Arlene Holt tells Ellen Bennett about her work at Pavilion Housing Association
What do you do?
I oversee and review all the procedures, including maintenance, transfer and rent policies, and see if there is anything we could do differently to improve our services. I have to ensure that we are constantly improving. It's about doing the right things and doing them right. It's an extra resource to help the organisation deliver on its promises.

This is a new role for Pavilion, although it is something I have done before – for Shell – and I started here in January.

It's not just internal, either: a tenant rang me up a couple of weeks ago with a complaint about another tenant. Because of the Data Protection Act, there was nothing I could say, but I didn't want to cut her off – I wanted her to have her say. But she talked for 36 minutes and I couldn't get a word in edgeways. My husband would be proud of me: I bet he didn't know I could keep quiet for that long.

What are the hours like?
I work part-time, 28 hours a week.

And the pay?
£22,000 pro rata.

What skills do you need?
Diplomacy, mainly, and communication skills are also important, in all shapes and forms – whether it's written, on the phone or in a presentation, you have to make sure your message is delivered in the right way.

What are the main challenges?
In this kind of role, you're almost outside the organisation – you're looking at how the services are delivered rather than actually delivering them. So it's a challenge to belong to the team and to be seen as a part of what's happening.

What made you decide to do this job?
It's a personal thing really. I believe that people deserve good quality, whether it's from a service or something they buy. And I have a background in the psychology of people working in organisations.

What's been the best bit so far?
Well, I've only been here fore two months and I've been really pleased with the way people have received me so far. They've all been willing to sit down and talk about the way things work and that's really good, because it could have gone the other way.

Source

Housing Today

Postscript

Arlene Holt is service quality officer for Pavilion Housing Association