Over the last few years, the pace of change in the social housing sector has been relentless – from mergers to financial pressures to shifting customer expectations. At ema consultancy, we’ve been working closely with social housing providers to support one of the most sensitive but vital areas of all: executive restructuring.

Ian Robertson writes, it’s not just about shuffling job titles or trimming the top layer of leadership. It’s about ensuring organisations are structured in a way that supports their strategy, reflects their values and gives them the resilience they need for what’s coming next.

Here’s a closer look at the areas where we typically provide support:

1. Senior-Level Structural Design

Much of our work starts at the top. We support Chief Executives and Board Chairs in designing leadership teams that are fit for purpose. This often involves reviewing and reshaping roles across three levels:

• Chief Executive
• Executive Directors
• Heads of Service / Assistant Directors

We help define job roles, create or revise job descriptions, benchmark salaries and align terms & conditions and develop succession plans. It’s detailed, sometimes difficult work – but getting these foundations right is critical to success.

2. Supporting Post-Merger Integration

Mergers bring huge opportunity – but also risk. Without a clear leadership structure in place, organisations can quickly lose clarity, accountability and direction.

Our role is to guide newly merged organisations through the challenge of building one unified executive structure. That includes identifying where duplication exists, reassigning responsibilities, and creating job designs that reflect the new entity’s goals as well as ensuring they stack up financially and continue to deliver quality services. This can often include supporting the organisation with recruitment support with new roles and where appropriate providing coaching support

We also help boards and leadership teams navigate the legal and people risks involved in those changes whilst also underrating due diligence related to the HR issues.

3. Restructuring to save Costs

Not all change is about growth. Increasingly, we’re asked to support restructures driven by cost pressures.

Whether it’s National Insurance changes, rising salaries or capped rents, providers are facing some tough financial decisions. In many cases, that means reviewing existing structures and asking what’s still sustainable – and what’s not.

Often, this involves removing or reshaping senior roles. Our job is to help organisations make informed decisions, manage the process sensitively, and reallocate responsibilities in a way that keeps performance strong and legal risk low. We also support organisations with outplacement services, offering guidance and practical help to senior staff facing redundancy – helping them transition with clarity and confidence.

4. Rebalancing Leadership Roles

Sometimes the structure isn’t broken – it’s just overloaded.

It’s not unusual for senior people to take on wide-ranging portfolios that eventually become unmanageable or unrealistic to recruit for. When that happens, we work with leaders to split out roles and redistribute responsibilities across the wider team.

That might mean moving development into a finance brief, or giving people and culture responsibilities to an HR lead. It’s about making the best use of existing talent and creating roles that people want – and are able – to do.

5. A Track Record that spans the Sector

We’ve now worked on more than 30 restructures, supporting a wide range of social housing organisations as well as larger public bodies and private sector organisations.

What each project has in common is the need for clear thinking, sound judgement and a steady hand. Restructures are rarely easy – but when done well, they create clarity, unlock talent and enable organisations to move forward with confidence.

Restructures are rarely easy — but when done well, they create clarity, unlock talent, and enable organisations to move forward with confidence.

Alongside structural advice, we also offer one-to-one coaching for senior leaders navigating change – helping them adapt, lead with confidence, and bring their teams with them.

Get in touch

If your organisation is preparing for change – whether through growth, pressure or ambition – we’re here to help. From structure design to practical advice on implementation, ema consultancy brings experience and expertise that’s grounded in what works.

Get in touch if you’d like a conversation about how we can support you – email: ian.robertson@emaconsultancy.org.uk