Two Rivers Housing: Cultivating a thriving culture

Two Rivers Housing is a housing association with homes in the wider Gloucestershire and Herefordshire areas. Based in the beautiful Forest of Dean, they have been providing affordable homes for over two decades. With approximately 200 colleagues, Two Rivers Housing manages around 4,500 homes. Their core mission is to ensure they provide warm, safe, affordable homes where tenants can thrive, recognising this can only be done in an organisation where colleagues love to work. Their heartfelt strapline, “You’re Home Now”, applies both to its tenants and to the colleagues who work with passion and purpose every day.

More on Two Rivers Housing

The challenge: navigating change

When CEO Hayley joined Two Rivers Housing in early 2024, she saw that the organisation had lost its sense of direction and colleagues were unclear of its core purpose and priorities for success  

Key challenges included:

• A lack of clear direction leaving colleagues feeling uncertain.
• Siloed working was causing dysfunction across the business.
• The historical cultural impact of COVID-19.
• Dissatisfaction, particularly among the frontline repairs and facilities management team, stemming from unequal terms and conditions and a sense of not being valued.

Two Rivers Housing chose to partner with The Happiness Index to gain a clear understanding of their existing culture.

Crucially, they adopted a transparent and inclusive approach:

• A colleague forum, comprising staff from across the business, became advocates for The Happiness Index, emphasising its importance and anonymity.
• The leadership team and the board committed to listening and responding to feedback, not using the survey for any kind of witch hunt.

Key findings and actions

Two Rivers Housing used The Happiness Index to collect anonymous feedback from their employees and the analytical tools within the platform to turn feedback into actionable insights.

The initial survey revealed key themes:

• A strong desire from staff to see the organisation succeed (86% response rate with an 8.4 out of 10 score on this metric).
• A clear call for the leadership team and board to listen and learn.
• A need for more internal training and promotional opportunities.

These insights, combined with an understanding of external trends, informed Two Rivers Housing’s people strategy.

Actions taken included:

• Increased investment in the training budget.
• A commitment to internal development and promotion from within.
• Improved communication through regular “Two Talks” with the executive team.
• Fostering an inclusive environment where everyone can “bring their whole selves to work” (e.g., open-plan office, wellbeing room, prayer room).
• Addressing inequalities by bringing the subsidiary repairs and facilities management team back into the main organisation, aligning their terms and conditions with office staff, and enhancing their benefits.

The Impact: tangible improvements

By prioritising culture and listening to their people, Two Rivers Housing achieved significant results. As you might expect, by listening to their employee feedback and acting upon it, they saw an increasingly engaged and motivated workforce. 

This also had a measurable effect on their customer-facing impact, including a reduction in the backlog of property repairs from 1500 to 200, and improved tenant satisfaction.

Key takeaways

Two Rivers Housing’s experience demonstrates that prioritising employee happiness and engagement isn’t just a “nice-to-have” – it’s a powerful driver of organisational success, directly impacting the customer experience too. 

By using The Happiness Index to listen to their people and take decisive action, they cultivated a thriving culture that benefits both their employees and their tenants.

Curious to discover what The Happiness Index can do for your organisation? Check out our services.