General news
1. Application
Find the perfect opportunity in our current vacancies and click ‘apply now’. This will take you to the application process where you’ll complete your personal information and upload your CV. You may also be asked to answer a few application questions.
You can find out what it's like to work at Housing 21 by reading our reviews on Glassdoor, where we're proud to have been ranked in the top 3 employers in the UK in 2024.
- Take your time to ensure you stand out from the crowd. This is the perfect opportunity to show your motivation, highlight your skills and demonstrate why you’re the right person for the job.
- Make it clear. Ensure your responses answer the question and can be clearly understood. Keep answers relevant.
- Tell us why you want the job. Explain why you feel you’d be suitable, briefly detailing any relevant experience and skills that relate to the role.
- Check your spelling and grammar. It’s often useful to ask a friend or family member to review and double check.
A great CV really highlights your skills and experience. It can be useful to tailor your CV to the role, ensuring your key transferable skills stand out.
Key tips:
- Keep it short and factual, two pages is the ideal length
- Ensure your previous employment dates are correct and up to date
- Ensure your contact details are up to date. For useful hints and tips and a CV template visit How to write a CV | National Careers Service
At Housing 21, we want to create a strong sense of belonging so that people of all identities, backgrounds and cultures feel they can be themselves. Our recruitment processes are designed to be fair and are aligned to our ways of working, supporting diversity and inclusivity and embracing differences.
You'll receive a confirmation email when the application has been successfully submitted.
The hiring manager will review your application and you’ll receive a call or email to confirm if your application has successfully progressed to the next stage of the process. Depending on the volumes of applications received, you can expect a response within one week of the advert closing date. You can check the status of your application at any time in the My Applications section of the recruitment portal.
If your application has not been successful, you will receive a response. We encourage you to sign up for job alerts notifying you of future roles that may be of interest at Housing 21.
2. Interview
Our interview process will consist of any of the below stages.
Our culture is important to us at Housing 21; it makes us who we are. Our Skills and Behaviours Framework is a part of this, and so these skills and behaviours are included in all our interview processes. Questions might, therefore, be on communicating and influencing, or problem solving, for example.
For some roles you will be invited to a telephone interview, conducted over the telephone or by MS Teams. This initial interview is an opportunity for the hiring manager to understand more about your experience and skills. It’s also a chance for you to understand more about the role, working for Housing 21 and ensure it’s the right fit for you. This usually lasts about 30 minutes.
These are usually face to face at one of our schemes or offices, or occasionally they’re conducted on MS Teams. You’ll be asked questions based on the skills and experiences required for the role, which will be clear from the job description. You’ll be asked to provide examples where you have used these skills or had these experiences.
Tips:
- Review the job profile and our Skills and Behaviours Framework and prepare examples you could use to best demonstrate the key skills.
- Keep your answers relevant. The STAR method (Situation, Task, Action, and Result) can be really useful to provide a comprehensive answer.
- We want you to be your best at interview, so don’t be afraid to ask the interviewer to repeat the question or ask to come back to it if you need some time to think.
- Ensure you notify us of any adjustments you may need to perform at your best in advance.
Interviews are two-way; although we are assessing the right fit for the role, it is also your opportunity to assess if Housing 21 is the right fit for you.
You will have an opportunity at the end of the interview to ask questions and will be notified of the next steps of the process and when to expect an outcome.
Some roles include an assessment centre as part of the selection process; these are group activities, bringing multiple candidates together. They focus on our skills and behaviours and provide an opportunity for you to bring those skills to life. No preparation is necessary unless you’ve been told otherwise.
Although this may be out of your comfort zone, we ensure these sessions are as relaxed and informal as possible. All activities will be fully explained and any information required to complete the tasks will be provided. This is an opportunity for us to get to know you and see how you interact and engage with others, as well as an opportunity for you to get to know us.
Key tips:
- Be yourself, try to relax - you should find the experience enjoyable and leave with a good feel for what it’s like to be part of the team at Housing 21.
- Get involved, there is no right or wrong answer, everyone is in the same boat.
- Ask questions - it’s your opportunity to meet the hiring manager and the team
- Review our Skills and Behaviours Framework in preparation, this will give you an insight into our values and culture
- Ensure you notify us of any adjustments you may need to perform at your best in advance
You can expect to be with us for up to three hours. Refreshment breaks will be included.
For our resident facing roles and key senior appointments across the organisation, we involve our residents in the interview process. Our resident voice is as important to us as our Skills and Behaviours Framework; our residents are the reason we exist. Resident involvement will involve either a face to face or MS Teams meeting with several residents. This is an informal meeting, a chance for you to get to know our residents and their expectations of Housing 21 and for residents to get to know what you will bring to Housing 21. These meetings usually last 20 to 30 minutes.
We are committed to ensuring that you can flourish in your interview, therefore, if you require any reasonable adjustments to be made to enable you to take part in / attend the interview please contact the Recruitment Team recuitment@housing21.org.uk
3. Selection
Once interviews are complete, you'll receive a call or email to let you know the outcome. We aim to provide all candidates with verbal feedback if requested.
You can expect an outcome within a week of your interview unless you’re told otherwise. You can contact our Recruitment Team for updates outside of these timescales.
Successful candidates will be contacted with a verbal offer of employment, outlining the details of the offer. Once an offer is accepted, written confirmation will be received within 24 hours.
We're committed to ensuring that you can flourish in your new role, so if you require any adjustments to support you to get job-ready, please contact your line manager or the Recruitment Team.
4. Onboarding
You'll receive access to our onboarding portal where you'll find your contract of employment and starter forms, which you'll need to complete and return. Due to the nature of our work, pre-employment checks vary depending on the role.
The onboarding portal also contains details on our great benefits and lots of useful information about working for Housing 21.
Your manager will keep in contact with you and keep you updated about what to expect on your first day. If you have any questions during the onboarding process, please contact your manager or the Recruitment Team.
