The social housing sector is full of varied and challenging careers – and offers a rare opportunity to make a substantial impact on people’s lives. How can the sector communicate this to attract the best talent, at a time when hardworking people are needed more than ever?

• The Covid-19 pandemic has left even more people in precarious economic circumstances


• Increased demand and stretched resources make it crucial for the social housing sector to attract the best talent


• The sector needs to shout about what social housing offers as a career

Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, the social housing sector was struggling with stretched resources and dwindling funding, coupled with unprecedented demand for homes. The pandemic has only exacerbated this, pushing many more families into insecure living situations and precarious employment.

If there was ever a time when attracting talented and hardworking people to the workforce was important, it’s now. Public sector recruiters, however, have reported that they struggle with talent scarcity and competition from the private sector, while less than one fifth reported having the budget required to hire the best talent.

With a lack of awareness from the general public around the work that housing specialists do, competition from the private sector and scrutiny from the media, the sector needs to send a clear message to job-seekers about the benefits of working in social housing.

The sector needs to ‘sell itself’ as a career, according to Women in Social Housing. At an event last year, the organisation held a roundtable of experts, who agreed that the sector needs to reach out to students and explain that housing offers a varied, secure career where people can make a genuine difference.

What’s the attraction?

For workers motivated to make as much impact as possible, the reach of the social housing sector is huge; in 2016-17, four million households were in social renting. Those who work in the sector feel the change they make every day, in the face of huge challenges: revitalizing our cities by bringing tenants to areas that need their crucial skills; preventing poor housing conditions and homelessness; providing wider health, education and social care support; bringing communities together, and signposting tenants to various services.

Defining the sector’s value to potential new hires

These wide-ranging impacts, however, are not always communicated outside the teams delivering these services.

“As social providers we have to prove there is added value to what we do, otherwise what is the difference between the social housing sector and private landlords?”

This was one response to a survey by the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH) report, which found that many people within the social housing sector find it difficult to measure the impact of the frontline workforce.
The CIH found that some organisations were looking to demonstrate their social value in order to secure future resources, but that this isn’t often linked specifically to frontline roles.

‘The value of the frontline role is referred to by both professionals and tenant-customers in very tangible ways, and clearer measures of value could be developed, possibly linked to the holistic well-being of communities,’ the report states.

Understanding, measuring and clearly defining the impact of the sector’s services is the first step towards drawing talent to the workforce.

Getting the message out

In 2018, the CIH encouraged housing employees to upload videos to social media, explaining the benefits of working in the sector. However, campaigns such as this that extoll the benefits of working in the sector to a wide audience are few and far between.

Experts warn that, in order to survive, the social housing sector needs leaders who can innovate with a commercial focus and are bold enough to implement changes, alongside a self-motivated workforce.

Hiring managers have a vital role to play to inform prospective employees about the benefits of working in the sector and the values that underpin it. This is the most effective way to attract top talent, and ensure that the sector thrives into the future.

There’s no doubt that working in the social hosing sector comes with many challenges. However, many roles in social housing offer competitive salaries, job security and flexibility, within a sector that is constantly innovating.

In a 2010 interview, Stephen Hawking was asked what advice he would give to his children. He said: “Work gives you meaning and purpose, and life is empty without it.” A career in social housing makes a compelling case not only for a role with meaning and purpose, but also the chance to have a substantial impact beyond that.