Senior Communications Officer Ref: 14-26

Experience and Knowledge

Essential

• Excellent interpersonal skills. Proven ability to negotiate and persuade and build and maintain effective working relationships at all levels. Ability to communicate with, engage and influence team members, customers, partners and stakeholders, in complex situations.
• Outstanding planning and organisational skills, with experience of working within general professional guidelines or organisational policy, to achieve service requirements. Considerable experience of planning projects / campaigns incorporating a range of channels, on and offline
• Significant experience of working in a communications environment, backed by evidence of appropriate level of expertise.
• The ability to cope with conflicting and changing demands through good time management and the ability to work under pressure.
• Proven initiative and judgement to identify opportunities and resolve problems
• Production of corporate communication and community information material (eg. magazines, leaflets)
• Experience of working with internal and external partners to plan successful campaigns/projects and measure success
• Good ICT skills - both standard Microsoft applications and specialist systems.
• Excellent proof reading skills.

Desirable

• Demonstrate experience of local government and political context
• Networking with similar professionals from other organisation/groups
• Experience of supporting partnership working to deliver service improvements
• Experience of commissioning suppliers, such as photographers, web designers
• Experience of handling relatively small, project budgets
• Experience in the development of digital streams to aid customer engagement and interaction
• Experience of website content management systems
• Organisation of public and media events and publicity

Qualifications

Essential

• Relevant communications, marketing or journalism qualifications or demonstrable equivalent experience

Desirable

• Driving licence
• Membership of CIM/CIPR
• Qualified journalist

Behaviours

Collaborative

• I look for ways to work in partnership and listen supportively to the ideas of others, building on their ideas, while sharing my views and knowledge
• I recognise the skills, talent and experience of others and reach out to them for their contribution and input
• I recognise, appreciate and praise others for their contribution

Ambitious

• I always ask myself 'How could we do this better?', taking ownership of change and helping others to understand, adapt, implement, and embed it
• I have an open mindset, take risks and explore new ways of doing things - my approach to work is filled with positivity and optimism
• I am a proud ambassador, taking pride and responsibility for the work we do and encouraging others to do the same

Results-driven

• I review my own performance and ask for feedback to learn and improve
• I make sure I am clear on what I need to achieve, keeping a focus on results and solutions; I am driven, showing courage and resilience even when things don't go to plan
• I keep to my promises and challenge myself and others to deliver high-quality services

Empowering

• I show energy and drive to explore new opportunities and challenge the status quo - acting on opportunities to generate income or reduce costs, embracing new technology and promoting digitalisation
• I ask for help and support when needed, and take responsibility if things don't go well, learning from it for my own and for the organisation's development
• I appropriately challenge unacceptable behaviour

Supportive

• I treat others as I would want to be treated myself ensuring I am welcoming, friendly and approachable
• I care for my colleagues, taking an interest in them, showing support for their personal identities and what's important to them
• I understand and take care of my own well-being and of that of those around me, and give time to colleagues who need help or support

Mental Demands

• Will need to be able to manage a highly varied and changing workload and regularly reprioritise demands
• Ability to respond in sometimes high-pressure, time-sensitive situations
• Will need to be able to deal tactfully with sometimes confrontational situations, including with the media
• Will cope with frequent interruptions.

Physical Demands

• Predominantly office role, typing etc.
• Occasional events with associated set up and transportation of equipment
• Occasional requirements to work outside of normal office hours - eg. events, elections

Health & Safety (exposure to risk)

• Predominantly office role
• Will need to comply with all health and safety training