How to Apply for the Job You Want
This is a guide to help you apply for jobs with the Housing Plus Group.
This guide may be useful to those who are applying to the Group for the first time or for those within
the Group who may not have completed a job application for some time.
Do your values match our values?
Are you passionate about helping others? Do people trust your advice? Have you a gift for customer
service? Are you keen to learn new skills and build a long and rewarding career along the way?
Then we could be perfect for one another. Sharing the same values as you do, we’re a modern
social business that creates places where people want to live. It doesn’t matter where you’ve
worked before; you can make us famous for improving lives through excellent customer care.
Let’s see if we suit each other….
Trust, Learning, Passion and Customer Service: we believe in giving you the opportunity to really
demonstrate how you live our values through the way we recruit.
How to Apply?
For posts within our Care Plus business, unless otherwise detailed, you need to complete the Care
Plus application form which will be found underneath the details for the post. Try to explain how
your work, voluntary or other life experiences mirror those skills that we are looking for in the
advertised job. What’s really useful is if you give us some examples of how you have done this and
what it meant to you.
For posts within Housing Plus, South Staffordshire Housing Association or Property Care you need to
send us a Curriculum Vitae (CV) and a covering letter. Your CV should show us your work, voluntary
or other history and experience that specifically relates to the criteria we need from the job you are
applying for. Your covering letter should tell us why you are interested in both the company and the
role and perhaps give us some examples of why we might choose you for the next stages. We also
want to see in your covering letter whether you have the same values as us and any examples of
where you might have demonstrated this in previous roles or ventures.
Using the S.T.A.R Model to write effective examples
To give you some help we have provided a model of how you give effective examples:
Situation – What was expected of you by the end of the task?
Task – What was the task?
Action – What steps did you take to achieve the task, for ease explain these in the order in which
you took them.
Result – What was the outcome of your actions?
Here is an example of the above to help you think through your own experience:
Situation – My role is to provide excellent customer service and customer satisfaction at all times.
Task – Customer required a suit for a wedding that weekend, but they could not find one in their size
in the shop.
Action – I went upstairs to the store room to check the stock, but we did not have one in stock. I
rang some other local stores, who also did not have that size; therefore I tried a store out of the
area. They did have one in their size, so I arranged for the suit to be delivered to our store by
courier. The customer could not get back to our store to collect the suit and needed the suit that
weekend. As they lived close to me, I dropped the suit off on my way home.
Result – The customer received the suit on time and sent a letter to me thanking me for the trouble
which I had gone to.
Most of the other information in both the application form and the CV should relate to facts about
your education, previous roles and referees. Remember, the information you provide us at this
stage is crucial as it supports us to assess your suitability for the position.
It’s really important before completing any forms or letters that you have read the Job Profile and
Person Specification information. These documents identify the qualities, skills and knowledge
required for the position you are applying for. The more evidence and examples you provide related
to these key criteria, the more likely your application is to be short-listed.
Make sure the information you give us is clear, relevant, concise and easy to understand. If you are
completing an application form it is essential that you sign and date the form before you send it in to
us.
We ask you to complete a recruitment monitoring form so that we can ensure that we measure how
many applicants we have from differing backgrounds, so it’s really helpful if you can complete this
and send through with your application details.
What happens next?
Once we have received your application details we will let you know as soon as possible whether you
have been short-listed to attend for the next stages or whether your application has not met the
criteria we were looking for and that you have not been successful. We know how nerve racking it
can be waiting to find out if you have been short-listed and how disappointing it can be not to find
out anything. As you can imagine we are a large business and notifying everyone that has applied
can be difficult. We will therefore, make every effort to let you know if you have not been shortlisted. If you have, great news, you will be contacted at the earliest opportunity to advise you of the
next stages.
Quick Checklist
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Have you read the job profile and the person specification and evidenced examples that
relate to both?
Have you demonstrated in your application or CV/covering letter that you have the skills,
personal qualities and experience that we require?
Have you checked that you have matched all your skills, personal qualities and experience
against our requirements, as set out in the person specification?
Have you demonstrated the values of the organisation?
Have you signed and dated the completed application form for Care Plus positions?
Have you completed the recruitment monitoring form to send in with your application
details?
Thank you and we hope you found this useful.