One Housing was going through a period of change and transformation. At the start of the process we wanted to gain some good intelligence about our people – their values and their views of us. We worked with Campbell Tickell to carry out a CultureScan.

The work gave us vital insights into how the organisation really works – as opposed to how we thought it did. It highlighted real strengths for us to work with; for example that many staff valued and recognised our commitment to diversity and this was a key part of their work experience. But we also found challenges – our commitment to empowering front-line managers, for example, was not a reality to many, who felt decision making was slow. The scan gave us a better sense of our overall culture, and also identified the pockets where local cultures were different. Perhaps most importantly, it gave us a strong sense of what we need to do to create the vibrant, focused, fun culture that we aim for.

St Mungo’s had been through significant changes from 2015-2017: processes, people, policies, trustees. We’d even changed our branding – twice! But when asked the question ‘How has your culture changed?’ – we were unable to provide an answer. Campbell Tickell worked with us on a short time frame on a bespoke package, including questionnaires, focus groups and structured interviews. They involved managers, front line staff, commissioners and other key stakeholders to identify in a clear but meaningful way how much our culture had changed (24% on average). Most importantly CT left us with a tool to measure that change going forward, which we will use every two years. This work not only meant we could demonstrate the positive effects of our changes externally, including to regulators, but also brought together people internally as they realised how much the positive effects of their hard work had impacted on the St Mungo’s culture.

I would like to thank Campbell Tickell for their help and support during the recruitment of a new Chief Executive. From the initial reply, to our tender invitation, it was clear that CT’s attention to detail; searching out our needs and the support to the senior members of the board to refine their thinking; made all the difference to the final outcome. The innovative approach employed to involve the full board has been commented on and the final agreement by them made the selection of the best candidate a relatively simple matter. The list of potential applicants was wide and varied and gave us the opportunity to test the market and line up a new CEO to fit our needs in the next stage of our development. It was gratifying to note that the panels of Trustees and CT’s own interviews brought out the same results. This gave the board a measure of confidence added to their own thoughts in the final analysis. The whole process was designed to involve as many of the board as wished to take part, with the final selection of the last 3 being attended by the full board. This gave the necessary buy-in by the board and was handled in an innovative way with presentations from the candidates. I would have no problem in recommending Campbell Tickell for recruitment or other work in our space, you seem to have a great and detailed understanding of the needs of our sector.

Penny Farrar from CT was great. She really enhanced our awayday and provided just the kind of role I’d envisaged. I was really pleased. In particular I was impressed as to how she managed to pick up and understand very quickly and easily what we were talking about (given that a lot of it was technical, jargon etc). So – in a nutshell, great value and met all my expectations!”

We have been really impressed with Tony Baines and would like to say thank you for his flexible approach, proactive suggestions and the way he has certainly delivered beyond what we were expecting. The report is really useful, particularly the recommendations which will be helpful in engaging our Board and senior team. The process has definitely helped us select the appropriate quality award, and the workshops and support from Tony helped demystify ISO for staff.

Thank you so much to Greg and team for an outstanding job in helping us recruit our new Chairman. Your help with what was a thorough process and in supporting our final selection was invaluable. All candidates spoke very highly of the whole process and the calibre of candidates was exceptional. We could have appointed any one of the last three candidates, which is testament to the great job by you and your team. All together a rigorous process and appointment. Michael, our CEO, and the Board are delighted with the outcome.