L&Q residents helping us select the right candidates for key resident facing roles

More than 60 residents joined our recruiting managers and HR this year to help select the right candidates for key, resident-facing roles.

Residents helped us identify candidates who have the right communication and problem-solving skills, empathy and care for residents and are demonstrating L&Q’s values of passion, people, inclusion, impact, and responsibility.

This flexible, ad hoc resident involvement opportunity was piloted over a series of phases, ensuring that residents, candidates, HR and hiring managers are all getting what they need from the process.

In the most recent wave of Neighbourhood Housing Lead recruitment, candidates were asked to write a written response to an anonymised resident who has contacted their Neighbourhood Housing Lead by email to report an issue.

Candidates were informed that residents themselves were reviewing and feeding back on their written responses and whether they met, exceeded, or did not meet their expectations under the core criteria they were assessing.

Resident feedback was then collated and shared with the hiring managers, directly informing their assessment on how far the candidates meet key criteria relating to empathy and care for residents, tone of voice and communication skills and living L&Q’s values.

One resident said of the experience: “Thank you for asking me to do this, I enjoyed the task, and it was good to use some of my previous work skills.”

Another resident said, of seeing other residents’ feedback collated with theirs: “It's like having a big conversation with residents, I find it very useful and encouraging.”

Another said: “Thanks again L&Q for being proactive in acknowledging the importance of resident involvement in these key areas that impact L&Q service delivery.”

Our HR team said: “We are passionate about involving residents in all that we do to help us continually improve your experience with us. Check out the resident involvement pages on the website and sign up in the get involved form to be kept informed of upcoming opportunities to get involved and the impact that this is having across the whole of L&Q.”