The recent letter from Matthew Bailes of the HCA to the Chairs
of Housing Associations is stark reminder that Housing Associations need to demonstrate to their stakeholders how they
are delivering VFM
Recent events show that the HCA will
down grade the governance of associations where it feels they are not demonstrating
VFM. It is clear from the letter, that the HCA feel there is room for improvement,
and that in future, enforcement will be far more rigorous.
The final paragraph makes reference to poor decision making regarding remuneration, severance and redundancy. There is a clear suggestion that associations’ should plan their approach to such issues now, by reviewing long standing terms and conditions.
This stance has been
reemphasised by the recent criticism and governance downgrade of Severn Vale Housing Society following its
failure to addresses or revise its long standing early retirement policy.
This final paragraph makes it clear that managing people, their performance,
productivity and cost is essential if an association wants to show that it is delivering value
for money from its payroll. If
associations haven’t already done so, now is the time for them to address VFM
from their payroll
This should include:
The
creation of a grading structure for all staff including the Executive Team, and
the allocation of staff to grades using a fair and transparent pay grading
framework
Benchmarking
salaries and benefits in kind to ensure they reflected the “going rate”
Sensitively
managing, where necessary, changes to terms and conditions
Rewriting outmoded
and unnecessarily generous staff and Executive redundancy and severance schemes
The creation
of a staff and executive competency framework that specifies the behaviours that will deliver a competitive advantage
The creation
of a robust and transparent appraisal and performance management framework
This blog was posted by Sean McCann
the Managing Director of People Based Solutions an HR consultancy specialising in HR, OD, Performance Management and Reward Management.
