We at Sovereign & Bale fully acknowledge and understand that, Local Authorities and Housing Associations want a recruitment partner with comprehensive knowledge of the market. We have a highly experienced and dedicated team specialising in local authority and housing recruitment that combine their extensive market knowledge and sector expertise to source the highest standard of candidates.
Our Local Authority and Housing team of recruiters have significant experience and they have worked with a range of Local Authorities and departments, including social housing trusts and local regeneration authorities. Our capabilities in this market cover multiple business disciplines, at all levels and across the UK.
Our track record
Extraordinary sustainment rate of 98.5%
Experience:
Our Local Authority and Housing team is lead by Monica Hossain, International Clients Services Manager, and her team who are experts within this important sector.
Monica is a highly experienced professional with 15 years plus experience within public sector and commercial recruitment. In the last 6 years, Monica has placed over 250 candidates into a variety of roles and an extraordinary sustainment rate of 98.5%. (85% are still in post and 15% remained in role for at least 2 years).
During Monica’s time with CityWest Homes, part of Westminster Council alongside the tri borough; Hammersmith & Fulham and Kensington & Chelsea, she delivered recruitment for the Council, Paddington Development Trust, Pinnacle Group and Clarion Housing.
In her previous role within Employment Services, particularly at Reed In Partnership, Monica played an instrumental part in the delivery of the POEM programme in Southwark, variety of Regeneration programmes across key London boroughs including the management and delivery of Social Inclusion Programmes and Welfare to Work contracts.
With over 15 years experience in public sector and commercial recruitment, Monica is a high level expert in recruiting within the following areas;
- Senior Executive Appointments within Local Authority
- International Recruitment
- HR, L&D, Marketing and Finance
- Employment Services
- Housing Management
- Community Engagement
- Income Recovery
- Repairs and Maintenance
- Residential and Lettings within Local Authority
- Administration
- Call Centre
Placement Successes:
Senior Management
- The appointment of the Head of Residential at CityWest Homes
This was a high profile role that required careful attention to ensure the right candidate was appointed. Monica’s initial step was to arrange a meeting with the hiring manager for a detailed brief on the role and then navigated the successful appointment using the following process;
- Planned what the entire process would look like
- Negotiated the removal of 2 stages from the process in order to simply recruitment and engage quality candidates quicker. This included the removal of the telephone interview and an overall move from a 4 stage interview process down to 2
- Monica took full ownership and accountability for the entire process including the creation of a new JD for the role along with the support of HR and made recommendations about what should go into the JD to speed up the process
- Responded with 5 profile of quality candidates within 2 days of been given the role
- Meet all 5 candidates face to face to ensure they met the profiles client had set in terms of presentation, commitment to the process, enthusiasm, confidence as well as the key skills and experience.
- Navigated the various logistical challenges to accommodate for interviews, ensuring both candidates and interviewers availability and taking away any undue consumption of time for the respective hiring manager
- 5 Interviews were arranged and completed within 7 days of the role briefing and the successful candidate was started one week later as their visibility was immediate.
This appointment demonstrated superb attention, planning, negotiation, strong levels of communication and an execution of a process to the highest standard. Monica was applauded across the organisation for the quality and efficiency of her work. The successful candidate is still in the organisation and now has a very strong presence across the company.
Middle Management
- The appointment of a HR Manager
- One role advertised
- Monica minimised the submission to only a maximum of 4 very strong candidates
- All four candidates shortlisted for an initial Telephone Interview
- Three candidates passed and progressed to face to face interview
- One outstanding candidate offered and accepted, another candidate was a very close second
- Great story about successful candidate. She was rejected for the same role one year prior, but took on the feedback and worked on her knowledge and understanding of the role, and Monica retained contact throughout the year and finally she secured this role through Monica’s help and prepration. Candidate was offered the role within 9 days of the initial role briefing and commenced worked following 4 week notice period.
Customer Facing Front Line roles
Monica filled a variety of customer facing front line role including Housing Manager, Income Advisor, Employment Advisor, Community Engagement Advisor and Administrators. Monica also supported the ongoing recruitment of the entire council call centre staff, a department with historic high turnover.
Story of the Call Centre recruitment within the Council
- Monica produced a thorough process and resource plan to ensure call centre staffing was always at a minimum of 90% headcount capacity. She planned for ongoing recruitment of staff and retained a pipeline of candidates ready to be interviewed at short notice.