Change Communication Lead

Position: Permanent, Full Time

Do you love the wonderful specialism of change communication? Do you thrive off creating and leading communication that genuinely inspires colleagues?

At Citizen we’re underway with a significant transformation that is underpinned by a fundamental aim – to put our citizens first.

We’re on the look out for an excellent relationship builder with brilliant emotional intelligence to develop and deliver the communication strategy for a significant change programme. You’ll bring your experience and creativity to inspire colleagues about the future so that they feel part of the change, whilst coaching leaders to drive greater connectivity.

You’ll have a great understanding and passion for the impact internal communications has in driving employee engagement. Partnering with the Transformation team, you’ll lead, manage and deliver an effective communications and engagement plan to support the change programme’s objectives.

In housing you can make a real difference, the role of Change Communication Lead will involve:

• As the change expert, lead, manage and implement a comms and engagement strategy for a significant change programme which engages employees.
• Create high quality comms which are audience focused and generate clarity on where we’re going and why so that colleagues feel connected.
• Work closely with the Transformation team and coordinate activities across workstreams to ensure that comms is planned effectively and is timely.
• Understand the employee journey associated with the change programme and build meaningful interactions at every stage to engage employees and drive commitment.
• Lead on a stakeholder plan which analyses audiences and their needs, tailoring communication to those audiences.
• Provide strategic comms advice and guidance to the Transformation team.
• Evaluate the effectiveness of the comms strategy and adjust where necessary.
• Work with the Transformation leadership team to articulate the objectives and outcomes of the programme, with particular reference to the over-arching Citizen strategy.
• Coach leaders across the organisation on their leadership communication to drive greater connectivity to the future and to leaders themselves.

As a Change Communication Lead we need you to have:

• Experience of working on change programmes with multiple workstreams and stakeholders.
• Extensive experience of creating, managing and implementing complex change communication plans.
• Extensive knowledge and experience of the full range of communication channels and how they contribute to successful engagement, particularly in relation to change.
• Experience in working with complex subject matters and creating clear and compelling messages to drive engagement and understanding across a broad audience group.
• Proven experience in undertaking comprehensive research and analysis to deliver an insight driven approach to communications.
• Strong project management experience to prioritise and drive communications initiatives and deliver work on time and to budget.
• Educated to degree level or equivalent professional experience.

 We would be really excited if you have:

• Experience of supporting change within a complex and geographically dispersed organisation.
• IOIC/CIM/ CIPR qualifications preferable but not essential

Our people are everything and we offer:

• Opportunities for salary progression
• IT equipment to allow some optional home working
• ‘Live work better’ scheme which actively encourages work-life balance

• Annual leave starts at 25 days per year, increasing with length of service
• Enhanced family leave
• Company Pension – Citizen match up to 10% 
• If part of the pension scheme you are entitled to Life cover (three times your annual salary)
• Organisational Sick Pay (benefit increases with length of service)
• EAP – a 24/7 service which gives free, confidential advice and support on a range of issues including telephone counselling
• Medicash scheme -which includes GP Access, digital Physiotherapy app, retail vouchers and discounts, discounted gym memberships and more!
• Recognition through our Employee Excellence Awards
• Representation opportunities on our Staff Consultative Forum
• Access to Citizen’s Wellbeing platform
• Employee Excellence Awards (winners receive extra days annual leave that year)
• Occupational Health

 Here at Citizen, our purpose is to provide homes that are a foundation for life.

 With over fifty years of experience, we have grown to be one of the UK’s most trusted social housing providers, Citizen owns and manages 30,000 homes for diverse communities across the West Midlands, from urban tower blocks to rural villages and towns.

There are some fundamental challenges people in our communities’ face, and we want to be an organisation which can help them deal with these. So, we are working to solve some of the most pressing issues around housing and homelessness.

 We adopt a proactive approach to safeguarding to ensure everyone accessing our services can do so without fear of harm, abuse or neglect.

 Further information on our selection process and Equality and Diversity commitment can be found at www.citizenhousing.org.uk

Closing date: Sunday 28th April 2024 

Interview date: TBC

Please note we will be reviewing applications throughout the campaign and may invite candidates to interview at any time.  We reserve the right to close this role earlier than the published closing date should a suitable candidate be identified.