Rockpools appointed to recruit regional senior executives for UK’s largest housing association
The transfer of Glasgow City Council’s social housing stock to Glasgow Housing Association (GHA) made the GHA making the largest housing association in the UK. Rockpools was appointed, after a competitive process, to recruit seven General Managers/Chief Executives to their regional shared service centres.
The Rockpools’ team approached this assignment by focussing heavily upon stakeholder involvement; ensuring that the executive team as well as the resident board were heavily involved from the start. Because of the large numbers of candidates, stakeholders and the executive involved in these appointments, Rockpools designed a bespoke service to ensure that all parties were not just involved but had the opportunity to make a valuable contribution to the appointments.
The first priority was to speak with each stakeholder personally to get a flavour of the GHA, its culture and the kind of individuals that they believed were required for the posts. Once a job description was agreed a bespoke microsite was developed to support the executive search.
In addition to the national search in the social housing world, Rockpools also approached individuals with relevant private sector experience. The team were keen to ensure they identified not just high calibre individuals who met the required criteria, but also those who were empathetic to the goals of the GHA and brought a degree of free thinking and diversity to the roles. The response to our search was encouraging: a wealth of qualified search candidates applied.
Following the shortlisting process, Rockpools organised a series of informal meetings between the shortlisted candidates and the resident representatives, the board and the chief executive. These were organised during events all the stakeholders were attending; for example, one of the most successful and popular was a tour of the GHA’s housing stock. This was particularly valuable for those candidates who were not very familiar with the social housing world or Glasgow.
At the end of the assignment, seven skilled and energetic leaders were appointed; individuals whose enthusiasm helps to ensure they continue to make the GHA a success.
