Welsh Housing Awards 2024

Read all the shortlisted entries into this award category, excellence in professionalism, learning and development, at the Welsh Housing Awards (WHA) 2024 and find out who won the award on the night.

This award recognises organisations who are leading the way in driving professionalism, learning and development while delivery a great service for tenants. 

Statement of support

Background

Bron Afon believes their people are their best asset and the key to their success. Their Corporate Strategy and People Strategy set out their plans to “grow their own” and support a strong, agile workforce, where colleagues feel connected and supported to do their best to deliver their vision and strategic aims.

One of their values is ambition - 'We want to be the best at what we do. We are ambitious in creating opportunity and addressing inequality. We bring passion, creativity, and commitment to our work'.

To demonstrate this value and to provide personal growth opportunities as well as developing their succession plans, the Bron Ambition programme was developed and delivered for the first time from October 2023.

The programme was designed for colleagues who aspire to progress in their career and to take their first steps into management, or for new managers to continue to develop in their roles and gain a qualification.

The primary aim of the programme was to develop leadership knowledge, skills and confidence through training, workshops, challenges, online and experiential learning. The secondary aim was to create a pool of “ready” candidates for first line leadership roles.

Developing the programme

The starting point for programme development was the leadership culture model that Bron Afon developed in 2020. The model reflects leadership and industry best practice alongside creating space for innovation, creativity, authenticity and individuality to achieve outcomes, improvements and build teams that are engaged, motivated and well.

The programme outline

Bron Ambition focused on two areas:

• Developing yourself, improving confidence, increasing self-awareness and personal development
• Bron Afon leadership, our culture, our values and leadership skills.

Participants also took part in challenges such as attending a leadership conference, facilitating their next team meeting and completing assignments to achieve an ILM qualification.

The programme was delivered in a blended format with face to face and online sessions, elearning and activities. The sessions and activities were designed and delivered by a mix of internal subject matter experts and external partners.

The learners

Bron Afon's aim is to create a culture where all can learn, be ambitious and have access to personal growth opportunities. To maximise the opportunity we ran two cohorts for the pilot with all services and directorates represented. Support was put in place for those with additional needs, ensuring there were no barriers to participation.

What the learners said

“I'm trying to create a team where we are successful, where we celebrate success and show each other support.”

“For me, I think it's about people skills, managing people but also about leading the team there's a slight difference between managing and leading the team.”

“The Aspiring Managers Programme as a whole has been great, it’s been a great learning curve. I think the leadership skills and the culture session we had was something I want to try and bring more into my team making the employees and my team feel valued.”

“What I love about my job is providing a good service to our customers, making the community a better place to live. It's a great team, they all work hard together they all bond well together they all communicate and collaborate well together so it’s set us up to be a successful team, and I know we can leave our customers happy in the environment in a better place than what it was.”

Outcomes and achievements

Outcomes and feedback

• 90 per cent plus attendance and participation
• 75 per cent completion rate
• 11 colleagues completed and passed the ILM qualification
• 93 per cent of participants agreed their objectives had been met
• 100 per cent rated the programme as excellent or good
• Average of four-star rating for the facilitators of the sessions
• Learner growth – 40 per cent increase in confidence in leadership skills from the start of the programme to the end
• Two participants have secured permanent management roles
• Two have secured an interim management role
• Two are mentoring and managing apprentices
• Others are stepping up to cover managers in their absence and receiving great feedback and ensuring consistency for colleagues and customers.

Our managers shared what they are seeing and hearing:

• Increased confidence
• Improved time management
• Improved communication
• Supported growth in their new role
• Receiving positive feedback from those who are reporting into the participants
• The skills and knowledge are being shared with others
• See great potential as a future leader
• Improved team relationships.

Wider impact

• 50 per cent increase in applications for the 2024 programme
• Wider participation of learners in key projects and initiatives
• Priority consideration for management vacancies for the participants
• Taking positive action around the gender pay gap by prioritising women for the 2024 cohorts.