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Communications / Marketing

Assistant Strategy and Engagement Manager – 79225
£32,827 – £40,403
National

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We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.

ABOUT THE DEPARTMENT

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) is a major government department, at the heart of the justice system. Responsible for courts, prisons and probation services, we work to ensure sentences are served and offenders are given rehabilitation opportunities to become law-abiding citizens.

The Ministry of Justice (MoJ) has one of the largest and most complex spend profiles in central government. The Commercial and Contract Management Directorate (CCMD) is responsible for coordinating procurement and contract management across the MoJ, its agencies and non-departmental public bodies. 

The MoJ spends £6.7bn a year and manages over 1000 active contracts, all of which are sourced and managed by CCMD. We are running some of the most groundbreaking programmes such as Prison Reform and His Majesty’s Courts and Tribunal Service Reform. The scope of our contracts ranges from building, maintenance and the operation of Prisons, Courts and Young Offender establishments through to food for prison dogs. The directorate also buys and manages contracts for feeding up to 80,000 prisoners, the secure escorting of prisoners from numerous establishments based around the country and translation services. 
CCMD is organised into category teams, each with an interesting portfolio of contracts and diverse customers and suppliers to manage. We also have systems, programme management office, supplier relationship and risk management teams who work across all areas.

SCOPE

Portfolio – Commercial Operating Centre, Strategy and Engagement team 

The team provides professional engagement and communications management to the Commercial and Contract Management Directorate of circa 500 employees. The commitment, motivation and wellbeing of our people is critical to the successful delivery of CCMD’s strategic objectives and the delivery of a quality service to the department. Effective communication is equally critical to increasing employee engagement, our relationships with internal and external stakeholders, and to the overall effectiveness of the Directorate. 

Key Responsibilities 

The jobholder will be responsible for:

•    Supporting the development, maintenance and delivery of the Directorate’s Engagement Strategy.
•    You will develop, maintain and facilitate directorate-wide communications which are inclusive and informing. This will include a range of communication channels, including ownership and production of the newsletter and production of the monthly Team Briefing that facilitates line managers to deliver key information to the teams in the directorate. 
•    Ownership of the directorate’s intranet site (hosted on SharePoint) and content production for the wider Ministry of Justice intranet site. 
•    Develop a consistent brand and style of communication for CCMD which consistently reinforces the directorates values and behaviours, promoting a one team approach.
•    Develop and maintain an effective relationship with wider engagement teams including government commercial function and MOJ communications team to ensure consistent messaging.
•    Working closely with specialist areas of the Commercial Operating Centre, especially Policy and Governance, Organisational Development and Resource Planning to ensure a unified approach and to promote strong engagement with the wider Commercial and Contract Management directorate.
•    Organising events such as the annual Awards event and assist with the department’s contribution to Commercial and Civil Service major events programmes.
•    Promoting the commercial profession and function through knowledge and information sharing, hosting webinars and other activities. 

Person Specification

Essential Criteria:

•    A highly competent and organised individual with experience of working in a communications or engagement role.
•    Educated to degree level (English or PR preferred, however not essential).
•    A clear understanding of delivering strong customer service and able to understand stakeholder needs to offer solutions to address their communication needs.
•    You will be an effective and confident communicator and comfortable working with colleagues at a variety of levels effectively, communicating with clarity and confidence.
•    Excellent verbal and written communication skills that enable the creation of effective and engaging content. 
•    Strong copywriting and proof-reading skills and the ability to apply the content across multiple platforms.
•    Work with stakeholders at all levels to create and share content that communicates our vision, values and business priorities to educate and engage colleagues.
•    The ability to work autonomously and within a team, exercising sound judgement and taking the initiative. 
•    A solid ability to plan, organise and work well under pressure – managing conflicting demands effectively.
•    Proficiency in Outlook, Word, Excel and PowerPoint. 

Desirable Criteria:

•    Experience of SharePoint
•    Experience of video production and editing

Application stage (Sifting):

An initial sift will be performed against the following elements:

Experience

•    Statement of Suitability
•    CV

Behaviours

•    Communicating and Influencing
•    Leadership.

Please note that in the event of a large number of applications being received we may run the initial sift on the Lead behaviour of communicating and influencing.

If shortlisted, you’ll be invited to an interview and will be assessed on the selected success profile elements at the interview stage. Please carry a valid proof of Id that has your photo on it (passport, BRP, driving licence etc) at the interview.

Interview stage:

There is one interview stage for this vacancy and as part of the interview process you will be required to provide evidence on the following behaviours: 

•    Communicating and Influencing 
•    Working Together 
•    Delivering at Pace

You may also be assessed on strengths at interview.

Please use STAR approach to structure your examples.

· Situation – Describe the situation you found yourself in and what happened.
· Task – The Hiring Manager will want to understand what you tried to achieve from the situation that you found yourself in.
· Action – What actions did you take and how did you do it. Make sure to use “I”, not “we” to explain how your actions lead to a result.
· Result – Use facts and statistics to demonstrate the results that your actions produced. Explain whether it was a successful outcome, and if not, what you learned from the experience. 

Further information on the Success profile elements can be found on Success Profiles – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Salary

The national salary range is £32,827 - £35,678, London salary range is £37,174 - £40,403. Your salary will be dependent on your base location.

Additional Information

Working Arrangements & Further Information

The MoJ offers Hybrid Working arrangements where business need allows. This is an informal, non-contractual form of flexible working that blends working from your base location, different MoJ sites and / or from home (please be aware that this role can only be worked in the UK and not overseas). Some roles will not be suitable for Hybrid Working. Similarly, Hybrid Working will not suit everyone’s circumstances. Arrangements will be discussed and agreed with the successful candidate(s) and subject to regular review.

For nationally advertised roles, the successful candidate(s) will be appointed to a MoJ office location, which may include their nearest Justice Collaboration Centre or Justice Satellite Office. This will be discussed and agreed on the completion of pre-employment checks.

Some of MoJ’s terms and conditions of service are changing as part of Civil Service reform. The changes will apply to staff joining MoJ who are new to the Civil Service. Staff joining MoJ from other civil service employers will transfer onto the new MoJ terms if they are already on ‘modernised’ terms in their current post or onto ‘unmodernised’ MoJ terms if they are on ‘unmodernised’ terms at their current post. Details will be available if an offer is made.

Flexible working hours

The Ministry of Justice offers a flexible working system in many offices.

Benefits

The MoJ offers a range of benefits:

Annual Leave

Annual leave is 25 days on appointment and will increase to 30 days after five years’ service.

There is also a scheme to allow qualifying staff to buy or sell up to three days leave each year. Additional paid time off for public holidays and 1 privilege day. Leave for part-time and job share posts will be calculated on a pro-rata basis.

Pension

The Civil Service offers a choice of pension schemes, giving you the flexibility to choose the pension that suits you best.

Training

The Ministry of Justice is committed to staff development and offers an extensive range of training and development opportunities.

Networks

The opportunity to join employee-run networks that have been established to provide advice and support and to enable the views of employees from minority groups to be expressed direct to senior management. There are currently networks for employees of minority ethnic origin, employees with disabilities, employees with caring responsibilities, women employees, and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender employees.

Support

  • A range of ‘Family Friendly’ policies such as opportunities to work reduced hours or job share.
  • Access to flexible benefits such as voluntary benefits, retail vouchers and discounts on a range of goods and services.
  • For moves to or from another employer or moves across the Civil Service this can have implications on your eligibility to carry on claiming childcare vouchers. You may however be eligible for alternative government childcare support schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. More information can be found on GOV.UK or Childcare Choices. You can determine your eligibility at https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk/.
  • Paid paternity, adoption and maternity leave.
  • Free annual sight tests for employees who use computer screens.

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s recruitment principles. Should you feel that the recruitment process has breached the recruitment principles you are able to raise a formal complaint in the following order

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As a Disability Confident employer, MoJ are committed to providing everyone with the opportunity to demonstrate their skills, talent and abilities, by making adjustments throughout all elements of the recruitment process and in the workplace. MoJ are able to offer an interview to disabled candidates who meet the minimum selection criteria, except in a limited number of campaigns.

You will be able to request reasonable adjustments to the recruitment process within the application form. If you need additional help completing the application form, please contact the SSCL Recruitment Enquiries Team.

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and wellbeing and aim to create a workplace where everyone feels valued and a sense of belonging. To find out more about how we do this visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/ministry-of-justice/about/equality-and-diversity.