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Orbit Group – culture

Services: Design and digital/Employee engagement/People and team development/Strategic communications
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Bringing positive business culture to life

Orbit is one of the UK’s largest housing associations, employing over 1,200 staff and providing homes for more than 100,000 people across the Midlands and southern England. The group asked us to update its values, employer brand and colleague behaviours to help build a socially driven and commercially minded culture.

The project coincided with the appointment of a new chief executive and the group publishing its five-year strategic plan up to 2030. To sharpen its employee value proposition, the client wanted to:

  • Understand what people value most about working at Orbit
  • Review and refresh the existing employer brand
  • Develop clarity and buy-in to what they stand for as a business
  • Communicate this consistently, inside and outside the organisation.

Asking the experts

We ran a series of in-person and online workshops with colleagues across the business, and checked how the outcomes aligned with Orbit’s Customer Commitments and overall brand values.

The overarching theme that emerged was how Orbit represents ‘rewarding work – redefined’. The new values and employer brand demonstrate that Orbit:

  • Has a passion for purpose
  • Offers rewarding experiences – in every sense
  • Is a place to progress.

We then developed three core behaviours to mirror the individual’s role in creating a culture that offers this value. These were focused on everyone demonstrating how they bring the values to life.

Creative Bridge helped us to define new values and behaviours, working with colleagues at every stage, from research and workshops to creating tools, assets and training. Throughout, they were solutions oriented and worked as an extension of our team to keep us on track. They delivered the project smoothly and efficiently, and made it enjoyable for all involved. We’ve had outstanding feedback from teams right across the business.
Lisa Astle, Director of Communications and Brand Strategy, Orbit Group

Strong and clear

To communicate the employer brand, we produced:

  • A full employer brand guide to guide how to communicate the employer promise
  • An accompanying tone of voice guide – based on being relevant, authentic and clear
  • Visual concepts and templates for job advertisements and recruitment packs.

To illustrate, communicate and embed the values and core behaviours, we also delivered:

  • A set of Colleague Commitments and an interactive tool for colleagues to build their individual ‘commitment wheel’ to better understand their gaps and growth opportunities
  • A digital toolkit with training materials for Colleague Commitment Champions to launch the new commitments
  • A managers’ toolkit to support leaders to embed the commitments into the culture over time. This included interactive exercises for colleagues to self-assess and develop their own thinking about the culture, as well as discuss with their teams
  • ‘Lunch and learn’ sessions to further spread the word.

Roll out of the project has reinforced the need for everyone involved in the business to be respectful, ambitious and constantly learning. This has strengthened the group’s position in a competitive job market, and signalled to customers how their priorities match those of the people who work there.