Housing association Midland Heart has released a game changing career platform for staff to map out their professional development.
The Midlands-based affordable home provider recently surveyed its staff to gain feedback on the pros and cons of working for the housing association. The main response surrounded career progression and giving more clarity on opportunities.
Honouring these results, Midland Heart invested in developing a dedicated careers portal which makes progression more accessible. It commissioned local integrated marketing agency Plinkfizz, who collaborated with software company Huler, to create a dedicated solution.
Together, the agencies created a dynamic careers platform which features a London-underground style roadmap offering members of the Midland Heart team the chance to see how jobs relate.
Each job is linked to another, and search functionalities mean that staff can easily find potential roles before getting a step-by-step route detailing how to get there. The app also has a customisable portal with drag-and-drop functionalities to make each job dynamic.
Within each role, there is a bespoke description which features requirements, duty information and desired skills. This feature was added so that people aiming for the role know what to demonstrate to achieve their next step on the career ladder.
Craig Knapper, head of talent at Midland Heart said: “We’re excited to launch our dedicated careers portal to empower our people to move through the ranks here at Midland Heart.
“It was important for us to give opportunities to promote from within, to reward loyalty and high performance as well as help reduce staff turnaround. As Midland Heart grows, our staff can grow with us. This was a key consideration when we looked at the concept, we wanted to be able to customise it thoroughly.
“By taking on board feedback from our employees, we hope they can see how valued they are and thrive now they have a clear road map for their own development.”
The platform gives full transparency across the business, enabling employees to develop their behaviours, skills and ultimately, their career.
Ongoing additions to the software will give the Midland Heart team the chance to access training courses and modules. These will be stored in each user’s profile and will complement internal progression opportunities.
Paul Hawkins, Business Innovation Director at Plinkfizz commented: “We were thrilled when Midland Heart approached us for help to develop a solution to visibly support internal careers.
“The property industry is regulated heavily by strict policies focusing on career development. These policies state that there must be extra ways to progress, with full transparency.
“This new platform not only meets those policies, but we believe goes above and beyond the requirements to support Midland Heart employees.
“Collaborating with Huler, we did some in-depth marketing research, finding software that we could adapt and manipulate to create a bespoke careers platform, which we believe hasn’t been seen before in this industry. It was an exciting project to work on and we’re incredibly proud of the results.”
As Midland Heart expands, the HR team can add new roles to the software without the need for the tool’s re-development. This is what makes the software solution a game changer for this kind of application.
Paul added: “It was always imperative for us to develop this software so that Midland Heart could use it without constant need for redevelopment.
We wanted to create something which allowed the Midland Heart HR team to have full ownership of the content and the job roadmap.”
Prospective employees looking for a career in the property industry can view opportunities on the Midland Heart website jobs.midlandheart.org.uk