Our engagement approach is part of our DNA and is something we have been honing for many years - we have been working with many of our community service partners such as Wesley Mission, Jobquest and Yourtown for over 15 years and each year we continue to strive to do more.
Ian Ryles, Project Director on our Homes NSW contract.
On our Homes NSW contract (formerly LAHC) we provide maintenance to 25,465 properties across Greater Western Sydney and the Northern and Western Sydney region encompassing Northern Suburbs and Parramatta.
Our 1100 subcontractors (with 95% small and medium enterprises) and 78 apprentices serve 60,000 tenants, maintaining nearly 30% of the public housing portfolio in NSW.
As the demand for social housing continues to rise, we are committed to ensuring that the delivery of housing and services is not only effective and efficient but also drives social value creation.
How do we do this?
With over 20 years of experience in the social housing sector, we know that collaborative engagement, local business capacity, social procurement and diversity enhances service delivery and improves outcomes for all.
Collaborative engagement with tenants
We run quarterly tenant engagement forums, providing tenants with a direct voice in shaping maintenance priorities. Every interaction with tenants demonstrates our respect for their time, property and right to live in a safe and healthy home. We work to create positive relationships with tenants and tenant groups, designing events to create connections and add value to the tenant experience.
Many social housing tenants become interested in what we do after we visit their homes. We encourage them to apply for roles with us because we believe that no one understands the needs of a social housing tenant like the tenants themselves. There are currently 28 social housing tenants employed on the contract (nearly double our contract target for this cohort).
Building local business capacity
Our model of long-term engagement with our subcontractors means that we invest time and resources in quality and performance management to build their capacity over time. We increase work volumes where businesses are performing well and have capacity. This allows them to grow their business sustainably. 98% of our subcontractors are local small and medium enterprises (SMEs).
Hass Dandachli from Iconic Maintenance says,
Ventia have put a lot of effort into supporting subcontractors like us to help us succeed. Not just in safety but also in the commercial and procurement space.
Empowering learning workers
A learning worker is a trainee, apprentice or a person who is updating their qualifications while working and they form 27% of our extended workforce. They can be employed via subcontractors, via our Ventia Graduate Program or as direct employees through internship organisations such as CareerSeekers (refugee applicants) and CareerTrackers (Indigenous applicants).
We invest in the futures of our learning workers by providing online or in person training packages and opportunities for sponsorship for external study
Social procurement and diversity
All across Ventia we have proven experience and have made a genuine commitment to sustainable and social procurement outcomes.
We are achieving some great results in the space and in 2024
- 6.0% of our subcontractors were social enterprises
- 4.0% of our workforce were Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
- 3.8% of our trade roles are held by women
These figures exceed all contract targets and industry standards because our commitment is not about meeting a quota. We want our workforce to reflect the communities in which we operate, and we will continue to reach higher to make this happen.
Ian Ryles, Project Director on our Homes NSW contract says,
The size and the scale of our portfolio enables us to make a huge impact on our communities and we take every opportunity to do so.”