WORKING BASE: Samaritans General Office, Ewell, Surrey

DEPARTMENT: Communications – Marketing & Brand

JOB TITLE: Marketing Communications Officer (Volunteer and staff engagement)

WORKING BASE: Samaritans’ General Office, Ewell, Surrey

DESCRIPTION UPDATED: March 2015

1.  MAIN PURPOSE OF JOB

·  To support the delivery of Samaritans’ communications strategy through the production of effective, high quality and targeted volunteer and staff engagement communications.

·  Regularly review existing communication practices to volunteers and staff, consistently making recommendations for improvements.

·  Work with staff members and senior volunteers to keep everyone involved in the organisation abreast with news and updates to support organisational changes.

·  Provide wider copywriting and editorial support and advice to colleagues as required.

·  Act as a guardian for the Samaritans brand and champion it whenever and wherever possible.

2.  POSITION IN ORGANISATION

·  Reports into: Communications Manager

·  Works with: all General Office departments – with particular engagement with Volunteering, Transition, Press and PR, Digital Comms, HR, and direct contact with Samaritans volunteers including the Chair, Regional Representatives and Branch Directors.

3.  SCOPE OF JOB

·  Support the Communications Manager in the creation and delivery of a dynamic internal communications strategy to ensure that volunteers and staff are kept informed and engaged with the charity at all times.

·  Write and coordinate content for volunteer and staff communications. This includes:

o  editing and manage the production of Samaritans’ News, our online and print volunteer newsletter

o  managing the intranet content – our main communications channel for updating and engaging volunteers – providing timely editorial content, monitoring forums/appropriateness of posts and working with the Digital Communications team to contribute to its ongoing development

o  writing and distributing the monthly staff e-newsletter

o  managing the quarterly staff meeting

·  Provide copywriting and editorial support and guidance to teams as appropriate within General Office, the nations and to senior volunteers.

·  General duties of a Samaritan’s staff member.

4.  DIMENSIONS AND LIMITS OF AUTHORITY

·  Responsible for delivering to schedule planned communications, monitoring and reporting on their success against agreed KPIs.

·  Provide first line support and advice for staff on internal communications.

·  Responsible for updating and day-to-day monitoring of Samaritansnet forums, including creating new discussions to help shape communications.

5.  QUALIFICATIONS

·  Graduate, ideally in a communications or marketing discipline

·  Journalism or editorial qualification desirable

·  IT literate and fully conversant with all basic Microsoft packages

6.  SKILLS, KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE

·  Demonstrable experience of internal communications, journalism, or marketing communications.

·  Excellent interviewing and copywriting skills, with experience of promoting brand values and key messages in a lively and accessible manner through a variety of formats.

·  Strong interpersonal skills and able to maintain positive relationships with a variety of stakeholders at all levels.

·  Able to negotiate effectively with staff and volunteers to achieve objectives whilst clearly communicating progress and any issues of concern.

·  Demonstrable copyediting and proofreading skills, with the ability to write for different audiences.

·  Proven ability to project manage own workload, including prioritisation and meeting deadlines.

·  Strong project management skills.

·  Demonstrable budget management experience.

·  Experience of commissioning and manager external suppliers, setting clear KPIs and budget.

·  Experience of working with a charity or not for profit organisation is desirable

7.  PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES

·  Excellent communications skills (written and verbal)

·  A natural networker, able to establish and maintain positive relationships with staff and volunteers at all levels

·  Good listener, able to understand and interpret client needs

·  Able to deal with people in a diplomatic and sensitive manner

·  Well-organised, proactive, problem-solver able to prioritise work

·  Creative, with a good eye for detail

·  Flexible – can respond to changing briefs, deadlines and priorities

·  Prepared to undertake out of hours working

·  Positive attitude, able to champion the contributions of volunteers and staff

PART 2: DUTIES & KEY RESPONSIBILITIES

Volunteer and staff engagement

·  To develop internal communications plans to support strategic plans, and provide advice on the most appropriate communications channels, development of key messages and content.

·  To write and distribute the monthly staff e-newsletter (KnowGO), sourcing content and editing contributions. Monitoring open rates, using staff surveys to help shape content and frequency.

·  To organise and manage four visits to General Office for volunteers, promoting the visits via available channels, agreeing content and gathering feedback to help shape future events.

·  To organise and manage quarterly staff meetings in partnership with the Head of HR.

·  To establish and maintain strong relationships with the volunteer body, including attendance at key conferences and meetings across the UK and ROI.

Samaritans News

·  To write and edit Samaritans’ volunteer newsletter – 12 electronic issues per year and two print issues.

·  To source and agree content for each issue, write copy or edit contributions and manage the sign off process.

·  To ensure high quality content produced in line with Samaritans’ editorial style guide.

·  To manage the newletters design, production and distribution.

·  To increase readership through ongoing promotion and timeliness of content.

Samaritansnet (intranet)

·  Make recommendations for the development of Samaritansnet from a communications perspective, to improve staff and volunteer engagement.

·  To make improvements to the quality of current and future content published by key staff and volunteers by providing guidance on our editorial style.

·  To produce engaging content to a high standard (text, imagery, audio and movie files).

·  Work closely with the press and PR team to keep volunteers and staff updated in a timely manner on reactive activity and relevant press stories in the external environment.

·  To develop an engagement plan to promote Samaritansnet to both staff and volunteers.

·  Given guidance to non-communications teams on posting and make judgements on appropriateness of posts, escalating as appropriate.

Editorial service

·  As requested provide a copywriting, editing and proofreading service for all centrally-produced material intended for internal and external audiences (print and online), including sourcing and managing freelance / agency support when required.

·  Plan in and manage above work within the wider Communications team.

General duties of a Samaritans’ staff member

·  Contribute to the effective and efficient running of General Office.

·  Participate, as appropriate, in staff forums and meetings.

·  Adhere to all Samaritans’ Polices and Procedures.

·  Represent the General Office appropriately across the movement and Samaritans to the wider community as appropriate.

·  Treat all colleagues, volunteers and members of the public with dignity and work within and adhere to Samaritans’ equal opportunities statement and polices.

·  Carry out any reasonable requests made that are within the broad remit of the role.