Social Housing
Kestrel working
within partnering
& collaborative
relationships
Kestrel has considerable experience of working within many partnering and collaborative relationships which has helped us to develop our understanding and contributed to continuous improvement and innovation.
What is Partnering?
A lot has been written about Partnering in recent years. In its true sense, it is a structured management approach to facilitate team working across agreed problem resolution methods, and an active search for continuous improvement. In practice, partnering is divided into three types including strategic, project and framework agreements. Kestrel has experience across all three.
Kestrel's strategic approach to the three strands of partnering (see diagram) includes:
Problem resolution
- A systematic approach
- Seeking resolution, not parties to blame
- More and better discussion - less paperwork, more constructive correspondence
- Based on win-win solutions
- Equality of rights between parties
- Acceptance of the principle that adversarial attitudes waste time and money
Mutual objectives
- Agree and commit to at the outset of the project
- Keep under review through meetings and effective communications
- Focus on long term goals and sustain reasonable levels of profitability
- Target benefits from 'Open Book' approach
- Build mutual trust by working for each other's success
Benchmark performance
- Establishing a culture of continued measured improvement leading to enhanced performance.
- What can be measured?
- What Key Performance Indicators should be benchmarked?
- How do we know what the drivers of satisfaction are?
The well known EGAN report on Rethinking Construction and the later Accelerating Change document have the central message of best practice across the industry and clients, urging us to act collectively to improve performance. Their key premises were that the industry can and must do better across productivity, profit, defects and reduced accidents.
The practical benefits of partnering with Kestrel
Integration of process and team, focus on customer delight and continuous improvement underpin Kestrel's work within social housing. In practical terms this translates as:
- Working with clients to understand individual requirements to ensure the most cost effective, fit for purpose sustainable solutions
- Working with clients and sub contractors to ensure that installation is correct. Where there is doubt, we offer training to the installation teams whether subcontract or DLOs, as well as the specifier so they are empowered through better understanding of the process
- Offering regular site visits and reporting back on progress and quality
- Engaging with the entire supply chain to ensure continuity of supply
- Working with you prior to specification to analyse housing stock to understand and anticipate any future problems and solve them before they arise
- Helping to leave a supply chain legacy by - a - using future proofed products; b - offering training to residents for City and Guild Level enabling them to work on projects
- Working with clients to find recycling solutions
- Offering guaranteed nationwide consistency
