Listening sessions – what we learned, and what happens now
In June, we held 5 listening sessions to get your feedback on what's important to you as our Co-design Action Group redesigns the way we do engagement at Peabody.
We visited all four of our regions, and spoke to people living in our homes and communities, as well as holding an online session for people who were interested but unable to meet with us in person.
Almost two hundred people expressed an interest in being involved in the sessions, and around a hundred attended one or more of them. We’re happy with the way the listening sessions went.
Some of you even managed to come to more than one of the sessions – thank you for giving us so much of your valuable time if that was you.
What we learned
There were 5 main themes that came through in the listening sessions. These were:
- The importance of what happens locally
You want neighbourhood colleagues to be visible in your communities, engage with you proactively, and be there to help you navigate your interactions with our internal departments when things go wrong. A lack of this has been a big driver for getting involved in the past.
- The importance of capturing and sharing impact from engagement
You want to know that, when you engage with us, things will change for the better. You want us to be smart about what we scrutinise, give an engagement offer that’s consistent across the organisation, and keep you updated.
- The need to capture and respond to resident voice in a variety of ways
You don’t just want to join a panel or group and have meetings. You want ways to influence the way we deliver our services that are quick and easy, and fit in with your other commitments.
- That you should be able to contact Peabody easily, and a clear route for escalation available
You want us to be clear in the way we communicate with you, give timely and relevant information, and be proactive in resolving service issues.
- Using available technology to our advantage, including The Garden
You communicate within your communities in a variety of ways, but typically using established tools like WhatsApp and Facebook. If you’re going to use a Peabody app or portal, then you want everything you need to be in one place. You have a real desire to self-serve but the information you need isn’t readily available. Digital communication makes being involved easier for many of you.
Other things you told us about
You also told us that you’d like some clarity around the standard of service you can expect when being involved with Peabody. You also told us that dissatisfaction with our services is a big driver for getting involved in the first place, and that being involved with Peabody is a great way to promote community cohesion where you live.
Finally, you told us that you want us to recognise your unique circumstances in our involvement opportunities, rather than taking a “one size fits all” approach.
What we’ve done with everything you told us
We’ve written a summary report for each of the sessions, and these have been shared with the Action Group. They’ll use what you told us during the sessions to inform their decision making when they meet in July to decide how we’re going to do engagement at Peabody in the future.
What happens next
The Action Group will spend three days together in July, working with an experienced and independent facilitator, to decide how they think we should do engagement in the future. This will include discussions on any service standards we decide to set, what our approach to local engagement will be, and how we use strategic, Peabody-wide groups to effect meaningful change in the way we operate.
The output from those discussions will be a report, which will be endorsed first by our Customer Experience Committee, and then by our Group Board. That endorsement will give us a really strong mandate to ensure the voice of the customer is heard at every level of our business, something we’re committed to doing.
How you can continue to influence the Action Group
We do have one more, small favour to ask. We’d love you to give us your feedback on the 5 priorities above. Which is most important to you? This will really help the Action Group to demonstrate that what they’re designing will be effective for most people. You can give us your feedback here.
We’ll keep you in the loop
You’ve told us loud and clear during these sessions that effective and timely communication is really important to you, so we want to make sure you know what’s happening every step of the way. So we’ll make sure that we tell you about our new framework for engagement once the Action Group have finished their work. That will be in early August.
We want to keep the conversation going
The work we’re doing to redesign our engagement offer won’t stop at the end of July. What the Action Group design will lead to many new opportunities for you to influence Peabody, both in your local area, and across Peabody as a whole.
Again, if you expressed an interest in the work the Action Group are doing, then we’ll make sure you’re among the first to know about these and have every opportunity to influence the way we work, in the way that suits you best.
Thank you
We’d like to reiterate how grateful we are to you for taking the time to give us your feedback during this process.
Not all of it has been easy to hear, and we recognise there’s a lot of frustration with Peabody in our communities. But we’re committed to taking what we’ve learned and using it to improve the way we engage with you in the future.
