Communications Manager

Our Communications Manager is taking maternity leave from mid-June and we are looking for someone to cover the role for approx 9 months.  We are a small team and this is the only communications role, therefore the Communications Manager has a lot to do, including:

• Running our whole comms operation – social media, website, event marketing, PR. 
• Developing and delivering our communications strategy
• Creating stories and content for different channels
• Working on communications projects with people with lived experience
• Working with our individual giving lead on fundraising campaigns

A major rebrand and a new name have helped us build our profile over the past three years, and we’re working hard to increase recognition and support further.  The stories of the people we work with are central to that, and it’s their voices, not the charity’s, that belong in the foreground.   So a key part of the job is to build relationships with those people, and support them to tell their stories as they want to, empowering them and keeping them safe.  This means staying flexible, in the content and the work of gathering it.  In the immigration system and the lives of people going through it, it’s wise to expect the unexpected, so plans can change at short notice.  This is a special opportunity to work join a supportive, dynamic team delivering extraordinary work.

What we’re looking for

1.  ‘Must haves’:  we believe that the right person for this key role must bring with them:

• Experience – you have wide communications experience that enables you to cover the whole range of work that we need (see above)
• Independence – you are pro-active, well organised and can get things done on your own, with more guidance on aims than methods
• Collaboration – you can work well with colleagues, professionals and people with lived experience, and deliver great projects together
• Communication – your speaking and writing communicates clearly and powerfully
• Story-telling – you know how to create compelling content that tells stories of change and empowerment
• Understanding – you appreciate the purpose and complexity of our work
• Commitment – your practice fits our values of empowerment, co-creation, curiosity and respect
• Flexibility – you can adapt to sudden changes and vary your working hours sometimes, eg to work at evenings or weekends

2.  ‘Also haves’: if you also bring any of the following, they will be important for us:

• Work experience in a communications role in a charity or arts company – especially if it was a role like this in a small organisation
• Practical skills in one or more of: graphic design, photography, audio/video production, digital advertising
• Experience of working sensitively with people who have been through difficult experiences to tell their stories
• Experience of overseeing creative freelancers
• Experience of implementing and developing communications strategy
• Experience of careful messaging in a politically sensitive context
• Experience of using reporting & analytics tools
• Culture and language skills relevant to people in immigration settings

Lived experience and professional experience

Professional experience and lived experience are both valuable for this role.  We want to bring people with personal experience of immigration detention, or the asylum process, or immigration enforcement into our team, so if you have this kind of experience then we would really love to hear from you. We need you to bring the ‘must have’ qualities listed above, but do not require a conventional professional CV full of paid communications and marketing roles.  What we do need is someone who can help us deliver.  That means understanding the people we work with, and knowing how to deliver organisational communications that meet their needs.

If you have lots of professional experience, together with strong understanding of our kind of work and the needs we address, but not the personal experience specified above, then we would also love to hear from you.  We want people with all kinds of backgrounds and experience to apply for this job.  We very much encourage applications from people from culturally diverse backgrounds, disabled or neurodivergent applicants, and people of different ages, gender, sexual orientations and socio-economic backgrounds.

What we can offer you

We’re a specialist organisation working in a fraught environment that changes constantly.  We’re developing better ways to support everyone working for Hear Me Out.  So we will look to provide the right kind of offer to our new Communications Manager, tailored to their needs.  For example:

• The work can bring stress and distress to all of us, so we have ‘clinical supervision’ sessions and are developing other ways to offer care and support
• We can arrange mentoring for you, to support you in delivering the role
• We can arrange training, for example if there are specific skills you need to learn
• Hear Me Out is a friendly and collaborative team where we look out for each other
• We’ll be open to your ideas about what kind of support will help you the most

Terms & conditions

• Contract:  Temporary (9-month) contract, subject to a 3-month probationary period
• Location: The team meets at its office in central London on Wednesdays and works in a hybrid way the rest of the week.
• Hours:  Part-time position, 2.5 days (18.75 hours) per week (0.5 FTE)
• Salary:  £40,000 per year pro rata (ie £20,000), gross
• Annual leave:  36 days paid holiday leave per year pro rata (ie 18 days), including statutory bank holidays
• Sick pay:  25 days per year pro rata (ie 12.5 days) on full pay, followed by 25 days pro rata (ie 12.5 days) on half pay, followed by Statutory Sick Pay only
• Pension: 6% employer contribution to HMO’s selected Stakeholder pension scheme or to another scheme of the employee’s choice

To apply, you must download the job pack, check out the full details, and follow the instructions on how to apply.