Morgan Hunt wins Recruitment Agency of the Year (201 + Employees) & Most Effective Back Office Operation

Morgan Hunt is thrilled to announce its success in bringing home, not one, but two trophies at last night’s prestigious Recruiter Awards 2016.

Described as a ‘Stand Out’ winner of Recruitment Agency of the Year (201 + Employees), Morgan Hunt were up against some heavy competition in what is considered the ‘big one’ to have. Among other notable comments Judges praised Morgan Hunt’s visionary leadership, strategic direction, implementation of a robust infrastructure, and innovative approach to employee engagement.

“Recruitment Agency of the Year and ‘Most Effective Back Office are winning combos” says Sue Cooper, CEO Morgan Hunt. “I’m just over the moon and so proud of what everyone has achieved at Morgan Hunt. These are awards for our people to be proud of and the reason why this is such a great company to work for”

The award ‘combo’ makes Morgan Hunt the ‘must go to’ recruiter for public services, not-for-profit and allied private sector recruitment.

Recruiter Awards is the largest event in the UK for the recruitment industry sector which recognises best practice from agencies, in-house teams and use of marketing and technology.

For more information on what it’s like to work for Morgan Hunt, our values, our awards and our culture click here.

Social housing win themes for 2016

Social Housing was attacked on all fronts in 2015 through government pledges that were set to rock the sector and change it forever.

A combination of strikes made social housing the favourite political punch bag.

But as Star Wars Battlefront was getting ready for its big launch later in the year, social housing gameplay, showed that it does have resilience, making its political manoeuvre, coming out fighting. Despite inevitable change that will take place across the sector, there is still plenty to get excited about.  

So how will the force awaken in 2016? Here is Morgan Hunt’s compendium of 8 social housing win themes for 2016:

Extension of Right-to-buy
A watershed moment for the social housing sector but what the politicians didn’t dwell on is that RTB isn’t a new initiative, a vote winner maybe, but not a new innovation. RTB was introduced in the 1980’s yet turned out to be one of the biggest housing debates of 2015.

Last year the Government made homeownership its priority, shifting all government, affordable housing, capital funding, into products such as Starter Homes and shared ownership, yet many thought this not the slam dunk expected. Concerns still prevail around market distortion and of allowing the poorest to buy.

The heroes of the day, the National Housing Federation (NHF), helped broker an agreement that made RTB look a bit more manageable than originally perceived, to give housing associations more leeway to manage their stock and their responsibilities. We accept that not everyone sees NHF as knights in shining armour, but if the deal allows housing associations to be in more control of their futures, protect jobs and housing for the vulnerable, which it does, then this has to be seen as a good thing. This is why we’ve flipped RTB into a win theme for 2016.

Rebuilding the sector
In the midst of the political firepower, social housing base command was getting on with the job and last year, despite a fall in their housing association grants, they managed to increase the level of completions which rose by 53% in 2015 over the previous year.

New housing stock gives the chance for housing association’s to own and manage more cost efficient homes, to generate their own money, which they did by investing 84 pence in every pound from their own finances.

Breaking news just one week into the New Year the Government announced that 100 of the country’s most run-down, sink housing estates will be replaced with government and private sector money.

Old housing stock is costly to maintain but new development, funded from RTB, at housing association discretion has to be a win theme for the sector longer term.

Welfare reform
Removal of housing support for 18-21 year olds and lowering of the benefit cap is no doubt a tricky business for all housing associations.

The National Living Wage also impacts the cost of delivering care contracts on behalf of local authorities and contracts will need to be renegotiated. Welfare Reform represents an uncomfortable set of hard choices for social institutions to make.

The burning platform for change forces going back to basics, re writing the rule book and thinking outside the box in terms products delivered. Housing associations are in the unenviable position of determining who gets and who doesn’t and Welform Reform has exacerbated the decision criteria. None-the-less there is much misconception about social housing tenants and people on housing benefit, and the impact of reform is felt more keenly with housing associations than with any other social care agency.

But in the end we believe that social housing will garner its creativity for this to be a win theme long term, albeit that it will need to think hard about delivering services under different models.

Rent cuts
Housing associations will have to cut social housing rents by 1 per cent each year for the next four years from April 2016 to help reduce the country’s housing benefit bill. The reversal of the rental formula, which currently allows housing associations to raise rents in line with the consumer prices index (CPI) plus 1 per cent, forms a significant part of the investment profile. This impacts long term loans which may need review and overhaul.

Rent cuts a win theme, are we serious?

Yes we are.  Interest rates are still at an all-time low and investors are still keen to invest. More affordable rents will mean less arrears and more certainty on income and are thus more prudent. Also under different housing provision models, the rent will be only part of the income generated. 

Efficiency
Efficiency is about getting more out of using less resource and we see this win theme from more than one perspective:

• Devolution

Devolution as we’ve seen in Greater Manchester is giving local control of housing investment to get home building kick started from additional money. Although this could be a double edged sword as borrowing caps may need to be removed, efficiencies can be made from pooled local housing funds. Local control of knowing where and how to invest makes the Treasury a tad nervous but a total of 34 bids from England regions have already been submitted.

• Building innovation

Efficiencies can also be gained through innovation in house building factories or from modular building schemes to churn out hundreds of homes. The Government through InnovateUK is currently investing in supply chain research to see how this could come to fruition.

Delivery models
This is our favourite win theme; there is more than one kind of housing provision model.

The deregulation package announced by Brandon Lewis which includes removing the constitutional consents regime could be the springboard that enables housing associations to be more flexible in their delivery models.  Under this proposal housing associations will no longer need permission from the regulator before they make certain kinds of changes including mergers, restructuring, winding up and dissolution.

The idea is to give more flexibility to housing associations to manage their own funds in order to build more affordable homes and help more people into ownership while ensuring that the historical grant is reinvested in housing.

Hybrid housing delivery, working with the private sector could bridge the housing gap. Private sector landlords have also been the brunt of political attack – housing associations could be a lifeline for them too. Global Institutional investors have promised and are being courted for millions in UK social housing equity funding – an exciting time for housing.

Asset management
More efficiently run DLO could make big contributions in managing and preserving stock. To insource or outsource can transform the cost of social housing's biggest expense. But like all decisions, it needs to be made in context of all other inputs yet this has great potential under our win themes.

Talent management
Last, but not least of our win themes - managing talent.

Talent is a construct that Morgan Hunt is passionate about. There is no single definition, it means different things to different organisations and is made up of skills, knowledge and ability. Since this amalgam is unique to each organisation there are many approaches to talent management and many contexts for the definition but managing your talent and ensuring that you recruit the best does matter.

It matters that housing associations can define what talents they are missing in order to reach their full potential, and it matters that they have a plan of how and where they might find and accommodate for the range of skills and knowledge required in a changing housing landscape.
 
In this article, ‘Social Housing, gameplay battlefront 2015’, Morgan Hunt has taken the ‘cup half full approach’ in its chosen win themes because change needs fresh thinking, doing things differently with helicopter insight, courage to do the right things and the talent to carry it out.

For more information on managing your social housing talent email us.

We ask, is this war time code for a post 16 education funding crisis?

Fragile in this context is what a business would call cash flow. In other words the finances are in a fragile state.

To get this ‘fragile’ situation sorted the Government wants all colleges to take part in area-based reviews.  Post 16 reviews will be taking place throughout the country with the overall aim to get them into better shape or ‘more robust’, less ‘fragile’.

What that shape will look like is yet to be decided but what is clear is that the government sees this as a money saving exercise and not as a funding crisis; any further money will not, at this stage, be coming from Government coffers.

To be fair the Government is not looking to cut current funding, although there have been cuts already; what is clear is that they want funding better managed with better education outcomes; they want cake.

What has been acknowledged so far is that post 16 colleges, in general, are in a pickle and the ‘fragile’ talks and area reviews give an indication to the strategic mind-set behind recent activities.

On the table as an outcome of the reviews is curriculum rationalisation; restructuring is not ruled out and bubbling in policy background is talk of a specific strategy for technology, more local control and an education emphasis that leads to employment. All good you say, but, here’s the big one, there will no doubt be compromises.

Outcomes may lead to Government intervention and that could be significant for some colleges.

Furthermore the ‘fragile’ focus is in truth about money and Government is not envisaging any more, this is not the purpose of the exercise but they do want support from businesses through local partnerships.

An overall assumption from the area reviews is that colleges will be saving money and thus any change will be funded from future surplus from the savings, local business partnerships and local authorities.

Local authorities will be expected to provide money too from their skills budgets so colleges can make the changes.
 

What could this mean for post 16 colleges

The overwhelming message taken from recent talks and announcements is ‘change’. That change will depend on the catchment area that the college is in, their combined curriculum and their student population.

If it involves curriculum rationalisation then compromise will have to be made here.

Some courses cost more than others and the combined effect of a rise in total cost can dramatically change the marginal cost of a student and college finances so the cost accountants will no doubt move in to look at the marginal cost of all student courses and how economies can be made.

Whole area strategies will be under discussion looking at how collective colleges can achieve synergies. The emphasis on technology will see technology specific institutions set up where economies of scale can be gained thus saving other colleges the huge investment in IT.

Examples are already being made across the country; in North East Norfolk and North Suffolk five colleges are collaborating following a review earlier this summer. Between them they were facing a deficit of over £1.3m. The financial challenge was clear but when this was combined with a falling college age population in the area it became a ‘no brainer’ decision to merge.

The same with three colleges in east London that were facing £3m in cuts and accumulated annual losses of £4m they too decided to join forces.

Change is always unsettling; for staff, for students, for parents and for the local community who rely on their college. Often decisions are taken within a vacuum without taking into account the impact on travel, access, accommodation and recruitment. The latter as Morgan Hunt knows only too well, being a major consideration for any college.

As all reviews need to be in by March 2017 there is much to think about and debate on how the ‘fragile’ nature of colleges can be resolved and the compromises to be made. Collaboration is what is being sought and a vision on what the area needs as a whole, and as a review can be triggered by a proactive proposal it’s worth getting involved.