CLOSING DATE: August 29, 2017
Salary: £29,760 to £42,300 Inverness, Dundee, Dunfermline or Edinburgh – location flexible
DO you want to work in communications and stakeholder engagement in an organisation where it makes a real difference?
We’re looking for experienced people with the ideas and drive to join a corporate affairs team that can have impact on every community in Scotland and is listened to in the boardroom.
We have contracts both on a fixed term (23 months) and permanent basis and can be based in Inverness, Dundee, Dunfermline or Edinburgh.
Working at Scottish Water
Scottish Water is one of the UKs leading water companies, the quality of drinking water and satisfaction with the service we provide our customers has never been higher – but we want to be even better – and you could help play an important part!
We take employee engagement very seriously and have an inclusive and collaborative work environment where we respect people’s differences.
In 2016, we won the award for ‘Best Workplace of the Year’ at the Hr NETWORK Awards, which recognised the enthusiasm, commitment and pride of our employees in working for Scottish Water.
You will be entitled to a host of benefits which include 37 days holiday a year, a defined benefit pension scheme, discounted healthcare, access to childcare vouchers plus a variety of flexible working arrangements and family-friendly policies.
The role:
* To provide senior and specialist communications and engagement support which builds confidence and trust in Scottish Water customers and stakeholders, for all SW group activities which will protect and enhance the organisation’s reputation and achieve sustainable business outcomes;
* The role holder will ensure all appropriate communication and engagement opportunities and channels are identified, risks are minimised and value added to Scottish Water; and
* The role holder will be required to deputise for the corporate affairs manager in their region and operate at a senior level internally and externally in relation to the management of sensitive, complex or challenging issues.
Key responsibilities:
* Provide advice, guidance, mentoring, coaching and support to communications and engagement officers in their own team and other regional and hub teams;
* Lead the development and delivery of communications and engagement plans, which will promote SW activity, keep all key audiences fully informed, aware and engaged and minimise the risk to SW’s reputation;
* Dealing with sensitive and complex enquiries from stakeholders including the media, both proactively and planned, and responding effectively to unplanned day-to-day requests to provide clear, factual and accurate information which represents SW’s position and minimises the risk to SW reputation;
* Use the full range of digital channels including website and appropriate social media as part of our communications delivery, to maximise audience reach and engagement;
* Creating audience-appropriate content which is clear and consistent and meets the needs of our customers, stakeholders and staff and aligns with business objectives;
* Responsibility for maintaining a focus in the region on the SEM (Stakeholder Experience Measure) measure and the impact the performance of the team has on the monthly score;
* To work collaboratively with senior colleagues in all parts of Scottish Water and associated partners to ensure that all aspects of the capital programme that impact on customers, stakeholders and reputation are communicated effectively allowing a joint team approach to delivering customer excellence with particular responsibility for high impact and/or reputational risk.
Skills and knowledge
Personal skills:
* Ability to mentor and coach junior colleagues;
* Ability to deputise for senior colleagues;
* Excellent written, verbal and listening communication skills;
* A high level of accuracy in written work;
* Ability to develop good working relationship with senior stakeholders and partners;
* Ability to work well with senior colleagues across a range of departments within SW and external organisations;
* Strong ability to negotiate and influence internally and externally; and
* Excellent organisational skills, including the ability to manage and plan workload and work to demanding deadlines.
Professional skills:
* The ability to gather intelligence from a range of sources, (i.e. operational performance data, corporate management information and financial information from the annual report, regulatory targets or reports) and to use this intelligence effectively to develop and inform communications plans;
* In-depth knowledge and understanding of principles of effective communications and media and the application of these principles in a work environment to achieve desired outcome;
* Ability to develop, plan and implement effective intelligence led and high impact communications plans; and
* Able to use standard Microsoft Office applications.
Knowledge:
* Understanding of SW group activity, SW performance objectives including CEM, local knowledge including geographical and people (i.e. key influencers) and the SW investment programme. The role holder must have the ability to assess this information and its potential impact and outcomes on our customers and stakeholders;
* Knowledge and experience of the political structure and environment, i.e. governance: such as Scottish Government, DWQR, WICS, SEPA, HSE; political: both at national (e.g. MSPs) and at local level (e.g. councillors and community councillors);
* Understanding of external and internal factors which may have an impact on Scottish Water, e.g. increasing expectations from our customers and the growth of social media as a channel of engagement and communication; and
* Knowledge and experience of how the media and social media operates in a Scottish context such as awareness of local newspapers, websites, blogs, radio stations and community groups who communicate in an online community environment.
You will work full time hours of 37 hours per week, based in one of the following Scottish Water’s offices: Inverness, Dundee, Dunfermline or Edinburgh.
The nature of the role will require travel so a full driving licence is required.
Next steps:
Any offer of employment with Scottish Water will be subject to the successful completion of a mandatory pre-employment screening process, including Disclosure Scotland and eligibility to work in the UK.
For more information about this role, please contact: swrecruitment@scottishwater.co.uk
For details and to apply, click here.
The closing date for applications is the 29th August 2017.
Please note: Direct applications to the email address won’t be considered. We are not in a position to accept emailed CV’s.
