Golding Homes manages more than 8,500 homes across Kent and provides services to over 20,000 customers. Having strengthened services, invested in homes and embedded a stronger customer voice across the organisation, Golding was preparing for its next phase of growth. As part of a wider executive restructure, the organisation made the strategic decision to separate its former Chief Operating Officer portfolio into two dedicated executive positions, creating a new Executive Director of Customer Experience role.
The Challenge
Golding Homes had ambitious plans for the future. Alongside the development of a new corporate plan, the organisation was investing in customer service transformation, modernising how customers interacted with services and strengthening its approach to engagement, insight and consumer regulation.
The creation of the Executive Director of Customer Experience role reflected the growing importance of customer outcomes within the organisation's strategy. Golding needed a leader who could bring together customer services, engagement, neighbourhood services, housing management and community relationships under a single executive portfolio.
This was not a replacement appointment. It was the creation of a new executive leadership position designed to provide greater focus, accountability and strategic direction at a time of organisational growth and change.
The Solution
We partnered with Golding Homes to identify and secure an executive leader capable of shaping the organisation's customer agenda for the years ahead.
The brief extended beyond operational leadership. Golding required someone who could champion customer experience at executive level, lead service modernisation and help embed a culture where customer insight informed decision making across the organisation.
Working closely with stakeholders, we focused on identifying individuals with a track record of leading customer-focused housing services whilst also demonstrating the strategic capability required to contribute to wider organisational leadership.
Particular attention was given to candidates with experience of service transformation, customer engagement, consumer regulation and the effective use of data and technology to improve customer outcomes.
The search successfully concluded with the appointment of a new Executive Director of Customer Experience, providing Golding with dedicated executive leadership across one of its most important strategic priorities.
The Outcome
The successful appointment completed a key element of Golding Homes' executive leadership redesign.
With dedicated executive ownership of customer experience, the organisation strengthened its capacity to deliver against ambitions around customer service, engagement, neighbourhood services and regulatory performance.
The role was established to lead a broad portfolio including customer services, customer engagement, housing management, commercial and home ownership services, stakeholder relationships and consumer regulation.
Importantly, the appointment enabled greater executive focus across both customer and property functions through the separation of the previous COO structure. This provided clearer accountability and specialist leadership at a time when Golding was investing in new customer programmes, technology platforms and service improvements designed to support long-term organisational performance.
The Impact
Leadership structures often evolve when organisations reach new stages of maturity and ambition.
For Golding Homes, the creation of the Executive Director of Property role represented an investment in specialist executive leadership and future organisational capacity. The appointment provided focused leadership across a critical area of the business whilst supporting wider strategic objectives around asset investment, regeneration, compliance and customer outcomes.
The assignment demonstrated the value of understanding the organisational challenge behind the brief. By helping Golding secure the right executive leader for a newly created position, we supported an important leadership transition designed to strengthen delivery for the years ahead.
Candidate Testimonial
“I would like to thank Tom Neely and Eliot Jeffries for their professionalism, support and expertise throughout my appointment process for the Executive Director of Customer Experience role.
"From my initial enquiry and informal conversation through each stage of the process, they provided clear, consistent support and ensured I was well prepared at every step. I felt confident that the process was fair, inclusive and professionally managed. Their approach was thoughtful, responsive and focused on delivering a positive experience.
"I would strongly recommend Neemar Search to those considering executive opportunities, particularly for their commitment to both high-quality search and wider sector leadership development. ”.
Genette Pinwill – Executive Director of Customer Experience, Golding Homes
Client Testimonial
“I have worked with Tom for many years as he has grown the business. What he has retained through the growth, is the personal touch. We were able to have frank conversations about the market and Golding’s needs to ensure the search was well focused.
"I felt like a genuine priority, not one client amongst many. I think it is also important to touch on the positive feedback I have had from candidates about the service they receive from Neemar to help them be their best. This is an often overlooked part of the total recruitment service.
"The Neemar team are professional, responsive and focused on meeting our technical and cultural requirements. I would recommend Neemar to provide a tailored service to meet your recruitment needs”.
Steph Goad, Chief Executive, Golding Homes
