Changing the culture of any organisation is a huge challenge. The way people behave and talk, the way we do things every day, tends to evolve over time and is affected by a huge range of factors – some external (like the state of the economy or the health of the community), and others internal, that we can control.

And why is it important? Most organisations talk about their culture in positive terms – ‘we are very values-driven, we’re all about our customers’, but the words don’t always match the experience of residents, or indeed colleagues working there.

It’s important because the culture of an organisation is the basis for how it operates, and how it serves customers. Things that an organisation tolerates – for example, poor punctuality or rude behaviour – can quickly become normalised and influence a customer’s experience. A strong, positive and clearly understood culture goes a long way to defining how our customers will view us.

When it comes to resident engagement, this vitally important aspect of any housing association is massively influenced and informed by the culture of the organisation. If the values are just words on the wall, or the expected behaviours and approaches to work are inconsistent, and not led and embodied by senior managers, then don’t be surprised if your organisation’s resident engagement isn’t effective or meaningful.

At our organisation, Curo, we have made huge changes over the last eight years. Some of these have been about structures and processes – increasing the size of our team, offering more ways to get involved – but the most important ones have been about our culture. Here are a few examples:

• Our Resident Engagement strategy, developed with customers and approved by our Customer Experience Committee in October 2024, demands that our service teams take responsibility for engaging with residents about each service. We have talked through the strategy with every team, and worked with them to ensure resident engagement is embedded in each team’s plan.

• Our annual awards event, The Spotlights, is one of the cornerstones of cultural life at Curo. The shortlist for one of the categories is nominated by our customers, and we make videos of each nomination explaining how these colleagues have worked with residents to support them in a number of ways.

• We demonstrate our commitment to transparency and accountability to our customers through a monthly Facebook Live session, which anyone can join and ask questions of our directors and Executive team. Many colleagues also watch these sessions.

• We have embedded some core principles of resident engagement within our core processes. This means:
  • Any proposed changes to services must first be shared with customers.
  • New or updated policies cannot be approved until customers have been involved.
  • Our policies and procedures cannot be approved until an Equalities Impact Assessment has been completed and checked with customers.
  • Our formal reports to our Board, Board Committees and Executive meetings all must include consideration of our customers.

These, alongside other changes have been instrumental in putting resident engagement at the centre of how we think about customers and how we deliver our services. We still have much more we can do, but the best way of improving how we engage with our residents is to drive long-lasting changes to our culture.