Southampton City Council is seeking an experienced and influential leader to join Housing as our Team Manager – Customer-Centric Objectives and Performance Culture. This is a new role at the heart of Housing’s organisational transformation, helping managers and teams translate our purpose, priorities and customer commitments into clear objectives, stronger performance conversations and better day-to-day services for residents.
Housing is central to Southampton’s ambition to be a city of opportunity where everyone thrives. Our Housing Directorate is working to ensure residents have access to safe, affordable and sustainable homes, while supporting inclusive and thriving communities. We are introducing a new operating model that will require services to work more coherently, take greater ownership of outcomes and use customer insight and evidence to drive improvement.
This role will be a key part of the new Strategy, Insight & Performance function, within the Learning Organisation & Capability team. You will report to the Head of Housing Organisational Capability and Change and work closely with Housing leaders, operational managers, HR and organisational development colleagues, performance and customer insight specialists, commissioners, delivery teams and trade union representatives.
The role
You will strengthen management practice and performance culture across Housing. Your focus will be practical: helping managers set meaningful customer-centred objectives, hold regular and effective conversations about performance and development, use team time well, and create a culture where people take responsibility, solve problems and collaborate across service boundaries.
You will provide both support and constructive challenge. You will coach and facilitate managers to improve their practice, while addressing unclear expectations, weak accountability, avoidance of difficult issues and behaviours that do not support good resident outcomes. You will also use workforce, performance and customer evidence to identify themes, target support and give senior leaders assurance that management practice is improving.
Your key priorities will include
- Establishing a clear and consistent approach to setting personal objectives across Housing, connecting individual contribution to Housing priorities, customer outcomes, regulatory expectations and collaboration between teams.
- Improving the quality and consistency of performance conversations so managers confidently address performance, development, behaviour and expectations.
- Developing practical guidance, tools and examples that turn service priorities and performance frameworks into meaningful team and individual objectives.
- Helping managers use team time to review performance, reflect on customer insight, learn from experience and improve how services work together.
- Promoting ownership and early problem-solving, reducing unnecessary escalation and the passing of issues between teams.
- Recognising and reinforcing strong management practice while helping leaders address poor practice fairly and consistently through the Council’s policies and processes.
- Working with learning and organisational development colleagues to build practical capability in coaching, feedback, performance management and customer-centred leadership.
- Using evidence to assess impact, identify where further support is needed and provide credible assurance to Housing’s leadership and governance forums.
About you
You will bring credibility with operational managers and a strong understanding of how leadership and management practice affects team performance, service quality and customer outcomes. You will be comfortable working across a large and diverse service, influencing without relying solely on formal authority and balancing professional standards with the realities of operational delivery.
We are particularly interested in candidates who can demonstrate:
- Significant experience in a complex operational service and a strong understanding of how leadership and management practice influence outcomes.
- The ability to support and challenge managers to strengthen accountability, collaboration and customer focus.
- Strong facilitation, coaching and communication skills, including the confidence to lead constructive discussions about performance, behaviour and ways of working.
- Experience helping teams reflect on performance, learn together and use team meetings or team time effectively to improve services.
- The ability to work confidently with HR colleagues and apply organisational policies and performance-management processes in practical service environments.
- The ability to use data, workforce information, customer insight and evidence to inform judgement, target support and measure improvement.
- Professional development or substantial practical experience in leadership, coaching, facilitation, organisational learning or organisational development.
You do not need to come from a traditional housing career route. We welcome applicants who can bring relevant leadership, organisational development, learning, performance or transformation experience from other complex operational environments, together with a clear commitment to improving outcomes for residents.
What we can offer you:
Salary: The salary band for this role is £52,413 - £58,865 per annum. The starting salary is £52,413 with annual progression through the salary bands.
Here at SCC we have a range of different benefits, a few examples can be found below.
- Excellent local government pension with 15.2% employer contribution
- Death in service benefit of x3 salary, and optional salary sacrifice shared cost AVC (additional voluntary contribution)
- Generous holiday 25–31 days, based on role and service
- Flexible working options (role-dependent)
- Family-friendly policies - Maternity, Paternity, Adoption, Shared/Unpaid Parental Leave, Time off for Dependents
- Training and development, including coaching and mentoring
- Health and wellbeing support - Employee Assistance Programme, Menopause Pledge, Mental Health First Aiders and access to a variety of staff networks
- Veteran-friendly employer with the Armed Forces Covenant
- Retail discounts and savings through the Southampton City Council benefits platform
- Discounted memberships at local sports and fitness centres
- Sustainable travel benefits - low emission car scheme, cycle to work, season ticket loans
- Employee volunteering scheme with 2 paid days leave to volunteer
For further information on our benefits package please visit: Employee benefits (southampton.gov.uk)
How to apply
Please complete the supporting statement section of the application form and clearly explain how your experience meets the essential requirements set out in the job description. Applications will be shortlisted against the published criteria, so a CV alone may not provide sufficient evidence.
Informal discussion: For an informal conversation about the role, please contact Robert Ahmadi, Head of Housing Strategy, Insight and Performance, at [email protected]
Recruitment contact details:
Email: [email protected]
Tel: 023 8083 4033
For more information about SCC please visit Southampton City Council
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