Communications Specialist - South East

Job Profile

Job Title: Communications Specialist South East

Directorate: Marketing, Fundraising and Communications

Reports To: Regional Communications Manager

Matrix Reporting To: None

Disclosure Check Level: None

Date created/last reviewed: April 2024

Overall Role Purpose

The Communications Specialist South East helps people with sight loss to live the life they choose by driving the awareness and saliency of the Guide Dogs brand nationally and in their region by leading the development and delivery of central, regional and local integrated communications activity.

The role communicates the strategy and work of Guide Dogs, engaging key audiences both externally and internally (including service users, volunteers, staff, and supporters) to strengthen the brand and further awareness of the charity

Key Responsibilities

Brand Drive the awareness and saliency of the Guide Dogs brand nationally and in the region by bringing to life the brand positioning through all customer experience touchpoints.

Champion the brand identity in the region, leading the implementation across all touchpoints. Lead the regional activation of all aspects of the brand campaign, working closely with the central brand, comms and digital teams.

Communications & Digital Lead the development, delivery and review of central, regional and local integrated communications & digital activity in the region to include print and broadcast media, social media, publications, advertising, events, direct marketing and internal communications as appropriate, ensuring objectives are set and measured. Create and edit key regional publications, as and when required.

Case studies Source and create local case studies, and work with Content Team to maintain the Chorus case study library with content to support local and national campaigns

Media relations - Build strong and on-going relationships with national and regional journalists through proactive and reactive media relations, including dealing with issues and crises that are a risk to the organisation s reputation.

Work with all areas of the charity to story spot and develop compelling service user case studies that will engage journalists and turn into national news stories

Generate region-based stories and articles for corporate publications

Manage creative agencies to help deliver national and regional campaigns

Volunteer management - Develop and maintain a network of volunteer media champions across all regions.

Spokesperson - Be a key spokesperson on behalf of Guide Dogs for regional media and where appropriate nationally.

Advice and training - Provide both strategic and tactical advice on communications activities and issues for staff and volunteers within the region. Provide media training and develop communication skills to staff and volunteers nationally and within your area and ensure they are adequately briefed for media interviews.

To take part in an out of hours duty rota and respond appropriately in the event of a crisis.

Quality - Work across departments and functions both at Central Office and within your region, to ensure that Guide Dogs online and print communication channels are up-to-date and reflects regional content and context.

Breadth/Scope of Accountability

People Accountability

Number of Direct Reports: None

Number of Indirect Reports: None

Number of Volunteers Supervised: Up to 10

Financial Accountability

Annual Income Accountability: None

Assets Managed: None

Budget Accountability: Up to £10K

Application of this Job Profile

All employees are required to carry out other such duties as may reasonably be required to fulfil their role and support functional and organisational objectives.

All employees must also:

Comply with all organisational policies

Promote the vision and values of the organisation

Engage in continuous personal development

This job profile is accurate as at the date shown above. It does not form part of contractual terms and may be varied to reflect or anticipate changes to the role.

Working at Guide Dogs

As well as other services to enhance the lives of people who are blind and partially sighted, we breed and train guide dogs. Staff and volunteers in all our locations support this work. Therefore, all employees must be comfortable working in environments where dogs may be present.

Guide Dogs is a volunteer-involving organisation and as such all staff are required to support volunteers in their roles. This may or may not mean the direct supervision of volunteers but will require all staff to play a supporting role. From time to time you may be asked to support / volunteer your time at Guide Dogs events that take place outside of normal working hours. All employees will be expected to advocate for Guide Dogs at all times and be a fundraiser.

Guide Dogs is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of all children, young people and vulnerable adults with whom we work. We expect all of our employees and volunteers to demonstrate this commitment.

Guide Dogs will require proof of identity and the right to work in the UK.

Person Specification

Education/Qualifications

Essential

A degree or an equivalent level qualification or equivalent experience.

Job-Related Experience

Essential

Proven experience of creation and implementation of communications and digital campaigns and projects to meet business objectives, with experience of targeting different audiences through media channels.

Proven experience of generating positive media coverage for a brand

Understanding of measurement and evaluation, and knowledge of the latest techniques to measure the success and impact of a campaign against our strategic objectives

Desirable

Experience of working in the third sector.

Previous brand management experience.

Knowledge

Essential

Up to date with best practice and innovation in brand marketing, communications and digital

Awareness and understanding of the current media landscape and what journalists are looking for today

Strong digital skills including a good knowledge of Microsoft Office packages, e.g. Word and PowerPoint.

Skills and Competencies

Essential

Excellent written and communication skills, being able to adapt style to different channels or audiences.

Excellent digital marketing skills.

The ability to spot gaps and opportunities within a comms calendar and develop news out of nothing by mining content from the organisation independently

Able to give authoritative verbal advice and information on marketing, media and communications.

Excellent organisational skills, working under pressure and to deadlines.

Behaviours

Our behaviours capture the essence of what it is to be Guide Dogs people, whether staff or volunteer. They describe the experience we expect everyone the people we support, donors, partners, our volunteers and staff to have while working with us. Guide Dogs people are:

• Person-centred - We are a group of people working to help each person affected by sight loss. We listen, and recognise that every individual is different in where they ve come from and where they re going. We are open, empathetic and inclusive. We place the person at the centre of every decision.

• Expert - We are specialists in what we do. We are committed to excellence and will never stop innovating. We respect our history, but seek out ways to adapt and improve, and are always willing to learn.

• Optimistic - We are relentless in our belief that people with vision impairment can lead the life they choose. We are passionate about helping each person, committed to challenging barriers, and proud of who we are and what we achieve.

So, we: -

• Partner - We only change lives when we collaborate. We build valued relationships with donors. We work together with our service users and colleagues, volunteers and partners and our dogs, of course to deliver great outcomes. We support and develop each other.

• Lead-by-example - We can all be a guide. We take the lead and then hand it over, empowering people to make progress independently. We gain trust by having faith in others, and influence by example. We do what we say we will.

• Engage - We cannot change lives if we look on from the side-lines. We get involved, take ownership, and feel responsible for all we do, think and say. We celebrate wins big and small, and we hold ourselves and each other to account.

We use competency-based questioning within our recruitment processes to assess the extent to which candidates demonstrate these behaviours in ways appropriate to this role in how they are at work and generally as people.

Safeguarding

If the role does or may involve working with children, young people or vulnerable adults, or supervising those that do, we ll also be assessing safeguarding competencies as part of the process. These are:

Appropriate motivation to work with vulnerable groups;

Emotional awareness;

Working within professional boundaries and self-awareness; and

Ability to safeguard and promote the welfare of children, young people and adults and protect from harm.

Mobility

A flexible approach with a willingness to work outside of core hours and away from home when required.