Case Studies

Attracting Development Staff | Monmouthshire Housing Association

Their Challenge

Development professionals are in huge demand right now and attracting new talent can be a real head-scratcher. Competing against other housing associations and the private sector is no easy task!

Whilst Monmouthshire Housing Association has an awesome HR team that recruits for most of their roles, Moxie were called in to support their HR Officer, Rhiannon Newell, with 2 tough-to-fill development roles: Development Manager and a Development Surveyor. The impact of these unfilled vacancies had led to…

  • Affected team dynamics and project delays
  • Added workload and pressure on the HR and Development team
  • The need to quickly identify suitable options

The Moxie 4-Step Process

1. First, a chat and a cuppa.

To kick things off, we sat down with Rhiannon to ensure we fully understood the requirements while also getting all the juicy details on what makes MHA a top choice employer. As they couldn’t compete on basic salary alone, it was important to not just sell the opportunity, but also to communicate the benefits of working for a values-led organisation, and identify candidates this would resonate with.

For Monmouthshire Housing Association, the benefits include flexible working, a solid pension scheme and an overall better work-life balance! What's not to love, right?

Rhiannon Newell Recruitment Officer Monmouthshire Housing Association

Meet Rhiannon

“What I valued the most was the way they engage with you. They’re not pushy and are interested in getting to know you (…) It’s a good two-way relationship. Having someone you can talk to, rather than someone that talks over you…(…) we’ve got other tasks to do, so we don’t want to be inundated with calls and would rather be clear about what our requirements are from the beginning. Ultimately, we want the right person to come through. Moxie works really hard to make that happen.” - Rhiannon Newell, HR Officer.

2. And so the search began.

We understand sifting through CVs and candidates experience can be time-consuming. Time was precisely what Monmouthshire lacked.

That’s why we only sent candidates we knew would fit in well with the team and organisation while also ensuring the skills gap identified by Rhiannon were addressed.

3. An epic recruitment strategy.

The secret to our epic recruitment strategy was in a tailored plan that involved:

  1. Searching our extensive candidate pool and only shortlisting and sending individuals with the right experience, transferable and soft skills that we knew would fit the company culture well.
  2. Taking care of all the pesky details. Not more stressful reference and DBS checks. “Ultimately, we want good quality candidates (…) that’s what Moxie epitomise for us, it’s really quality over quantity. That definitely works better for us.” – Rhiannon Newell, HR Officer.
  3. Taking care of candidates the way you would: we know interviews and career changes can be daunting. Every step of the way, we made sure to offer employability advice, interview prep and constructive feedback, as well as reassure them that they’ve got what it takes to succeed!
  4. Handling negotiations. We’re an honest bunch. Once offers were made, we managed expectations on both sides, communicating all feedback and guiding all parties to a win-win-win situation.

What #theMoxieWay looks like:

  • Development Surveyor role: Although the successful applicant didn't have direct experience, we identified a candidate with the determination and transferable skills that ultimately, allowed him to flourish with MHA.
  • Development Manager position: We were able to identify a candidate with years of relevant experience in the private sector who was looking for an employer that truly cared about his wellbeing and work-life balance. And so, MHA was a perfect fit!
Morgan Goff Development Surveyor Monmouthshire Housing Association

Meet Morgan

“I was in my previous job for 6 years and it was quite a comfortable environment for me. It took me a bit to consider changing jobs, but they supported me and helped solve all kinds of doubts and queries, and assured me that if I was going to leave my job it was to go somewhere I’d get the same support. I have no regrets.” - Morgan Goff, appointed Development Surveyor.

4. Post-placement care and onboarding.

It doesn’t just stop here: we pay as much attention to employee onboarding as the recruitment phase!

We had regular check-ups to make sure the successful candidates integrated with their new team as smoothly as possible. A happy ending for everyone!

“A lot of recruitment companies stop there once they’ve placed a candidate, whilst Moxie kept in touch a few times to see how things were going which was quite nice, and probably something I wasn’t expecting”. - Morgan Goff, appointed Development Surveyor.

The result?

  • Two perfect fits for the development manager and development surveyor roles
  • A quick turnaround which relieved pressure off of MHA’s HR team
  • A quality onboarding process that got their development projects back on track
  • One happy housing association! In the words of Rhiannon...

"Those hires have been critical because they build up 2/3 of a small pod in that department. (...) Anthony had the opportunity to develop as a person and manager, and he’s now helping Morgan, our second candidate through them, and they’re bringing great results to our department."


"I would absolutely recommend them. Because of the way they deal with people, I have a lot of confidence they’d interact with them professionally. They’re just so considerate (…) it’s an open, honest, and transparent working relationship."

– Rhiannon Newell, HR Officer, Monmouthshire Housing Association.

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