Why we developed the Smart Series
Across the social housing sector, many of the conversations we have about recruitment now centre on the same themes: regulatory change, rising expectations and tightening budgets.
Over the years we have built relationships with a wide range of people across the sector. Chief Executives and Executive Directors, Heads of Service, Asset Managers, Building Safety specialists, Housing Managers and Leasehold professionals, as well as talent teams responsible for recruitment within housing associations.
These conversations happen through long-standing relationships with people working across housing organisations. Sometimes during recruitment processes, often through ongoing discussions with professionals and leaders across the sector, and frequently at housing conferences, sector events and through engagement with professional bodies such as the Chartered Institute of Housing (CIH), the National Leasehold Group (NLG) and The Property Institute (TPI). In some cases they also come through board-level involvement within housing associations.
This breadth of engagement gives us a clear view of how the sector is evolving and how those changes are affecting the way organisations recruit.
One theme comes up repeatedly.
Housing organisations recruit in very different ways, yet recruitment models have traditionally remained quite rigid.
When a recruitment agency is engaged, standard terms are often issued and perhaps negotiated slightly based on the promise of future work. The relationship can quickly become transactional.
In practice, this rarely reflects how housing organisations actually recruit.
We wanted to approach this differently.
Rather than presenting a single set of terms and negotiating from there, the Smart Series was designed to offer organisations a range of ways to work with Liquid Recruitment from the outset. Different models that reflect different recruitment patterns and organisational needs.
The aim is simple: begin relationships as genuine partnerships rather than purely transactional engagements.
That thinking led to the development of the Smart Series.
The Smart Series models
The Smart Series brings together three different ways of working with Liquid Recruitment, each designed to support organisations depending on how their recruitment activity develops.
Smart Fees
Smart Fees introduces a simplified fee structure during a defined period, helping organisations manage recruitment activity more effectively when hiring demand increases.
Recruitment within social housing often happens in waves. Teams expand, projects begin or organisational priorities shift, and several roles need to be filled within a relatively short period.
Smart Fees allows organisations to respond to these periods while maintaining clarity and control over recruitment costs. It enables access to specialist recruitment support while helping organisations manage budgets more effectively during busier hiring periods.
For many organisations it also provides a practical starting point for working together.
Smart Packages
Smart Packages are designed for organisations that anticipate recruiting across several roles.
Rather than approaching each vacancy as a separate recruitment exercise, Smart Packages allow hiring activity to be planned and delivered in a more coordinated way.
This avoids the need to run multiple separate recruitment exercises, improves consistency across hiring campaigns and creates a more efficient approach when organisations are filling several roles.
Smart Partnerships
Smart Partnerships are designed for organisations that recruit regularly and want a closer working relationship with a recruitment partner.
This model provides consistent access to sector specialists, established candidate networks and ongoing market insight. Recruitment becomes more strategic and proactive, supporting organisations with longer-term workforce planning rather than individual vacancies alone.
Balancing higher standards with tighter budgets
Across the sector, housing organisations are being asked to deliver higher standards than ever before.
Regulatory reform, legislation such as Awaab’s Law and broader expectations around building safety, resident services and governance are raising the bar. Meeting these expectations often requires organisations to strengthen teams and bring in increasingly specialised expertise.
Naturally, this places additional pressure on budgets.
Many housing leaders are therefore looking for ways to ensure recruitment continues to deliver the right expertise while making careful use of limited resources.
The Smart Series was developed with that balance in mind, allowing organisations to structure recruitment activity in a way that is more efficient, more predictable and often more cost effective.
Built specifically for the Social Housing sector
Liquid Recruitment works exclusively within social housing.
We support organisations across key operational areas including asset management and building safety, housing and neighbourhood management, customer service and complaints, income recovery and tenancy services, and leasehold and homeownership, alongside wider operational and leadership roles within housing organisations.
The Smart Series reflects these insights, offering recruitment models designed around the realities of how housing organisations plan and deliver recruitment.
Smart Series Overview
You can read more about the Smart Series and the different recruitment models available by downloading the overview below.
Download the Smart Series Overview
https://drive.google.com/file/d/13wdZF4GVBZKXCQ6-QQPQicdOu1mZuyTp/view?usp=sharing
Contact
If you would like to discuss how the Smart Series could support your organisation’s recruitment plans, please contact:
Paul Sherman
Managing Director
Liquid Recruitment Solutions
paul@liquid-rs.co.uk
