Industry Insights From A CFO with Kal Kay

The first CFO we’ve had on the podcast, Kal Kay, joins us for this episode. Kal has spent her whole career in finance, before moving into housing with Your Housing Group.

Kal has a passion for profit-for-purpose organisations which led her to take up the role. Your Housing Group is a large North West-based housing association providing affordable housing to suit a variety of needs. They also have ambitious plans to continue developing new homes.

We get Kal’s expert insights into the financial side of a housing association. She
gives her thoughts on the importance of growth for a housing organisation in today’s world with particularly tight purse strings, as well as her views on building an organisation that fits the needs of its people.

We discover how Kal made it into the role and dive deep into her leadership insights as a CFO. In a post-Covid world, work-life balance expectations have changed, and measuring performance and satisfaction has become more of a challenge. Kal explains how she’s able to keep a balance between morale and productivity with her teams.

We also speak on the professionalisation of the sector and its potential effects on bringing much-needed talent into the industry, and Kal gives her thoughts on the part that organisations should be playing in building a workforce that’s
representative of the community.

Covered in this episode:

• Pursuing a purpose-driven career.
• Growing a housing organisation in today’s market.
• Finding the ‘sweet spot’ in terms of growth for a housing organisation.
• Balancing morale and productivity.
• Measuring teams’ success and performance post-Covid.
• What does a thriving exec board look like?
• Building diverse, representative teams.
• Pushing through barriers and growing a career alongside a family.
• What Kal needed to upskill herself in to become a leader.
• What are the impacts of the professionalisation of the sector?