At the end of August 2024 we took fifteen colleagues and released them from their organisational silos.
A simple concept: create an agile cross-functional team that served the place bottom up. The experiment: would colleagues feel they had more autonomy and could better tailor services to local need?
The pilot team consists of existing employees already working in Staple Hill. No new resources were added to ensure cost neutrality, apart from a secondment for Angela Manson, the Place Lead. Importantly this role does not line manage the team but adopts a matrix management approach.
The Staple Hill Team includes members from repairs, empty homes, neighbourhood coaching, older persons services, and caretaking. “Enabling teams” from other parts of the business have lead contacts with the place team.
"We basically took all the people who are in the places already or work around the place and take them out of their individual silos... and put them alongside one place lead. We have not put any more resources on this... place-based working should be at least cost neutral, and hopefully cost you a lot less, because you're pulling resources together in a much more focused way"
The team operates using an agile working methodology, focusing on weekly priorities.
Initial Findings from Staple Hill Pilot (First Three Months)
Improved Workspaces and Communication: The team prioritised creating suitable work spaces and established a Teams chat group for seamless communication.
Faster Issue Resolution: The Teams chat facilitates quick communication to planners, which has significantly reduced delays. For example, a broken bathroom door, previously left unresolved after multiple contacts with customer service, was fixed within 24 hours.
Empowered Team: The team feels more empowered to solve problems locally and make decisions in the customer's best interest, with more direct communication with colleagues across the business who also work in the location.
Community Initiatives: The team has been able to organise community events, such as social skip days and a community planting initiative, leveraging a local budget that was not previously available.
Positive Customer Experiences: Customers reported feeling more connected to Bromford and valued seeing the same team members regularly, feeling they were cared for and listened to.
Reduction in operational issues: The number of complaints has decreased, along with the number of repairs without a scheduled date and follow up "chase" cases.
"...It’s good that a few customers are recognising me and say ’good morning Andy’ - that's nice that just makes you feel good you know..."
Challenges and Tensions
Organisational Silos: The move to place-based working has highlighted some expected tensions between the pilot team and the rest of the organisation who are not yet place based.
Legacy Processes: Existing processes in the wider business do not always align with the agile, customer-focused approach of the place-based teams.
Need for Cultural Shift: A key challenge is getting the rest of the organisation to understand that all roles are customer-facing and that all teams should be responsive to local issues.
Budgeting Issues: The current budgeting model does not always support the local needs identified by the teams. Place-based budgeting is a potential long-term solution.
“The main thing the team told us needed to change was first of all get an understanding in the rest of the organisation that we're all customer facing and there's not a part of Bromford, or rather there shouldn't be a part of Bromford , where people don't communicate to customers. That’s still a work in progress..."
Success Metrics
Broad Measurement Approach: Bromford has established a range of success metrics, covering both short-term operational measures (e.g., repair completion time, number of complaints) and longer-term indicators (e.g., customer sentiment, colleague support). These were designed with input from both customers and colleagues.
Initial Data is Positive: Early data is trending in the right direction, with a reduction in the number of complaints, day-to-day repairs without a scheduled date, and customer follow up cases.
Ongoing Evaluation: The metrics are being reviewed and adjusted to ensure they are effectively capturing the impact of the pilot.
What are our future plans?
Wider Organisational Shift: The Staple Hill approach is part of a broader plan to move the entire organization to a place-based working model.
New Developments: New developments will be incorporated into this model in the future, but the timing will be determined after a full evaluation of the existing pilots and will not be rushed.
Technology Adaptation: The technology stack will adapt to the new ways of working as place-based teams are established across the organisation.
Place-Based Budgeting: The organisation plans to explore and implement place-based budgeting in the future to enable more agile and responsive approaches to solving local issues
Watch the full YouTube episode below and sign up for our next webinar on Friday 14th February here.