencing problems with skills," said Matthew Brennan, Learning and Development Advisor for Peabody.

"One manager was spending a lot of time correcting mistakes on spreadsheets, leaving him less time to carry out his other duties.

"Another member of staff was taking work home for his wife to help with."

The solution

Asset Skills discussed their needs and aspirations for the future and established how implementing ALLaN training could help them achieve a more highly skilled and competitive workforce.

* An organisational needs analysis was carried out to pinpoint the skills needs
* Asset Skills matched them with a flexible, responsive and dynamic training supplier
* We also helped secure funding to meet the cost of the training

The skills jigsaw

With their long history of investing in staff, Peabody was open to a new approach. But as with introducing anything new to a company of its size, a strategy was needed to ensure understanding and agreement from senior managers.

Once everyone agreed the ALLaN training was the way forward an Organisational Needs Analysis (ONA) was undertaken. This gathered information on job roles and level of skills required by each.

Each department then completed a questionnaire of areas they felt needed improvement. Peabody's long term plans and goals for their employees were also taken into account.

The ONA acted like a jigsaw puzzle, highlighting the gaps where skills were needed. These were among maintenance operatives, caretakers, customer services officers and housing officers.

The learning

The next step was to organise the training and recruit the learners. Asset Skills recommended training providers who ran three ALLaN courses in short bursts of learning - 2.5 hours per week for ten weeks.

In total they delivered one English, one Maths and one English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) course. It was flexible and carried at times and locations to suit the trust, the staff and most importantly, their budget. The direct cost of the training was met by the Train to Gain project.

"After staff had sat the course I also noticed a definite increase in the department's performance," says Matthew Brennan.

"The spreadsheets were completed more accurately which meant I didn't have to spend as much time checking work and could get on with my own.

"It was great that all the learning was work focused and that people could put their new skills to use straight away. We could all enjoy the obvious benefits immediately.

"It's also made a real difference to the confidence of our staff. Some of the best outcomes are the ones you can't measure."

< Back to Case Studies