Internal communications and engagement consultant

Reports to:

HR manager 

Assignment:

The purpose of this internal communication and engagement assignment is to inform and engage employees in a way that motivates staff to maximise their performance and deliver the business strategy most effectively. It is not about ‘sending out stuff’. Effective internal communication and engagement helps build trust, motivate, create shared identity, and increase employee engagement. Our aim is to make our organisation work better internally, creating ambassadors for our culture. We, broadly, need our internal communications and engagement activities to be:

  • Leadership led: Senior leaders telling stories
  • Creatively innovating: engage people creatively through innovative means and conversation
  • Driving change: drive engagement in the change and culture narrative, specifically to the newly identified organisational development themes
  • Engaging two-ways: we foster insight-driven two-ways communication
  • Values led: weaving our values into all activity, demonstrating relevance and importance to our success

Key deliverables:

Develop and implement an internal communication strategy that embeds our values and purpose including:
  • Review our current internal communication and engagement practices and play a critical role in shaping and delivering a new and developed internal communication strategy that fits with our transformation, purpose and values.
  • Own and take control on those areas and execute a new and improved approach that aligns with our company wide strategy, purpose and values
  • Develop and execute a communication and engagement plan that significantly increases the volume of our company stories and engagement opportunities about values in action and future ambitions for GS1 UK
  • Develop an annual calendar with multi-channel content that encourages two-way dialogue between GS1 UK and its people about values in action. Activities should look to harnessing/supporting the leadership team to consistently (and cohesively) tell stories about purpose, values and behaviours from their perspectives
Drive improvements in our overall approach to internal communications to maximise engagement across the organisation
  • Create and implement internal content to share on our internal channels (sharepoint) to inform and engage colleagues
  • Host regular meetings with the senior leadership team to share updates and gain feedback
  • Act as a key advisor to the leadership team on any internal comms matters 
  • Partner with the marketing, business planning and HR teams to ensure that all internal communications align 
  • Use data-driven insights to measure the effectiveness of internal communications to constantly evolve our internal communications programmes

Contractor background requirements:

Essential
  • Experience in internal communications and preferably employee engagement, ideally gained within a mix of both large and smaller organisations
  • Evidence of delivering successful internal communication strategies, campaigns and plans which achieve desired business outcomes
  • Demonstratable understanding and application of measurement and best practices in internal communication planning and execution
  • Experience of working directly with leadership as an internal audience, building and executing leadership communication plans, while working with key stakeholders
  • Highly organised and able to lead projects, with a demonstratable ability to think strategically and effectively plan content across multiple channels
  • Experience in sourcing and creating content for a range of online and offline channels
  • Confident to advise stakeholders on internal communications best practice
  • Able to build effective working relationships and influence people
  • Proactive, with the drive and enthusiasm to make things happen
  • Self-motivated and able to take ownership of projects with limited direction
  • Able to work effectively with ambiguity and manage stakeholders during periods of change
     
Personal strengths and style
  • Consultative style, able to work as a team with other key stakeholders in an organisation of GS1 UK's size
  • Proactive and collaborative 
  • Strong eye for detail 
  • Drive, enthusiasm and commitment 
Desirable
  • Experience of working with SharePoint
  • Professional qualification - degree, CIM, CAM