How do you effectively and meaningfully communicate and engage with 19,000 people who work across multiple sites, in varying roles at various times of the day and night? As Head of Internal Communications for the largest employer in Nottinghamshire and one of the biggest and busiest NHS Trusts in the country, you will help us find solutions to that challenge.
As a member of the senior leadership team for communications, you will report to the Deputy Director of Communications and will lead this important and vital function responsible for ensuring that there is authentic and effective communication and engagement with colleagues across our hospitals and community sites. You will provide both strategic and tactical internal communications advice to the Trust’s Board and senior directors relating to critical issues and change-management priorities.
This is an exciting, challenging and rewarding role, where you will have the real opportunity to make a tangible difference to the working lives of our colleagues and contributing the quality of patient care the Trust delivers.
NHS experience is not necessary, but a values-led commitment to delivering excellent internal comms is essential.
You will continue to lead and develop our internal communications function that ensures staff know what is happening across our Trust, how their work contributes towards our objectives and how they can have their say. You will work collaboratively with the Heads of External communications and Major Capital programmes to ensure activity is aligned and we work as one team.
Responsible for a small team with opportunity to grow, you will also oversee management of our staff reward and recognition schemes, and work with senior leaders to support them to connect with the work being done across our wards, departments and sites. You will further develop and expand the communications business partnering model with our clinical divisions and corporate functions.
With over 19,000 staff, we are one of the biggest employers in the city with a central role in supporting the health and wellbeing of our local population. We play a leading role in research, education and innovation.
Come and join our wonderful team at NUH. We are big believers in diversity and welcome new ideas to help develop our team in order to deliver world class healthcare to the vast patient populations we serve. With endless personal development opportunities available, at NUH we will endeavour to turn your job into a career!
We particularly welcome applications from people who identify as Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic, or Disabled, as we are striving to be better represented at NUH.
key job responsibilities
· Provide strategic direction, challenge and leadership on the implementation of NUH’s internal communications strategy, translating strategic activity into messages and activities that are relevant to our colleagues and secure support for it at Board and senior level, including a clear understanding of the resources required to deliver it.
· Take the communications lead on engaging with our colleagues on the organisation’s long term Strategy
· Review our existing approach to internal communications and identify how we can deliver a better service, including new channels and opportunities to reach colleagues, especially where engagement and involvement is low.
· Develop strong relationships with staff at all levels of the organisation; this will require strong communication and influencing skills in order to convey complex information to a diverse audience.
· Support leaders and managers across NUH to communicate effectively with their colleagues and recognise the importance of good communications.
· Work with the Board, executive team and other senior leaders to ensure they are visible and approachable for all staff.
· Deliver effective and informed change management communications to a diverse and busy workforce with a number of competing priorities in a compassionate and engaging way
· Help the Trust understand and meet our financial challenge, ensure we are engaging with colleagues to understand our operational performance and lead the team in our support of NUH’s Networks to help us meet our ambitions on inclusivity
· Overseeing continued embedding of our Trust values and People First approach
· Work in partnership with HR colleagues to ensure a robust and effective staff engagement approach is in place – one that listens to staff, acts on their feedback and communicates what has been done.
· Use insights, data and feedback to inform and plan internal communications activity and regularly measure the effectiveness of the internal communications strategy, contributing to the team’s forward planner and quarterly performance reports.
· Develop and drive a truly innovative approach to the development of internal communications, enabling NUH to explore some of the newest approaches from industry and the public sector. Persuade others of the benefits of new approaches and work across departments to gain support for the testing and evaluation of new techniques.
· Develop strong relationships with communications teams across the Nottingham and Nottinghamshire system and region to share best practice and explore opportunities to work in partnership.
· Implement and manage an annual internal communications audit and deliver action plans to make the required improvements.
· Lead the ongoing development of the Trust’s internal communications channels so that they are targeted and effective at connecting with multiple audiences across the organisation.
· Work with relevant internal stakeholders to deliver campaigns that support widespread and/or localised behaviour change, engagement and awareness.
· Lead for communications on shared campaigns and projects with the HR team and the relevant divisions to promote health and wellbeing, our equality and diversity priorities and other major internal programmes and projects.
· Work with the communications team to develop timely, engaging and relevant content for all colleagues, including copy-writing, photography and film to tell our story in way that excites, inspires and reassures as appropriate.
· Advise senior colleagues on strategic internal communications issues, writing briefs and reports as required.
· Provide expert, specialist advice to support organisational change and transformation programmes, making decisions on the appropriate internal communications approaches / visual identity strategies, alongside the optimal channel deployment to achieve objectives.
· Work with the Awards and Recognition Manager to ensure there is an effective approach to staff reward and recognition, including the management and organisation of staff recognition events and processes.
· Line management responsibility of the internal communications team, supporting their professional development and training.
· Develop, implement and monitor performance of the internal communications team’s business and strategic planning processes.
· Take responsibility for own areas of work, working independently without supervision and on own initiative.
· Prioritise, plan and allocate resources for the delivery of key internal communications strategies including budget and staffing
· Develop and deliver plans for major projects including identifying the resources needed to deliver them.
· Produce business cases as needed for investments in the function taking into account the Trust’s policies and procedures for making best use of public money.
· Plan for, advise and support the use of internal communications channels in the event of a crisis, as part of crisis communications handling, for example issues that impact normal service provision, major incidents or unexpected service closures.
· Identify, record and manage key risks and issues relating to internal communications and engagement.
· Ensure all communications and engagement work is inclusive, putting specific arrangements in place to engage with those groups and/or individuals that are harder to reach.
· Participate in the out-of-hours on-call rota for media enquiries, social media and communications support. This may involve travel to any hospital site at short notice out of hours.
· Financial and budgetary responsibilities for own team and projects, escalating issues appropriately and providing solutions where budgets may be falling off target.
· Maintain expert knowledge of communications and engagement best practice developments.
· Work flexibly and undertake other duties commensurate to the grade as required.
This advert closes on Wednesday 29 Jan 2025