Senior Communications Officer

Salford City Council

Salford Civic Centre

Chorley Road

Swinton

Salford

M27 5AW 

Senior Communications Officer - Workforce Communications & Engagement

Grade: 4A, £40,221 - £43,421 per annum

Working Hours: 36 hours per week

Contract Type: 12 months maternity cover

Working Location: Hybrid

Closing Date: 6th May 2024, 23:59

About us

This is an exciting time for Salford as the city is undergoing great change and development and it’s an exciting time to be part of this transformation.  At the heart of our approach are ambitious plans for Salford to become a modern inclusive global city. Working closely with our dynamic workforce and effective communications are integral to telling this story.  

The communications team is a service at the heart of the council, and we are looking for a communications professional with experience of internal communications who wants to make a real difference to the lives of #TeamSalford and thrives on change. You should have the credibility to influence and collaborate, as you’ll be working alongside the council workforce, including our Chief Executive and senior leaders.   

As a people centred and values-based organisation, it is a really great place to work. With a positive permission culture and can-do approach, we embrace innovation and the highest levels of performance. 

We’re looking for an individual who can help build on our workforce communications and engagement successes and bring new experience, knowledge and ideas into the team.

About you

Your style and approach will reflect our values: you will be passionate about what you do and always striving to improve how we do things. You will value and respect the contribution of others and work collaboratively to deliver a fantastic service.  

You will have experience in delivering a similar communications and engagement role. You will take pride in getting things right first time and learn from the times when things do go wrong.  

You will work alongside a fantastic team of multi-disciplinary communications professionals and HR and OD specialists to enhance our activity and support our workforce. You must be skilled at managing the delivery of top-class internal communication plans and evidence-based campaigns.  

We are looking for an individual who can help shape workforce communications around our vision, values and priorities and understands how to develop our profile and champion our work. Someone with experience of producing effective, exciting and targeted campaigns across digital and offline channels.  

Personal and professional development are very important to us, and you will be required to demonstrate that you are keen to continue to develop your individual skills. This includes communications planning and delivery, working proactively with a range of media and the effective use of targeted digital communications. 

About the role

As Senior Communications Officer, Workforce Communications & Engagement you will work closely with the Communications Manager and our HR and OD team to develop and deliver a range of communications plans for a variety of projects across the council, informing and supporting our workforce.    

You will act as workforce communications lead, supporting and advising colleagues, senior leaders and elected members and delivering strategic communications activity.  

Within your 12 months you will:

• Play a role in the delivery of our Autumn and Spring Leadership Conferences, supporting our leaders and managers in their understanding and connection to our priorities.
• Be creative and innovative in the internal engagement of the Corporate Plan, connecting our workforce in the role that they do.
• Lead on Employee Awards for workforce communications and engagement, and delivery of our annual event recognising the contribution our workforce makes to our city.
• Deliver an annual plan of communications and engagement activity and campaigns, managing stakeholders and priority planning. 

Our projects are diverse, but our priorities focus on delivering the elected City Mayor’s vision and objectives.    

You must be able to offer support at all levels of the organisation. 

Role Profile.pdf
Why work for #TeamSalford? | greater jobs 

Flexible working

We recognise the importance of a positive work-life blend so are happy to have conversations about flexible working.

Our ongoing MyWork programme enables our workforce to work smarter by using digital tools and technologies to connect virtually, allowing us to connect from the most appropriate place for our role.

We have moved away from full time office-based working and whilst there will always be a need to meet up with work colleagues and residents, MyWork reinforces that we can still do a fantastic job from a variety of locations.  

As a result, we welcome applications from those who are not necessarily Greater Manchester based. There will be travel requirements into Salford but much of your working week can be based from flexible locations that allow you to best deliver your priorities.

About your benefits

You will be welcomed into a friendly environment where your personal and professional development will be encouraged and you will have the opportunity to work and grow in a values based organisation where people are at the heart of everything we do. We promote a positive permission culture, empowering you to make a difference. Your opinions matter to us and you will have the opportunity to shape how we do things through our Salford 100 employee group and our employee led redesign approach. Your work-life balance and wellbeing are important to us so you will have access to a range of benefits including flexible working, green travel, pension and salary sacrifice schemes.  In addition to this we offer a range of health and wellbeing options to suit your needs.  

Continuous service commitment

New employees can now keep their service related benefits when moving between a whole host of public sector organisations within Greater Manchester, which include: Councils, NHS, Greater Manchester Fire and Rescue, Transport for Greater Manchester, as well as many others.  

Diversity and Inclusion

We are committed to developing a culture which respects individuals, appreciates difference and allows everyone regardless of background to reach their full potential. We are proud to be an accredited disability confident employer and a Stonewall Diversity Champion. We understand how hard it can be to combine caring for a loved one with work so we aim to provide support and flexibility to balance family and caring responsibilities with work https://greater.jobs/content/9189/diversity-and-inclusion  

Our core data protection obligations and commitments are set out in the council’s primary Recruitment and Employment Privacy Notice which can be found at https://www.salford.gov.uk/gdpr

We have made a commitment to improve the employment opportunities for people with disabilities, care leavers, carers, and ex-military personnel by way of a Guaranteed Assessment Scheme. Our application forms ask you to indicate if you meet any of the criteria within this scheme, and so to find out more and if you qualify please visit: GreaterManchester Guaranteed Assessment Scheme | greater jobs