THE CLIENT
Tower Hamlets Homes is an award winning ALMO (Arm's Length Management Organisation). A not-for-profit company set up in 2008 to deliver high-quality housing services for residents living in 21,000 homes in East London, including 9,000 leasehold homes and 12,000 tenanted homes.
THE CHALLENGE
When Stephen Phillpott (current Head of People) joined the organisation in November 2017, Stephen had a sizeable challenge on his hands. Other than building some challenging relationships with other services across the business, Stephen was tasked with helping to implement a seismic culture change across the business as well as having to reshape his HR team. The team at the time consisted of five staff who had been in post for a number of years. They were already understaffed and had a gap for a permanent HR Business Partner but shortly after joining Tower Hamlets Homes, Stephen lost his long-serving Senior People Partner (resigned) and one of his HR Business Partner’s (Maternity leave) in quick succession. Stephen had to add the recruitment of a Senior People Partner and two HR Business Partners to his ever-growing day job. Pro-HR had known Stephen for a number of years and was keen to work with him after hearing about the fantastic work he had done at Watford Community Housing. We were in contact with Stephen at the time and he alerted me of his problem. After he managed to secure a Senior People Partner via direct sourcing methods, Stephen approached us to assist him with the recruitment of his two urgent HR Business Partner vacancies on an exclusive basis. (1 x Permanent | 1 x 12-month maternity cover)
OUR SOLUTION
We met with Stephen on-site at Tower Hamlets Homes to get a full understanding of the surroundings, the two vacancies, the kind of person he needed and why potential candidates would like to work for Stephen and for the organisation. We needed to gather all of this information to not only secure the right candidate match but also so that we could sell the opportunities back to potential candidates.
THE RESULT
After the best candidates were established for the roles, we sent across a selection of CVs to Stephen and booked in time to go through feedback, giving our thoughts on why the candidates were put forward and to answer any questions Stephen had regarding their experience or softer skills. This could only be done as we had met each one of the candidates and had a full understanding of their background and their motivations. Shortly after, we arranged interviews with Stephen and the preferred candidates for both vacancies. In under two weeks, Stephen interviewed the candidates and went on to offer. Once the preferred candidates were identified, as we understood the expectations of both the candidates and the client, the offer process went painlessly and both candidates accepted. We have since then worked with Stephen again and secured another person into his HR team at a senior level. "Working with Pro-HR has been a great experience; they took the time to really understand the role and the type of individual I was looking for and delivered a high calibre of candidates who matched our profile very well, with good communication throughout the process. I was pleased to be able to fill my vacancy quickly with one of their candidates and would happily recommend Pro-HR to others. Thanks!" - Stephen Phillpott, Head of People at Tower Hamlets Homes
