Housing Officer – Riverside, London

Job Title: Housing Officer
Contract Type: Permanent
Salary:  £43,777.03 
Working Hours: 35 Hours per week
Working Pattern: Hybrid, Monday to Friday
Location: Arlington Road, Camden NW1 7HE

If you share our values and are excited about making a significant impact at Riverside, please ensure you attach a current CV and covering letter. At Riverside we recruit to potential not just on skills and experience, so we encourage you to apply even if you don't meet all the essential criteria on the job description.

Please note that whilst we will accept applications based on any form of valid legal permission to work in the UK, we will be surrendering the Riverside Sponsorship licence, so for the avoidance of doubt, we are unable to apply for any further sponsorships whether on behalf of existing colleagues or candidates. 

The difference you will make as a Housing officer

The office base will be Arlington, Camden please be aware the patch will be East London however this may be subject to change. As a frontline worker you will maximize the economic viability, social sustainability and self sufficiency of the tenancies in your patch through targeted support, services and action, establishing and maintaining strong relationships with customers. You will work collaboratively as part of a committed team that puts the customer first by delivering an outstanding housing management service across a number of defined properties. 

About you

We are looking for someone with 
•    An understanding of the barriers faced by vulnerable and diverse customer groups and individuals with complex needs.  
•    Proven track record of delivering a high quality customer service function, preferably in the housing sector
•    Be a team player with a caring, empathetic, flexible and have a resilient, can-do attitude. 
•    Ability to remain calm in pressurized environment
 

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
•    Flexible working options available
•    Investment in your learning, personal development and technology
•    A wide range of benefits

Diversity and Inclusion at Riverside: 
We are inclusive. At Riverside, we value diversity in all its forms. We foster a workplace where all individuals are respected, empowered, and heard. Our commitment to inclusivity drives our success and enriches the lives of our customers and colleagues.

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

Role Responsibilities

• Pro-actively manage, maintain and improve designated social housing neighborhoods; 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 maximizing 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’, minimizing 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 Duties

• Commission, direct and influence other teams as appropriate to resolve low level anti-social behaviors issues, hate crimes, domestic abuse and issues impacting community cohesion, escalating complex cases to the Community Safety Team as appropriate. 

• Maximize 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 minimize 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 organizing your own work, priorities and objectives to meet the organizational 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.

Additional Information

• The Group has offices across the UK and on this basis, there may be the requirement to travel to other locations to effectively perform this role, albeit that regular support will be required to teams in Camden and Dartford 

• The role will be exposed to sensitive information; therefore, the role holder is expected to always maintain levels of confidentiality.

• In order to fulfil the requirements of this role, you will be required to work flexibly during the hours of operation. 

• It is a requirement that the role holder holds a current, valid UK driving licence

• The role holder is expected to be committed to equal opportunities and to promote non-discriminatory practices in all aspects of work undertaken.  

   

  Person Specification, Essential Knowledge & Experience

• 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 organization. 

• 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 pressurized 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 forecasting and managing a budget. 

• Experience setting work priorities and arrangements, being self-led and working with minimal supervision