From where you are to where you want to be
Investing in our talent is critical and this is what drives the Housing Executive’s People Strategy. The business case for talent management is well established. By managing talent strategically, organisations can build a high-performance workplace, encourage a learning organisation, add value to their branding agenda, and contribute to diversity management (CIPD UK).
Our approach to managing talent is aligned to our core values of making a difference through passion, fairness and expertise. Through the ‘Grow with the Housing Executive Programme’, we encourage our people to grow their potential, enabling them to take greater ownership for and drive their own development. Ultimately we want to support them to make the transition from where they are to where they want to be.
We have built our Grow Programme to support our objective of attracting, retaining and engaging the best people to achieve our strategic ambitions. We have designed a range of innovative talent management practices to meet the wide spectrum of development needs of our diverse workforce demographic. The programme is aligned to our strategic objective of ensuring we have the necessary capabilities, skills and competencies to equip the organisation to meet current and future needs, whilst enabling our people to reach their full potential.
We seek to identify and attract the best talent, both internally and externally, through the Housing Executive Early Careers Programme which consists primarily of:
a Graduate Trainee Scheme across the five business divisions, grounded in a model of work-based learning, through a supported course of study combined with practical workplace application; and
GEMS Programme, targeted specifically at providing opportunities to graduates within the communities we support and work alongside.
We seek to engage and support our people by providing a framework for career growth and development:
• coaching culture – we recognise the positive outcomes associated with embedding coaching and mentoring practices, particularly in developing softer career skills such as problem solving, critical thinking and reflective practice. We equip all our leaders with the skills and support to coach their people to build high performing teams;
• our in-house Mentoring Programme is now in its second year, and has enabled us to connect more experienced leaders with staff from all levels and disciplines across the organisation, with both mentors and mentees reporting enhanced leadership and people skills, more effective collaborative working, increased confidence and career progression; and
• ongoing study support – we provide a scheme which enables our people to take responsibility for managing their own career and development, by providing financial and study support to undertake qualifications related to their work or career progression.
The Housing Executive is currently one of only two organisations in Northern Ireland with over 3,000 staff to hold Investors in People Silver Accreditation.
In addition, our innovative approach to talent management has been recognised by leading professional bodies with the following awards achieved in the last 12 months:
• CIPD NI HR Team of the Year 2017 and CIPD NI Talent Management Programme 2017;
• Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) Excellence in Developing Skills and Capacity for our Asset Management Graduate Trainee Programme; and
• CIH UK Mentor of the Year (Colm McQuillan, Director of Housing).
The Housing Executive is passionate about our people, and committed to enabling them to make a difference through passion, fairness and expertise.
Lucy Haugh, HR Manager, Learning & Development
Northern Ireland Housing Executive
T: 028 9598 2453
E: lucy.haugh@nihe.gov.uk
