Housing Services Manager

The Riverside Group provides homes for over 140,000 people across the UK, from Scotland to Kent. Our Homes & Communities Directorate is responsible for letting homes, managing tenancies, and working with our communities to deliver lasting improvements to neighbourhoods. Our Housing Services Teams are our ‘feet on the street’ – they deliver our face‑to‑face interactions with customers, whether that is viewing a property, discussing rent arrears or dealing with a tenancy matter. You will lead this team to build trust with our customers and our communities, delivering a visible service which reflects local needs and aspirations, to drive up customer satisfaction within a specified geographical area.

About You

• Proven track record of managing a high-quality customer service function, preferably in the housing sector.
• Experience of successfully leading, managing and motivating teams, including managing team performance.
• Customer focused with excellent communication skills, both verbal and written, with the ability to work at all levels within the business.

Role Profile

• Champion the customer, leading by example to create a strong customer‑centric culture, ensuring colleague behaviour reflects our values, and that local service delivery remains responsive to the diverse needs and experiences of customers.
• Lead, motivate and engage with the Housing Services Team, to ensure the delivery of a high‑quality service, developing and implementing operational objectives to support the strategic objectives of the Housing Services team and the wider business.
• Manage the performance of the Housing Services Team, using mentoring and performance coaching techniques, ensuring a quality service is provided, resources are flexible and deployed effectively and targets, key performance indicators and service agreements are developed and implemented effectively, ensuring underperformance is identified and addressed promptly and effectively.
• Manage a mobile team of Housing Services officers, role modelling agile/flexible working to deliver a highly proactive service to customers.
• Monitor, review and report progress to the Head of Housing Services, Regional Director and other governance bodies, on the performance and cost effectiveness of the service, analysing relevant data to identify performance against targets and key performance indicators, escalating findings and recommendations and ensuring appropriate actions are implemented to address under performance.
• Contribute to the development and review of relevant budgets, ensuring income and expenditure is robustly managed in line with Group financial controls.
• Work with customers to minimise and resolve issues and complaints, liaising with Regional Colleagues and the Customer Complaints Team to resolve escalated complaints as required.
• Maximise income within a defined geographical area, taking responsibility for income collection activity and rent loss on void properties, working with Shared Services to ensure effective and timely resolution as necessary.
• Devise, implement and review effective internal business processes to support the delivery of the Housing service ensuring adherence to statutory and regulatory policies and frameworks, including safeguarding, safety first and equality and diversity.
• Manage internal and external stakeholders effectively, including Directors, Senior Managers and regional colleagues, building constructive relationships to deliver the Housing service and associated business objectives by creating an inclusive, supportive and professional environment.

Person Specification

• Proven track record of managing a high-quality customer service function, preferably in the housing sector.
• Experience of successfully leading, managing and motivating teams, including managing team performance.
• Excellent attention to detail with the ability to work under pressure, deliver to strict deadlines and manage conflicting priorities.
• Up to date knowledge of legislation, regulations and standards relating to Social Housing, Non Social Housing and Care and Support.
• Effective stakeholder management, both internally and external to the organisation.
• Results driven with strong analytical skills and experience of providing meaningful management information.