Housing Association

Exclusion must be countered with creativity A Slivers-of-Time marketplace gives your residents a new way into work. The HA's own buying power can get the market going, ensuring that as much as possible of their spending goes directly into the community. Getting work done in this way can cut costs and foster community ownership of the results.

 

Slivers-of-Time was adopted by two RSLs during its pilot in East London. They used their own residents for office tasks, ad hoc cleaning, deliveries and leafleting. This wasn't just a social investment. The Finance Director of one of the agencies has recognised savings of around 34% on old habits of booking external temporary workers, often for more hours than they were actually needed.

Clipping: Two thirds of tenants unemployed

1) What can Slivers-of-Time do for HA's?

This new tool is particularly useful for any HA with funds for improving their environment. SeeSlivers-of-Time v. full time jobs.

Other areas of HA expenditure which can benefit from Slivers-of-Time workers include:

Types of work within Housing Associations often suited to Slivers-of-Time Working
  • Ad hoc cleaning
  • Leafleting
  • Deliveries/courier
  • Archiving
  • Switchboard/reception
  • Call centre work
  • Environmental improvements
  • Moving furniture
  • Market Research surveys
  • Data input
  • Envelope stuffing
  • Photocopying
  • Unloading
  • Transcribing
  • Personalised basic skills training
  • Flat pack assembly

2) How does a HA launch a Slivers-of-Time marketplace?

housing association launch guideHA's are particularly suited to launching this new way of working because they tend to have: (a) work that needs to be done (b) residents who would like to do that work. Often those residents have little prospect of working any other way. Specific steps for an HA are likely to include:

  • Research into the potential spending power of the organisation on Slivers-of-Time workers. See Types of work suitable for Slivers-of-Time
  • Formation of a project board. They might want to utilise the tools in our How to Launch a marketplace section.
  • Decide which agency to use.
  • Outreach to residents possibly involving leaflets, posters and presentations. All of these can be obtained from our documents section.
  • On-going monitoring of the market and examination of additional areas of expenditure that could be channelled this way.

 

Starting a market

Further reading

Aire Valley Homes

Ian Montgomery
Name:
Ian Montgomery
Job title:
Customer Communications Manager

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