A Guide to getting it right whilst getting it wrong!
GreenSquareAccord have appointed a Director of Corporate Affairs and Communications, who in turn is growing a new team at a cost to the residents. With this new position comes a new approach to PR for GreenSquareAccord.
Can this new approach rebuild GreenSquareAccord’s online reputation? Could the money be better spent elsewhere? Is it all talk and no substance? Can GreenSquareAccord rebuild their reputation without first addressing their short fallings?
The pitch!
As most of us reading this weren’t part of the recruitment process for this new role, we need to use a little imagination. Let’s imagine that Steve Hayes has passed several interviews and is now presenting his plan to the leadership team. I’ll have to make some assumptions based on what we’ve seen since he started as Director of Corporate Affairs and Communications in April.
“We are going to position ourselves as experts within the sector! Everything we write from our social media posts to our online articles will celebrate our forward thinking approach, our initiative, our expertise. They will be collectively written to prove to everyone that our team are the true experts of everything - our magnificence will be unquestionable! ”
Okay, so I might have over egged this a little bit.
But, let’s look at the evidence that supports my assumption, lets call this section:
Putting the cart before the horse
Reputation Management Step One - Shipping containers will solve our repairs problem
What a ‘puff piece’ this little gem was! Let’s not harp on about it anymore, you can read my views here. However as this quote shows, it’s very self-congratulatory and highlights the point I’m making.
“...innovation for innovation’s sake serves no purpose. But we’re proud to be embracing technology in a way that addresses pain points in the customer journey. This technology was already out there - as a sector we must be willing to embrace technology where it can improve our services.”
As a sector we must be willing to embrace… This is where the article becomes self-serving. Rachel Crownshaw who has a background in banking and customer service is now telling other housing associations what they must do to improve their service. This advice to others is being pushed as her own association is failing many of their vulnerable residents. Lest we forget her (less self-promoting and un-apologetic) response to leaving a war veteran and his family in a damp flat, or her response to residents being left without hot water (an issue that continues to this day).
“This innovative solution featured in a blog I wrote for the Chartered Institute of Housing which was shared with thousands of housing professionals up and down the UK.”
Rachel Crownshaw celebrating the intuitive step of placing a shipping container in the car park of the GreenSquareAccord head office.
From carts to bandwagons
Reputation Management Step Two - telling others how to behave
This next post made me so cross it actually spawned this article. It first came to my attention via GreenSquareAccord’s LinkedIn page. I added a comment that was deleted not once, nor twice, but three times. The comment(s) simply asked for GreenSquareAccord to validate their claim and position. Clearly there is no place for the voice of the customer when trying to manage your online reputation. It’s also noteworthy that this post wasn’t shared on Facebook.
This shocking display of self-promotion can be found on the Inside Housing website. So dismayed am I about this article being promoted that I’ve emailed the editor.
I find this article to be so shallow and shameless I’m still struggling with where to start, but here we go.
Please note this is not a personal attack on Sophie Atkinson. She is no more capable or inept than anyone else at GreenSquareAccord. According to the GreenSquareAccord website she is responsible for: governance, risk and assurance, health and safety, and data protection. As data protection falls into the remit of her role, I contacted her (by both snail mail and email) regarding a data breach caused by GreenSquareAccord, she ignored both which subsequently led to GreenSquareAccord being written to by the ICO.
GreenSquareAccord have (you may have noticed) changed their logo in support of Pride month, as have many other brands. I don’t have an issue with this so called ‘pinkwashing’. I stand with all my brothers and sisters regardless of gender, orientation, creed or colour - and I stand with them regardless of the month, day or hour. Aren’t I just swell, and isn’t it easy to boost your ego and public profile with just a keyboard?
“Perhaps the challenge comes when the same organisations that create carefully co-ordinated campaigns for Pride Month fail to back up their statements with meaningful action. In these circumstances, the celebratory communications and perky messages of inclusion can fall flat when they don’t echo the experience of colleagues and customers. So what steps can housing providers take to avoid this?”
Couldn’t agree with you more Sophie, you are singing to the choir, sister! Can’t wait to read all about the meaningful actions GreenSquareAccord are putting into play - spoiler, they’re not.
So what steps can housing providers take to avoid this? - Telling other providers what they need to do, a bit condescending but let’s stick with it for a bit.
First, it’s important to recognise that Pride is for life, not just for June. I sometimes feel like Pride Month is an annual ‘coming out’ for many companies. They slap a rainbow on a logo, organise some events and then – at the end of the month – get back into the closet.
The use of ‘they’ implies that GreenSquare, Accord and now GreenSquareAccord, aren’t to be included in this catch all statement, yet they haven’t currently done anything other than ‘slap a rainbow on a logo’ - but let’s move on:
This is not an option for LGBTQ+ people. So, if you’ve declared yourself as an organisation that supports LGBTQ+ employees and customers, this needs to continue year round. It’s where the glitter and jazz hands should translate into hard graft.
glitter and jazz hands - perhaps the use of stereotypical statements could be avoided. The annoyance is growing, but let’s move on:
Second, put your words into action using a simple framework of engage, measure and act.
Agreed, so now we will have an example of how GreenSquareAccord are putting these words into meaningful actions?
The first thing is to engage. Engage with colleagues and customers to understand their experience of your organisation and use this to drive improvements in the workplace and in the delivery of services. Take action to break stereotypes and create empathy.
Starting to feel like Sophie has been doing a lot of copying and pasting. Breaking stereotypes seems a little unfounded when you’ve just used the expression ‘the glitter and jazz hands’ but please, let’s move on:
A simple way to do this is by encouraging the sharing of experiences so that people can understand and learn from each other. Personal stories are powerful – so use them.
Still waiting for some hard evidence or examples…
It may sound trite but what gets measured really does get done – and we have a significant data challenge in the sector. This affects both employees and customers. A 2021 National Housing Federation survey revealed that, out of 174 organisations that took part, no data was recorded for 74% of employees on gender identity and 40% on sexual orientation. It also found that employees remain more likely to select ‘prefer not to say’ when asked about their sexual orientation than any other category.
You’re right, ‘what gets measured really does get done’ does sound trite. Perhaps 74% of organisations felt people should be judged on their actions and the value they bring to that organisation rather than their sexual orientation, perhaps this is why employees opt to select ‘prefer not to say’.
Sophie has now stopped talking about GreenSquareAccord and has instead focused on the housing sector. This is where I suspect she will continue to preach to the rest of the sector on what they should be doing, after all (and I expect this will soon be qualified) GreenSquareAccord are experts(?)
A similar challenge was experienced by the Human City Initiative when analysing the diversity characteristics of social housing tenants. It concluded that between 4% and 6% of all social tenant household heads identified as LGBTQ+, but this was highlighted in the report as an estimate due to the number of tenants who did not respond to questions relating to sexual orientation.
Human City Initiative, a Birmingham based think tank - I suspect this is where most of the copying and pasting has come from.
Perhaps 94% - 96% of residents didn’t respond because they felt it wasn’t anyone’s business. Perhaps they want their housing association to ensure their homes are safe, fire alarms work, calls are answered, and when problems arise, their association would be quick to resolve the issue. Perhaps we all think these associations should focus on providing their core level of service before they look to fix the wider issues affecting our society, but let’s move on:
This tells us that, not only do we need to be much better at data capture, we also need to work harder at earning the trust of colleagues and customers so that they feel more comfortable in disclosing this information. In particular it means being better at explaining how and why we use the data we collect to prevent discrimination in our business practices.
This tells us that, not only do we need to be much better at data capture - No it doesn't.
Earning trust. Okay, here is something we can agree on. However the lack of trust isn’t caused by GreenSquareAccord’s inability to capture data, not entirely anyway. The lack of trust stems from housing associations failing to treat residents with respect, failing to uphold basic service level agreements, the inability to provide or maintain safe homes. GreenSquareAccord’s recent data brach is an indication that GreenSquareAccord might not be able to handle our data safely and as such should only be trusted with what is absolutely necessary, and nothing more.
GreenSquareAccord’s workforce might not trust the organisation as it is showing toxic attitudes. This is up to GreenSquareAccord to fix, but Sophie isn’t talking about GreenSquareAccord, she’s talking about the housing sector and brands who have changed the logo to incorporate the Pride flag.
Use the information you’ve gathered to start taking positive action to improve the experiences of colleagues and customers. Beginning the journey is what’s important and you will find individual organisations at different stages of maturity.
And here it is! GreenSquareAccord positioning themselves as experts in the sector, telling others what they should be doing, as if they were leading the way!
GreenSquareAccord is just over a year old and has developed some simple commitments that form the basis of our EDI Foundation Strategy. It’s aptly named as it’s designed to create a solid foundation which we can build on in the future.
Two failing associations pulled together doesn’t make a new business. But let’s assume it does. Less than a year old, failing to address so many issues, and have only recently developed some simple commitments that form the basis of an as yet untested EDI strategy.
In short, GreenSquareAccord are not experts. GreenSquareAccord are taking their first tentative steps into embracing a culture that so far they have failed to support. And with the exception of changing their logo for the month of June there is little evidence to support any other positive action thus far undertaken.
Yet they’ve positioned themselves as experts. This is the hypocrisy.
We recognise that we have not yet reached the end of the rainbow but we’re committed to the journey – and will continue to use our rainbow logo along the way until we get there.
When GreenSquareAccord reach the end of the rainbow (isn’t that another awful term that undermines the message even further) perhaps then, they can educate the rest of the sector.
Until then, we can rest assured that GreenSquareAccord will keep the colour within their logo. GreenSquareAccord don’t just jump on a bandwagon for a month, they’ll do it all year round!
In conclusion
There are more examples, and we may well need to revisit this as it seems to be the direction GreenSquareAccord are heading, telling others how to fix their issues before fixing their own. Perhaps it will run out of steam like ‘Simply Brilliant Landlord’.
Of course the real fear is that this is all just a ruse because they’ve forgotten how to revert back to the original logo on their website, perhaps they’ll now have to repaint all their vans again.