The recruitment challenge: social landlords say they are struggling to compete
How much are frontline housing professionals being paid? And how are social landlords managing to attract staff to these posts? Polly Bindman investigates. Illustration by Nicholas Stevenson
As recently as five years ago, recruiter Matt Baird would receive 50 to 60 applications for any given housing or support officer role. Now, says Mr Baird, who is the social housing specialist for recruiter District4: “I don’t get anywhere near that level of responses.”
Mr Baird has been working as a social housing recruiter for 11 years, and used to fill a role “within a week – every single time”. But now he can’t guarantee he will, “unless it is something that is paying slightly above market rate and is offering some really good benefits”.
Inside Housing has been hearing from inside the sector that it is getting harder to recruit, with salaries a major factor. We conducted a snap survey of large housing associations and analysed data from job adverts listed on our website to find out more. Forty-four per cent of housing associations found it harder to recruit into frontline roles in 2023 compared with 2022, while just 26% found it easier. In addition, 36% of associations told us that staff turnover had increased over the 12-month period, compared with 30% saying it had decreased.
Respondents cited a variety of factors as to why they were struggling to recruit, including the rural location of patches and issues accommodating flexible working preferences. Multiple associations said it is hard to source candidates with the appropriate skillsets. “Many of us [are] competing for a small pool of skills,” one said.
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Voluntary staff turnover rose rapidly, from 8% in 2020-21, to 13.6% in 2021-22. It then settled down slightly in 2022-23 at 13.4%, according to data from Housemark, a data and insight company for the UK housing sector, based on 134 social housing landlords.
Social landlords will struggle to recruit where they “cannot compete on salary, because market rates are rising faster than staffing”, says John Wickenden, research manager at Housemark.
Inside Housing analysis last summer found frontline worker turnover had risen dramatically at a number of large councils, driven by stress and lack of support. One reason could be pay. A number of associations told us they were unable to offer salaries on a par with either other associations or the wider jobs market.
Employees can “easily” find higher salaries in private sector roles, noted one respondent to our snap survey, while a handful noted that hiring employees with trade skills like carpentry or plumbing is especially hard given the number of available (and often higher-paying) jobs within the construction sector.
This bears out when you look at job adverts. Inside Housing analysis of almost 750 adverts for housing officer, support worker and customer feedback roles posted on our site in the past year reveals the majority (50.2%) of jobs were salaried at less than £25,000 FTE (full-time equivalent). Inside Housing’s analysis found the average FTE salary for these frontline roles was £24,900 – roughly the same as the minimum FTE salary recommended by campaign group Living Wage Foundation, which is £12 per hour, or £24,960 FTE.
The average FTE annual salary for specialist support worker roles (including support workers for young people, older people or those experiencing domestic abuse, mental health issues or learning disabilities) is just £23,000 FTE – which works out at an average of £11.06 per hour. For comparison, roles at Tesco start at £11.02 outside of London, and Aldi roles at £11.40.
The recruiter’s perspective
What are the factors affecting your ability to recruit?
“Attracting candidates is difficult due to the tight labour market. We are not able to offer competitive salaries. The standard of applicants is poor, or we have low applicant rates. Candidates selected for interview often don’t attend.”
Large housing association, East Midlands
“Although we have been fortunate to recruit skilled employees, it is evident in the number of applications that the candidate pool is reduced compared with last year.”
Small housing association, East of England
“It is challenging to afford a competitive salary level or benefits package. It’s also challenging to overcome the deteriorating reputation of working in a sector under considerable media, regulatory and other stakeholder scrutiny.”
Medium housing association, London and South East
“Salaries are rising to a greater degree in other sectors. Additional workload is expected of frontline roles as a result of diminished local authority/NHS/care support.”
Medium housing association, North West
It is not surprising, Mr Baird says, that housing officers are attracted to roles in the private sector. “The amount of stress and pressure that someone who’s on £28,000-£30,000 is under in the housing sector compared to being a senior administrator at another business – it’s chalk and cheese,” he says.
“Thirteen years of public sector cuts have had a devastating impact on housing officers,” adds Haifa Rashed, a housing officer speaking on behalf of the trade union Unison. “[In this period] their pay has plummeted by almost a third compared to living costs, but their workload and duties have increased,” she says.
Ms Rashed argues that bringing wages back in line with inflation “is essential”, so local authorities and housing associations “can hold on to experienced staff and start to fill vacant posts”.
Understanding how the role of the housing officer has evolved in recent years to encompass far greater responsibilities is vital to understanding high turnover rates. One example is the increase in patch sizes, which the Better Social Housing Review (BSHR) 2022 found had “expanded to up to 1,000 households, with an increased range of complexities being thrown into the mix, including anti-social as well as criminal behaviour”.
Some landlords, such as L&Q and Peabody, have reduced patch sizes since that review was published.
But Peter* (named changed), a housing officer now working in London for a major housing association, said the job has become “unrecognisable” over the past 30 years due to a combination of growing patch sizes, being forced to deal with more complex cases and structural changes, meaning a lot of communication is conducted remotely.
“It’s always been a difficult job, now it’s the most demanding job possible,” Peter tells Inside Housing. He explains that the push to digitise frontline services, common in a lot of larger providers which have call centres across the country, has negatively impacted the quality of service provided.
Peter argues that remote officers have a limited ability to assist with local issues, given that they aren’t familiar with the housing stock, nor are they likely to have strong links with local services, such as the local safe neighbourhood team, or mental health teams – not to mention, many residents “have issues with access to information technology”.
Going digital
This is supported by survey data from Housemark, which shows that landlords reporting increased contact through digital platforms like apps recorded 33% longer call waiting times and falls in satisfaction in the year to March 2023. Landlords that didn’t increase digital contact over the period increased their satisfaction scores.
The emotional toll of dealing with increasingly large numbers of vulnerable residents is highlighted by Peter, who says that his work is “numbing”. He feels that housing officers “have been turned into quasi police officers”, as well as “adult mental health social workers”, but without the “support mechanisms in place”.
Peter adds that high levels of stress are acutely felt by his younger colleagues, many of whom are unable to afford to rent in London, near to their patch. Not only do lengthy commutes add to the stress of the job, but many are, ironically, “living in worse housing conditions than the people they are trying to help”.
High turnover rates and stagnant pay have also created a skills gap, Unison’s Ms Rashed tells Inside Housing. “The collapse of local government funding and the cap on rents mean councils and associations can’t invest in properties and staff. This leaves housing officers picking up the pieces in specialised areas, such as mental health, in which they have little experience or training.”
44%
Housing associations that said it was harder to recruit people into frontline roles over the past 12 months
36%
Housing associations that said staff turnover had increased over the past 12 months
The BSHR advises social landlords “should increase investment in recruitment, developing and supporting the retention of more housing officers to enable them to re-establish more manageable patch sizes”.
Some landlords are already taking this approach. WHG, a social landlord in the Midlands, has “moved away from standard operating practice and introduced 35 community housing officers who visit residents in their homes”, according to the BSHR’s 2023 update.
Under this approach, WHG reduced its patch size from 900-1,200 homes, to 400-700 homes. Fay Shanahan, corporate director of operations and IT at WHG, tells Inside Housing this was prompted by customers being frustrated with their old, “fragmented” model, where officers were “split into little specialised teams”.
This meant customers were dealing with a handful of different officers at a time. By contrast, Ms Shanahan says that being a housing officer “is all about building good relationships with customers, being visible on your patch and being able to relate to the challenges” that are impossible to relate to “if you’re not in the community”.
WHG restructured some jobs, so it was able to move more people to the community housing officer role, which came with a £5,000 annual salary increase and “significant training”. The model “pays back in dividends”, she says, with improved levels of customer satisfaction. Mr Wickenden at Housemark has observed landlords shifting from a specialist to more generalist model; from a tenant’s point of view, going between multiple people for different issues is “confusing and not as good for the customer as having a single housing officer”.
The push to professionalise the sector, and for senior housing managers and leaders to acquire qualifications in England, is also expected to have a knock-on impact on frontline roles. James Prestwich, director of policy and research at the Chartered Institute of Housing, which commissioned the BSHR, tells Inside Housing that this is intended to “embed that culture of professionalism at the top, that will permeate through the organisation”. Broadly speaking, he thinks the push towards more qualifications at a higher level has “brought into focus the importance of recognising, celebrating and promoting the housing profession”.
While Mr Prestwich won’t comment on housing officers’ pay, he does note that “for a lot of people, [the role] is seen as a stepping stone to managerial positions into career advancement”. However, he adds: “In an ideal world, the role of housing officers should be viewed in and of itself as a career.”
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