Delivering digital - why we need a message which resonates

This month I've invited Jamie Angus, he's our Head of Communications to share his thoughts about why we need to be getting more people using the internet...

Jamie Angus

 

Last week saw the publication, probably for the first time, of a detailed state of play of the UK housing sector when it comes to delivering digital services.

 

All-in-all it doesn’t make for great reading in terms of the sector’s success of transforming service delivery in the digital age. Yet if you read the bloggersphere and believe the hype of the Twitteratti you’d think that the Jetsons’ hovercrafts were just weeks away.

The reality, which the self service report draws out, is that clunky IT systems, a lack of credible data on accessibility for tenants and a reluctance to promote a service which is far from Amazon-standard is holding us back.

But what strikes me the most is that as a sector we still haven’t nailed down why we’re doing this. We haven’t constructed the narrative as to why this is so important.
It reminds me of a great blog by Kate Bentham (@katebentham) where she refers to Channel Shove rather than Channel Shift.

We’ve all seen the transactional costs data and in a time where financially, we’re scrambling to strangle the last drop of value from every penny spent, we can see why online is such an attractive proposition. But if you go to any estate in Wolverhampton, or indeed any estate across the country, and tell tenants that going online is great – it’ll save us a fortune, then you can probably guess what most reactions will be. And this feels like the challenge we’re grappling with.

But the truth is, and this is the message which needs to resonate with tenants, they risk getting left behind if they’re not online. With Universal Credit on the horizon it’s never been more important that tenants, especially those of working age, get ready by being online. The stark reality could well be that no internet access equals no Universal Credit payment. I of course over simplify, but when you think about the message of missing out, it fits better with the raison d’etre of social housing. By not being online, tenants are missing out on job opportunities, financial savings, better energy deals, the chance to connect with friends and family. All of a sudden, the digital agenda ticks the moral boxes of financial and social inclusion, fuel poverty and social mobility.

At Wolverhampton Homes we’ve been grappling with the challenges of Channel Shift. It’s been an uncomfortable process but we’re making progress. And, in fact, although we may not have shouted the loudest, our statistics are credible and show we’re up there. The Yorkshire Housing report pretty much states there are no real pioneers yet. Yes, some are better than others at promoting it, but as a sector, we’re still finding our feet – but think of the potential if we all worked together to nail this.

In Wolverhampton, with a tenant-base of 23,000 – nearly 6,000 are signed up to our do-it-online account. Last month, we had nearly 1,000 active users logging-in to either make a payment, change their details or book a repair. Interestingly, our repairs booking system (although it’s far from perfect) is fully automated into our back office systems and allows tenants to pick a time which suits them. No e-forms which go to a customer service advisor to manually input; it’s fully automated self-service.

 

But we know that for most people they’d still pick up the phone. As proud as we are of our website and its mobile-responsive design, booking a repair online isn’t sexy enough to drive thousands of tenants there.

 

But the challenge isn’t so much getting people to report repairs online; that should come later. Just being online is the key. People won’t come to our websites excited by the fact that the internet means they can book repairs or update their personal details. But they will be excited when they’re saving money, switching energy suppliers, helping their kids with their homework and applying for jobs and training. But that’s not a message we can deliver on our own – so we’re looking to work with schools and businesses in the city to promote that message too.

It’s a long digital road ahead, and although the technology will no doubt improve, if we can’t win the hearts and minds of tenants and colleagues then it’s going to be an arduous journey.

But we can and will win the debate, we have to, our tenants have got too much to lose if we don’t.

Proud to be me

It’s been a really high profile year for the LGBT community.

Same-sex marriage dominated political debate last year before finally making its way onto the statute book. And in the media too, thousands voiced their support for our Olympic medal winning diver Tom Daly who announced via Twitter that he was in a relationship with another man.

This came after media attention had focused fairly intensely on Russia who’s controversial gay propaganda laws are being put under the international spotlight as they gear up to host this year’s Winter Olympics. The Swedish athletes who painted their finger nails in rainbow colours at the World Championships in Russia, was, personally, my favourite act of defiance in 2013!

And since then we’ve seen former Premier League footballer Thomas Hitzlsperger come out – but again only after his retirement from the game. The groundswell of support from the footballing community felt genuine and heartfelt – a long way from the reaction the late Justin Fashanu found in the 1980s and early 1990s. In fact, the cruelest jibe I heard about Hitzlsperger was: “Hats off to Thomas Hitzlsperger for his bravery today. He's admitted that he used to play for West Ham.” Maybe a positive sign that we’re moving this agenda forward?

I’m delighted that we’re once again backing LGBT History Month. I’ve blogged on this topic before and for me it’s still so important that people feel that they can be themselves when they’re at work.

I’ve worked in lots of different housing organisations over the years, mostly in London, and I had lots of LGBT colleagues. It was perfectly normal, accepted, and not much commented on.

When I came to Wolverhampton - it felt a bit different.  Whilst I didn’t hear any negative comments about sexuality and there were certainly no complaints about discrimination, it just didn’t quite feel as open and comfortable with talking about LGBT issues. I found this a bit strange if I’m honest - because everyone has the right to be “themselves” at work, and our LGBT tenants and leaseholders also need acceptance, understanding and good service.

Colleagues took part in Wolverhampton's PRIDE parade last summer

But we’ve come a long way over the past few years and I’m so proud of my colleagues who have launched our very own ‘Proud to be Me Network’.  It’s made up of colleagues, both straight and gay, who are working to make Wolverhampton Homes a gay-friendly place to work. They’re doing a wonderful job and I can already feel the culture changing. Later this month, staff are having a dress-down day, where they’re coming to work dressed in rainbow colours, we’re playing a football match with the Black Country’s only LGBT-recognised club and our offices are decked out in more rainbow flags than I think I’ve ever seen!

We’re working really closely with Stonewall and I’m really excited to see how this project comes to life over the coming months.

In the meantime, I wanted to thank Stonewall, LGBT Network Wolverhampton, the other groups we’ve worked with – and my colleagues at Wolverhampton Homes for all their energy and enthusiasm. Together we’re making a difference and let’s hope 2014 is another year of progression for the LGBT community.

Let's Do It Online

You can’t go anywhere right now without being reminded about how much money you can save by doing things online. For some it’s a double-edged sword. We’ve seen this week that in some circles they’re predicting that one fifth of high street shops could disappear in the next five years – and analysts are putting that down, largely, to the impact of online shopping.

Whether it’s cuddly meerkats or opera singing Welshmen offering to save you money on your car insurance or downloading music –it seems cheaper and far less hassle when you do things online. They say that doing more and more via the internet could save a household more than £500 a year which, in this financial climate, and in the wake of welfare reform, is a really significant sum.

I guess the reality is that people’s habits and customer service expectations are changing. Of course, it’s not for everyone, but we know there’s a sizeable number of out tenants who have, for want of a better phrase, gone digital. For example, our figures show that around 6,500 people visit our website every month whilst more and more people have got access to the internet through smart phones and tablets and are contacting and engaging with us through Twitter and Facebook.



Our Web Wizards are helping to get tenants online



So as our customers’ habits change, we need to change too. Long gone are the days when people have to call us during working hours on Monday-Friday – or, dare I say, write us a letter! We’re investing in online technologies so tenants can report repairs, pay their rent and check their accounts whenever, and wherever they want. It also frees up our phone lines so we can help those who can’t use, or who don’t have access to, the internet. It’s better customer service, simples!



But it’s not just about offering better customer service. With the introduction of Universal Credit on the horizon, the stark reality is people are going to have to get online because for most people, the Universal Credit will mean having to apply online and manage their claim through an online account.

That’s why we’ve got a team of dedicated ‘Web Wizards’ who are working with tenants to help get them online. They’re in our one-stop shops across the city showing people who are queuing up to pay their bills that there’s another way to pay and it doesn’t involve standing in queues!

If you’re reading this already then the chances are you’re already part of the digital revolution. In which case, don’t forget to sign up and register for your ‘Do-it-Online’ account. But if you know someone who’s a tenant or leaseholder of ours and you think they need help to get online then ask them to get in touch with our Web Wizards who’d be more than happy to help.

The times they-are a-changin’ – we need to make sure we do too.

A friendship to last a lifetime

On an uncharacteristically muggy evening last Thursday, nearly 30 of our youngest tenants met my colleagues and I to begin what I hope will be a long friendship. 

As anyone who works in housing knows, it is mightily difficult to encourage our younger residents to have their voice heard on housing issues. We are all too familiar with the usual suspects of tenant involvement - immensely valuable though they are, but they tend to be white, 60 or 70 something and have been a tenant for some 30 years. We wanted to make a special effort to get views from newer, younger people who may have a perspective we are missing. This is not about replacing one set of tenant views with another but about getting a range of views.

Two of our Future Jobs Fund employees put an enormous amount of energy and creativity into recruiting them and I was pleased to see the room so busy.  I met some people who I immediately thought of as tenant board members of tomorrow, brimming with ideas and the enthusiasm of youth. One young woman, Kelly, particularly impressed me. She had thought up some really challenging questions for me and had some innovative ideas of her own. 

It turned out we had both only been in Wolverhampton a few years but had immediately fallen in love with the people and the general laid back feel of the city. As a single parent with a baby (but engaged to her son's father, getting married next year), Kelly felt older people on her estate looked down on her and made quite wrong assumptions about her behaviour and lifestyle. In fact, she and a girl friend spend a lot of time chewing the fat about what makes a good community and what they might do to help.

She asked me if Wolverhampton Homes would perhaps train up people like her to work with younger people as she already wanted to put something back into the community. I have already put it on my list as something to explore and discussed it with the head of our Local Neighbourhood Partnership which also wants to harness the potential of volunteers. 

Not satisfied with asking me difficult stuff like which person living or dead would I most like to meet (!) - I said Mr Blair on the basis that I still want to know why we went to war - Kelly particularly wanted to know what we are doing to engage 7-16 year olds in council housing. Like many ALMOs we have a range of really exciting projects that we support for example the Timken social enterprise or Goalz (a project with Wolverhampton Wanderers Football Club) but is this really engagement? If I am honest, it’s about trying to prevent antisocial behaviour and control the kids during the holidays! 

We have been struck by the lack of basic life skills amongst our youngsters - managing money, dealing with applications/benefits, cooking, managing a home or garden, dealing pleasantly with neighbours and so on. So for our first young tenants get together we focussed on managing money, particularly how to borrow money sensibly and avoid loan sharks.

Shock tactics worked well here. We showed a video of a young man talking about his l6 years (yes!) of indebtedness to an unauthorised lender who drove him almost to the point of suicide.

I was hugely impressed by how keen the young tenants were to make a difference in their area and learn new skills which they will take with them for life. We can learn so much from them and I look forward to seeing our friendship develop over the years to come.

You can see some more photos of our young Get Together on our facebook page (and we'd love it if you liked us while you were there too!).

Wolverhampton emotions run high over flexible tenancies

A recent debate wonderfully organised by the Wolverhampton Federation of Tenants Associations showed what Wolverhampton tenants think about the idea of flexible tenancies.  

At the end, all but a couple of tenants taking part voted in favour of keeping a council home for life. There were moving contributions about how a council tenancy had enabled people to feel safe and secure and to begin to put whatever trauma had taken them on the route to homelessness, behind them. 

Everyone agreed that the strain of being reassessed as still in need of council home every two or even five years was bound to increase anxiety and tension. I know this for a fact because some worried tenants I have met at our Get Togethers have (literally) begged me not to evict them - and the proposals are not even law yet.   

Being a coward of the highest order, I asked the Federation if I could present the case in favour of a council home for life. Seriously, I was worried that if I presented the case for the other side, more Wolverhampton tenants would think they could risk losing their home. 

We looked in quite a lot of detail at the impact on local communities of the increased turnover on estates should shorter tenancies come in. People understood that if you make it clear at the start of a tenancy that your home will not be for life, new tenants are less inclined to make improvements to their homes, care for their garden and get involved with their community. We discussed how difficult it would be for staff to accurately judge peoples' circumstances and how there were bound to be increased challenges in the courts.  

In Wolverhampton a guaranteed stable home is essential because the job market can be volatile, with people going in and out of work, from part-time to full-time and from benefits to wages. We do need to work hard to support people who haven't worked for some time but are capable of doing so - we need to offer training and support, job experience and help with finding jobs. 

We know the value for this at Wolverhampton Homes where we have created more than 700 jobs in the building industry, through the Decent Homes programme, the vast majority for local people. How will we interest new tenants in these opportunities when to better yourself could mean losing your home?  

I must say that the Federation's debate was a superb way of involving tenants and other residents in important policy issues and I do hope they do more. They had managed to get a number of teenagers from a local school to take part; some of whom lived in council housing. One young woman said that a tenancy should be for life because the idea of not being able to return home after you had left was inconceivable.

I am really anxious to do more to get people into the right sized homes. In Wolverhampton, we have the usual pattern of mismatch - about 3,000 homes are under occupied (that is have two or more bedrooms than people living in them) and about 2,000 people on the housing register (out of l3,000 in total) because of overcrowding. 

We have been running a really successful house release scheme which provides a flexible-use cash incentive and have recently decided to extend it. Tenants at Get Togethers have come up with some tremendous ideas for encouraging people to move all of which I am keen to try. 

While in many cases only a modern bungalow near their existing home will encourage people to move, there is a massive amount that can be done with support, care and encouragement - without having to resort to fixed term tenancies.