Head of Customer Accounts in Ipswich

At Places for People, we hire People, not numbers! We are more interested in hiring someone that embodies our People Promises. That’s someone who does the right thing, is enthusiastic and motivated to grow, believes in Community spirit, is respectful and enjoys their work. As the UK’s leading Social Enterprise, we’re dedicated to creating inclusive and thriving Communities for both our Customers and Employees.

More about your role

Please note we are open to applicants from across the UK, and this role will be predominantly home based. As Head of Customer Accounts, you will lead the strategic development and day-to-day management of our National Customer Accounts team. You’ll protect the organisation’s income by driving effective income, arrears and debt recovery approaches, ensuring customers receive the right support and advice. You’ll lead on modernising and improving the service, including digital transformation, cross team collaboration and the development of new ways of working. Working as part of the Senior Housing Operations Management Team, you’ll shape future ways of working, deliver high performance across the service and ensure we meet our KPIs. You’ll oversee budgets, manage risk, maintain regulatory compliance and act as a key representative with internal stakeholders and external partners. You will lead and support Regional Customer Accounts Managers working across the country to deliver efficient services that maximise rental income collection.

More about you

Please note assessments will be used as part of the process of this role and to be eligible for an interview you must be able to clearly demonstrate the below essential criteria:

• Extensive expertise in income recovery, including strong knowledge of income recovery services, ideally in the Housing Sector, but also open to hearing from out of sector income specialists.
• Proven leadership experience with a demonstrable track record of leading high performing large teams.
• Strategic capability and experience of developing new ways of working, including developing and delivering income/debt recovery strategies.
• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, able to influence at all levels and build effective relationships with internal and external partners.
• A confident and engaging leader, you can motivate teams, influence senior stakeholders and build productive relationships both internally and externally.
• You think commercially, make sound decisions, manage budgets effectively and are comfortable solving complex problems.
• With strong communication skills and a customer focused approach, you’ll be committed to delivering a high-quality, compliant and commercially minded service aligned to our values.

Benefits

We are a large diverse and ambitious business, which will give you all the challenge you could wish for. We offer a comprehensive benefits package with each role, yours will include:

• Competitive salary, with a salary review yearly.
• Pension with matched contributions up to 7%.
• Excellent holiday package – up to 35 days annual leave with the option to buy or sell leave.
• Cashback plan for healthcare costs – up to £500 saving per year.
• A bonus scheme for all colleagues at 2%.
• Training and development.
• Extra perks including huge discounts and offers from shops, cinemas and much more.

What’s next?

If you meet the criteria and are ready to make the next step in your career then click apply. You will be redirected to our careers site where you can discover more about the role, read a full job description and apply directly to us. As part of our commitment to diversity and inclusion, we offer a guaranteed interview to candidates who are disabled, neurodiverse, or have served in the Armed Forces, provided they meet the essential criteria for the role. If you would like to be considered under this scheme, please indicate this in your application. We are dedicated to creating a supportive and accessible recruitment process for all.

We understand the importance of a supportive and inclusive work culture so please talk to us at interview about flexibility you may need. We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want, but we promise not to judge you for asking. For this role we are open to discussing the possibility of reduced hours, flexible start and finish times or compressed hours.

Safeguarding

At Places for People, safeguarding is everyone’s responsibility. We are committed to creating safe communities for our customers and colleagues by protecting children, young people, and adults at risk from harm, abuse, and neglect. We follow robust safeguarding policies and procedures, ensuring all employees, volunteers, and contractors uphold the highest standards of safeguarding and accountability. Our recruitment process includes pre-employment checks, including Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks where applicable, to promote a safe and secure working environment. By joining Places for People, you are expected to contribute to our safeguarding culture, following our policies and reporting concerns to protect those in our communities.