About Festival Housing Ltd.

To lead well, it is necessary to understand what you are leading. Fetival's Chief Executive, Guy Weston knows their business thoroughly, has the widest possible overview and understanding of the industry and the external factors influencing it, but he also knows his staff members by name and speaks to them all in the same way and understands what areas of the business they are most concerned with. The door of his office is always open and they often see him on the office floor or out and about at the depots and other offices. He presents the BreakFest Briefs, tells everyone about his holidays and asks about everyone else. Everyone knows about his football team and he joshes about everyone else's. However, when he’s doing business he’s completely focused, fair and a good listener. He knows his stuff and when he doesn’t have enough information he asks for it before making a judgement. When there are awards to be given, thanks to be made and acknowledgement of excellent work and dedication to Festival and their clients, Guy is there to thank staff personally and he does not quickly forget those achievements. Figures of authority will always find themselves in the firing line for making decisions about contentious issues, but if every member of staff feels that they can express their opinion about that decision directly to that person then they have done the job fairly. That situation exists here at Festival.

Fesitval Housing run Modern Apprenticeship programmes taking young people from the age of 16+. They progress learners through to Level 3 qualifications. On completion they can continue to develop through undertaking Btec, NVQ, HNC, HND and Professional qualifications. Support is available for all staff to undertake a recognised Vocational, Professional or academic qualifications, 90 % of roles have a specific qualification linked to them e.g. Housing Officers relevant qualification is Chartered Institute of Housing Level 4. Such courses are supported 100% financially. Festival Housing currently offer professional traineeship in HR and Finance with a view to expand to other areas of the organisation. Qualifications are offered via day, block release at college and distance learning. They work closely with local University, other housing associations providing bespoke level 5 Leadership and Management qualifications. They offer development through the delivery of learning activities including e-learning, course attendance external, bespoke in house courses, reading, forums, workshops and conferences. In house courses run with a mix of external and internal trainers. Year 2012 to 2013 Festival carried 3196 training days. This equates to an average of 6.9 training days per member of staff. Vacancies which are identified as key roles can be offered as secondment opportunities of up to 1 year’s duration. This allows staff to experience different roles within the organisation. Work experience is available to people looking to change careers or re-join the world place. They work closely with schools and colleges to offer students work experience opportunities.

Festival employees work across more than half a dozen sites and in two counties. Those colleagues range from people who sit at desks in front of computers all day, through housing officers and support workers balancing their time between clients and office and trades people who spend their days moving from one tenant’s house to another. Therefore communicating with all their colleagues and making sure they hear them can be a challenge. Festival Housing methods of communication, as a result, are as diverse as their workforce: BreakFest Briefs are delivered once a month in the boardrooms of their two main buildings and happen first thing in the morning and at midday for staff who have to do the school run or work part-time. They send out surveys by Internet to get anonymous opinions and ideas. We have used posters in communal areas to gather ideas and feedback. They have had briefings with managers on specific issues concerning staff. Managers leave their doors open and encourage staff to speak to them about ideas and concerns they have. They have a staff suggestion form which can be submitted to HR. Every employee is assigned an HR advisor and knows who to contact if they want to speak to somebody about personal or employment issue. Different methods work for different colleagues so ensuring that they communicate in diverse ways about the same topic ensures that they hear from the widest sample of people.