TRANSFORMATION IS AT the heart of Cestria Community Housing Association, which began life only six years ago. This small organisation was set up to deal with the housing stock from what was once Chester-le-Street district council. The buildings had suffered from under-investment and about half of them were failing the government's Decent Homes standard. Tenant satisfaction was among the worst in the Co Durham region and workers' morale was low. So this small establishment set about empowering colleagues, and in 2011 the vision and values of the group were revised, with everyone — including tenants and stakeholders — being involved in the process. Consequently, the association's homes now exceed the government standard. Cestria even offers financial advice, debt counselling, training and employment opportunities, health guidance and physical activities. Asa result, tenant satisfaction has improved significantly and is now one of the highest in the region. According to our survey, people are proud of being a part of Cestria, giving this question a 79% positive score. They are also confident that they can make a valuable contribution to the success of the organisation (82%). The group values of customer focus, honesty, efficiency, excellence and respect are reinforced by a competency system that underpins its appraisal process and in turn is linked to a reward package. A housing officer can expect an average salary of £25,319 and flexible benefits include performance-related pay, private healthcare that covers dependents too, vouchers for childcare, counselling, an occupational health programme and discounts. Employees are happy with their pay and benefits (76% — only five small organisations did better) and they feel fairly remunerated for the work they do relative to others in similar enterprises and roles (71%, eighth). www.cestria.org