Recently, we spoke to one of our business analysts, David Wood, about his role at Selwood Housing, what being a business analyst involves and what he enjoys most about his role. Here's what he had to say.
David Wood, business analyst at Selwood Housing
What does your job involve?
I joined Selwood Housing just over a year ago when the team was created.
We look at how Selwood can get even better at what we do. One of our principles is to be easy to do business with, and in my job, that's business processes, people, systems and data!
We're each assigned to a specific area of the business and look at improving our customer experiences and the internal processes that support that. Some business analysts had worked at Selwood in other roles including customer-facing roles, others like me joined from other businesses, so as a team we've some great perspectives.
What does a typical day look like?
There's a lot of reading, that could be existing documentation to understand how a current process works or perhaps reviewing project documentation as well as keeping an eye out for best practice and if there's a better way of doing things.
A typical day might involve mapping an existing process and then thinking about how to make those processes and the systems more fit for purpose.
For example, we've recently digitalised how we sign our legal agreements such as tenancy agreements to make it a lot easier for customers, so they can do this really easily at home from their phones or whatever device they have. This makes it a much quicker response back to us. We've also added the ability to append other forms in the future, so it's easier to interact with customers digitally and we're looking to improve this further.
What do you enjoy best?
I think, as an employer, Selwood has a unique working experience; it feels like a family and I've found this a breath of fresh air coming in from the corporate world.
What's different about my role at Selwood is that we're very hands-on, so we're actually helping to configure new applications and workflows within our existing systems.
This is new to me, and I was a bit unsure about it, but I find it very rewarding as you get to see the change you are making, not just at its inception but all the way through and then you actually use it as well.
Describe Selwood in three words?
Warm, caring, opportunity.
What makes Selwood different?
Every director is willing to muck in and get involved, this for me is one of the highlights. They are not just there giving direction but helping us to remove any barriers and help us achieve what we need to deliver.
There's also real care for people and our customers. It's this genuine inner thing of wanting to help people. For example, on a team social last year, several people stopped to give advice to a homeless person and see what they could do to help get him in from the cold.
What would you say to anyone thinking of joining Selwood?
I think that anyone joining Selwood now is joining at an exciting time.
There's a lot happening in the business, there's never a dull moment and it's a really interesting place to work.
I found the induction process very positive, with structured sessions with each of the different business areas to learn about them.
I was only in the office for a few weeks before we were working from home due to the pandemic, but I've felt supported throughout.
There are always a few nerves, starting in a new role but I felt very warmly welcomed into Selwood.
