Testimonials

Chester & District Housing Trust

Chester & District Housing Trust Chester & District Housing Trust (CDHT) is a dynamic and enterprising organisation at the forefront of delivering positive impacts in the communities with which it works.

Committed to the best principles of social enterprise with over 14,000 local customers in 6,200 properties and 53% of its 360 colleagues living within its communities, the Trust adheres to key commitments and principles relating to people, places, partnerships and performance which underpin the Vision to ‘create opportunity’, through its mission, ‘by doing the right thing’.

From December 2011, CDHT merged with Cosmopolitan Housing Group.

Julie Windass is the Group Head of Organisational Development and Human Resources. She says

“We have been working with Empathy for two years in developing our managers and team leaders. What struck me from the start is they really understand our culture and our issues. The credibility of the trainer is vital to us and Simon Bernstein has built a strong track record. Through the programmes delivered we have seen qualitative benefits such as increased confidence, positivity and energy from managers as well as qualitative improvements in key performance indicators such as sickness levels reducing consistently on average by 2-3% and the number of team meetings and 1 to 1 meetings increasing by as much as 20%.
Simon’s style blends the theory with the importance we put on our vision, mission, corporate behaviours and values, in a way all colleagues seem to relate to. He is professional and approachable.

Interestingly we enter the Sunday Times Top 100 Best Companies and when we first met Simon a key objective was to improve our scores in the ‘ My manager section’ as we had not performed particularly well and had some poor anecdotal evidence too. In the last 2 years this has become one of our top scoring sections and from 88th place in 2009 we were 27th in 2011”

The most appropriate recommendation I can give is that following our merger, we will be engaging Empathy to work with us on a new group wide development programme.”

Julie Windass, Group Head of Organisational Development and Human Resources, Chester & District Housing Trust Back To Top

Rykneld Homes

Based in Chesterfield, Derbyshire, Rykneld Homes is responsible for the management, maintenance and improvement of around 8,300 properties on behalf of North East Derbyshire District Council. Its 195 staff are the primary success factor in the organisation’s consistently high performance in levels of customer satisfaction, with key indicators regularly topping 93%.

Empathy Communications was recommended to Marcus Bishop, Business Development Manager at Rykneld Homes, by Director of Operations, Lee Bloomfield, as a result of his previous work with Empathy at Eastlands Homes.

The assignment at Rykneld Homes was to develop and present the annual Autumn Staff Conference. Detailed planning meant that the Conference was tailored to Rykneld’s specific needs, and feed back showed that an overwhelming 89% of the audience rated the conference as 4 or 5 stars on the 1 to 5 star ranking system. There were many positive comments too, for example:

"I thought the Conference was well structured and the presenter was well informed and kept people interested."
"Excellent external facilitation, clear messages and good lively staff participation and engagement."

Afterwards, Marcus summarised Simon’s involvement: “Every conference session was delivered with appropriate humour and a mix of discussion and interactive exercises which kept a diverse audience well engaged. We’d definitely recommend Empathy Communications to other organisations and businesses.”

Marcus Bishop, Business Development Manager, Rykneld Homes

Symphony Group

Symphony Group Part of the Symphony Housing Group since April 2011, Merseyside-based Vicinity Housing Group engaged Empathy Communications to carry out an extensive leadership development programme for its junior, senior and director level management teams. Using 360º surveys to assess every participant’s leadership skills before and after the programme, Empathy tailor-made its leadership development training to suit 45 participantsoperating within different functions of the business and at different levels.

Phil Gandy, CEO of Vicinity at the time and now CEO of the new Symphony Group, recalls that personalising programmes at this level of detail was sometimes challenging, but delivered significant and long-lasting improvements to the organisation’s operations and culture.

“We agreed targets with Empathy at the start and used the feedback from the 360º surveys to fit individual situations. Empathy had to adjust the content and delivery style of its programmes so that they were effective for that person without isolating them from the rest of the organisation.

“It was a big piece of work and we carried out the same 360º surveys and held review meetings with each participant a year later to assess their progress and ensure that the knowledge and techniques they had acquired were still being used. We had very positive outcomes from that.

To summarise, Phil says: “I have real confidence in Empathy Communications. We needed the leadership development programme to deliver tangible, positive results and it did, in the outcomes for individuals and in their effective working relationships.”

Phil Gandy, CEO, Symphony Housing Group

Regenda Group

Based in Bolton, Lancashire, The Regenda Group is a leading independent housing and regeneration organisation, with 12,000 properties for rent and sale across the North West region. It began working with Empathy Communications in 2009 to provide coaching to its senior management team and presentation skills training to a number of key personnel.

Executive Director, Operations, Tracy Heyes, says that one of the most valuable benefits of working with Empathy Communications is that the company understands that every client is different.

“Empathy understands our business and our audiences. They’re familiar with the housing sector, and they tailor training to suit Regenda and the size and nature of our operations.

“Some of our people attending the presentation skills training were slightly nervous and tentative beforehand. Now they feel much more confident and positive, and this improves our communications programmes significantly. Our people can adapt their style and message for the audience – whether that’s a one-to-one conversation or a public presentation to a large group. Simon’s coaching challenges our senior management too – and we need that consultative and constructive input.

“We’ll definitely continue to work with Empathy Communications,” Tracy concludes.

Tracy Heyes, Executive Director, Operations, The Regenda Group

Liverpool Mutual Homes

Liverpool Mutual Homes (LMH) was formed in 2008 following a stock transfer from Liverpool City Housing and now manages over 15,000 homes throughout the city.

Karen McMurdo is Head of HR for LMR and has engaged Empathy Communications on a number of occasions, starting with the development of their Performance Review &Development process and also including an extensive Institute of Leadership & Management accredited leadership development programme for over 50 managers, cultural evolution sessions and training LMH’s personnel to be coaches.

Describing the feedback her team typically receives from participants in training and coaching run by Empathy, she says:

“We get very positive feedback. People say they’ve enjoyed the programme, that it’s not been at all boring and that they’ve learned a lot from it. We’re extremely busy and we get pulled on and off projects at short notice sometimes, but Empathy always follows up in a friendly and professional manner. We’re quite demanding at times too, and Empathy is very flexible in tailoring programmes to get the exact results we want – as you can see by the number of times we’ve worked together! 10 out of 10 – highly recommended.”

Karen McMurdo, Head of HR, Liverpool Mutual Homes

Great Places Housing Group

Originally formed in 1972 as the Manchester Methodist Housing Association, the Great Places Housing Group now provides over 15,000 high-quality homes in 30 council areas across the North West and beyond. Known for setting ambitious targets, the Group has its own Performance and Quality team, and has worked with Empathy since 2006 primarily in customer service. Great Places has also commissioned Empathy to train its managers and directors in facilitation and media interview skills, and to work with the wider organisation at staff conferences.

“With Empathy, the clue is in the name. Simon and the team take time to really understand what we do, then they tailor programmes to suit our organisations. We get very positive feedback from our employees after the programmes, and we measure results as part of our customer satisfaction ratings.

“Another aspect of Empathy’s service that I appreciate is that they keep us up-to-date with new developments relevant to our sector. I know I can call and ask “Can you help us with this?’ and usually the answer is ‘Yes’.

“Empathy goes out of its way to support us, they’re professional and they build great rapport. Highly recommended.”

Grenville Williams, Training Manager, Great Places Housing Group.

Johnnie Johnson Housing

Johnnie Johnson Housing Established in 1969, the ‘Johnnie’ Johnson Housing Trust operates over 4,700 homes for the widest cross-section of the community, including general needs housing, retirement housing, housing for the less able, rural housing, special needs housing and shared ownership.

Empathy Communications has delivered tailored and specially branded training programmes to the Trust’s staff and tenants since 2010 with a clear focus on customer service excellence. Peter Daly, Director of Housing at ‘Johnnie’ Johnson, reports that Empathy’s training benefits the organisation and different staff groups – project teams and tenants, for example - primarily because it matches their objectives and links all stakeholders.

“The training that Empathy provides enables the right messages and behaviours to be given to our people in a consistent and cohesive manner. In particular, Simon’s housing association knowledge and his enthusiastic style of delivery really engages our project teams. Staff groups feed back that they find the sessions enjoyable, interactive and directly relevant to their work. We measure results using customer satisfaction surveys and external accreditations - such as the Tenants’ Services Authority and Investors in People.”
Peter concludes: “Empathy Communications make a point of keeping in touch with us; they deliver as promised and follow through. Their ‘Destination Excellence’ programme, which they developed in partnership with us, is inspiring in developing high quality customer service, is well thought-out and highly recommended. Empathy Communications is a great asset to our organisation as a whole.”

Peter Daly, Director of Housing, Johnnie Johnson Housing

To find out more about the Empathy team and how we can inspire your organisation, contact us.

Developing the skills and performance of your people improves motivation, retention rates, productivity and helps your company’s ability to attract the best talent.

From individuals to teams to whole organisations, Empathy takes times to fully understand your business and its specific needs so that every programme is tailored to suit. The results speak for themselves, see our client testimonials.
Well aligned yet diverse work forces improve performance and creativity across the organisation, and boost the quality of customer service you can provide.

Customers who recommend your business and stay longer make a direct and tangible impact on the bottom line. This is how Empathy maximises the return on investment for its clients.
Empathy doesn?t look at training from a training perspective; we look at it from your perspective, putting your people, your customers, your business and its profitability into the spotlight.

This 360º approach, our track record and experience are a potent combination that can transform the service delivery and culture of your organisation into quantifiable business results.