Investment in Staff Sends RBH Flying High

Date published: 20/08/2008

Rochdale Boroughwide Housing (RBH) is soaring high with the excellent news that it has once again achieved Investors in People status after passing with 'flying colours'.

Retaining the status affirms that RBH is able to achieve its business goals because the staff, its biggest asset, are trained and developed accordingly.

Acting Managing Director, Gareth Swarbrick, said: “I am delighted that RBH has been reaccredited. I know that RBH can only deliver the best possible services to tenants if we are properly supporting, training and developing our employees. Being recognised as an Investor in People shows we are striving to do just that.”

Unlike previous re-assessments we were measured against tougher, new standards, which demand demonstrable evidence of how we operate rather than simply stating the existence of a policy or a procedure.

Around seventy members of staff were picked randomly to be interviewed by the assessor - a process designed to ensure that company practices firmly reflect our procedures.

IIPs external assessor, Mike Moores, announced that the organisation had passed with flying colours and identified several key areas of strength. 

These areas included:

• Development of a staff competency framework which is due to be fully rolled out shortly to support the existing employee appraisal process
• Provision of more business focused training
• The high quality of training which is being provided
• Improved delivery of induction training - the impending introduction of a new Induction Handbook will further support this key aspect of training for new recruits
• Introduction of an annual Employee Conference 

RBHs Lead Board Member for Staffing, Derek Brown, was visiting the RBH offices when the announcement about IIP status was made and he stated how pleased he was with the result, passing on a note of congratulations to all staff.