Internal Communications Adviser (Ways of Working)

Fixed Term, 12 months (up until April 2022)

Full Time, 37 hours per week

Up to £36,057 per annum

Location: Chelmsford

Closing Date: 7th March 2021

Essex County Council (ECC) is one of the largest and most dynamic local authorities in the UK, serving a population of 2 million residents, and has a very successful track record of delivering transformational change. The Communications & Marketing department are a key function within the council, and play a central role in informing, changing behaviours, protecting reputation amongst all key audiences - externally and internally.

In the COVID world the role of councils in supporting communities through clear communications and marketing activities has never been more important. The department has a unique structure within local government, with small teams of professionals aligned to key communications and marketing disciplines, ensuring we have expert in house knowledge to not only deliver best in class communications activity and campaigns, but also to provide consultancy support to colleagues across the organisation.

The opportunity

We're looking for an Internal Communications Adviser to join our Communications & Marketing team who will be responsible for communications support for one of Essex County Council's priority programmes - Ways of Working (WoW). The WoW Programme is a cross-functional programme set up to transform how the council will work in the future and will therefore impact our whole workforce. Bringing our employees along on this journey is a key objective of the programme and this role will play a crucial part in helping us to achieve this.

We are looking for a creative and innovative professional who is competent in supporting change (and behavioural change) through the use of appropriate communications and engagement approaches.

The successful candidate will lead on specific communications and engagement activities relating to WoW, drafting and owning the communications and engagement plan for the programme.

A key area of the role will be working closely with the programme team to ensure all WoW communications and engagement with the workforce - and other key stakeholders - are focused, fit for purpose, with clear messaging. The professional will be the communications contact for WoW and work closely alongside the Council's corporate internal communications team.

You will need to demonstrate understanding of the complexity of a large public sector organisation and how different channels and communication styles can be used to deliver optimum engagement.

The role requires an adaptable individual, who is adept at working in a fast-moving and customer-first environment that relies on real-time communications, welcomes change and has a growth mindset.

About you

Responsible for implementing the internal communications strategy for the WoW programme, you will ensure internal stakeholders are informed of organisational news, issues and direction and have mechanisms for providing feedback.

You will be responsible for planning, editing and writing programme content for corporate internal communication channels and be responsible for their day-to-day management.

Working in a consultative capacity, you will support the programme team to communicate as appropriate with employees at a functional level.

You will be responsible for keeping employees informed, motivated and inspired about the Council's vision to put the needs of Essex residents at the heart of all they do.

You will work to ensure communications is consistent in terms of tone of voice and messaging, working closely with the wider communications team. You will work alongside the Senior Internal Communications Adviser both day to day, and on reputation issues.

Along with experience working on internal communications campaigns and change communications and a proven track record in an internal communications role in a large complex organisation, you'll have a degree in a relevant subject area (or equivalent) and evidence of continuing professional development.

Experience working in a political or public sector environment would be beneficial, as the expectation is the successful candidate will hit the ground running.

You will have evidence of where you have used data and insight to shape your communications approaches and solid measures of the impact of your activity.

Finally, you will need to be a good networker, collaborator and comfortable presenting and sharing your plans with stakeholders of varying seniority.

About us

At Essex County Council we have a vision to be a county where innovation brings prosperity and we are dedicated to improving the lives of our residents. We're one of the largest and most dynamic local authorities in the UK and have a total workforce of around 7,500. We truly believe our greatest asset is our people and that they are fundamentally key to our current and future success.

Benefits

We offer an excellent benefits package to all our employees. It's important to us that you have a healthy work/life balance, which is why we offer flexible working solutions. The package includes a local government pension scheme, annual leave of 26 days per year (rising to 29 dependant of length of service), discounted shopping and much more. For further details please visit the Working for Essex website.

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

We seek the best talent from the widest pool of people as diversity is key to our success.