Housing and Residential Services

Client: The Riverside Group

Assignment: Organisational Development and Change Management

Supporting the organisational redesign to deliver a new Target Operating Model

The Problem

The Riverside Group is a major and Care provider in the UK.   Headquartered in Liverpool and a turnover of £300m with approximately 53,000 homes and 3,000 staff; its operations span the country through regional divisions.

Riverside had grown dramatically over time and there was evidence that the senior leadership group was struggling to share common purpose and to align activity efficiently and effectively across the business.

To some extent, whilst performance was adequate, silo thinking was evident.

After the 2015 General Election, the government set a challenging backdrop for social housing organisations by reducing their ability to generate income and by setting out a strategy for increased tenant home ownership in the sector.

Riverside now had significant financial reasons to change the way that they operated. There was a risk that the current service and divisional structures duplicated effort and that support and enabling departments were neither streamlined nor focused on their internal customers. A new organisational structure was required.

The Solution

Working with the CEO and the Target Operation Model consultants, we engaged in developing greater understanding of the Target Operating Model, its intended direction and the structural challenges it faced in delivering on its vision.  The process adopted was as follows;

  • Understanding the key design requirements to set the design criteria
    • Enhance customer service
    • Reduce duplication
    • Share services across Care and Support and General Needs Housing
    • Reduce the number of geographical divisions
    • Reduce the operating cost of the business
  • High level scoping of the core value streams as defined by the TOM to define the top-level processes
  • Cross referencing with the geographical strategy
  • Developing high level structure options, identifying the operating scope and the timescale requirements (structure was timebound as it had to facilitate the development and implementation of the Target Operating Model as well as in certain instances deliver the new ways of working).  The resulting structure will be redesigned post TOM transformation.
  • Agreeing the ‘to-be’ high level structure at levels 1 (Corporate Executive) and 2(Senior Managers)
  • Developing a high-level accountability matrix for level 1
  • After board sign off – developing detailed role specifications for level 1 roles.
  • Working with the agreed level 1 Corporate Executives, developed high level structure options for their identified business areas
  • After Programme Board sign off – developing detailed role specifications for the agreed level 2 roles
  • Working with the internal HR team, designed an implementation plan to achieve Level 2 structure roll out

The Benefits

  • Target Operating Model translated into a high level organisational structure
  • New executive team role clarity
  • Delivering a platform to achieve targeted cost savings

Download Case Study in PDF Format

Download Case Study