An Insight From An Accent Housing Trainee

When Megan joined Accent as a Housing Management Trainee, she was attracted to the idea of being able to help people. In her experience as a Retail Manager she was already well-versed in customer care but social housing would be a completely new venture.

Megan produced an account of her first week with Accent through the eyes of a self-confessed 'housing novice', here's her story:

As a total housing novice, my first week at Accent was greeted with exciting challenges. 

I was astounded at how much Accent does to ensure people thrive in their homes. It is not as simple as placing somebody in a home and letting them get on with their life, it is important to gain sustainable tenancies for people so they succeed in maintaining their tenancy - the best result for both Accent and the customer.

Previously, I was a retail manager, so when I was offered the role of Housing Management Trainee, I thought I was starting a new career which would be totally unrelated to retail. However, I became aware early on that like retail, Accent puts the customer at the heart of what it does. It is important to create an environment where customer satisfaction, loyalty and needs are all catered for.

I had a jam-packed first week, from shadowing managers to viewing different types of properties. These two days made me realise that there is not a set type of social housing - and what a successful housing association does, is pair the customer to the property to create sustainable tenancies.

Everyone at Accent has been very helpful offering advice and support at every opportunity – which for a novice like me is extremely useful. I have a detailed induction plan which will involve me spending time shadowing a lot of different departments and job roles – I am very excited as I think this will give me a fantastic start to what I hope will be a career for me.