Communications Directorate - Head of Insight
| Posting date: | 21 March 2024 |
|---|---|
| Salary: | £57,000 to £67,100 per year |
| Additional salary information: | National: £57,000 min - £62,700 max. London: £61,000 min - £67,100 max. |
| Hours: | Full time |
| Closing date: | 04 April 2024 |
| Location: | Sheffield |
| Company: | Government Recruitment Service |
| Job type: | Permanent |
| Job reference: | 346110/3 |
Summary
As a member of the Communications Directorate, you’ll be supporting our mission to deliver outstanding public services that work for everyone.
You will join a multi-disciplinary team with colleagues based across the UK, working together to deliver the Home Office’s communications strategy.
We believe a positive, open and supportive culture is essential to help everyone deliver their best work. We value diversity and provide an inclusive and encouraging environment for our team members. We nurture our talent and offer a broad range of learning and development opportunities to help you fulfil your potential.
Benefits
All Home Office employees are eligible to join the Civil Service pension scheme, which contributes on average 27% of your salary to a defined benefit pension.
You will also be entitled to benefits, including 25 days of annual leave a year, which increases by one day every year to a maximum of 30, as well the cycle to work scheme and a season ticket travel loan.
Information about the role
We welcome applications from those who do not currently work or have never worked in the Civil Service, as well as from Insight professionals working in other government departments or arm’s length bodies.
The Insight Team sits at the centre of the Communications Directorate. Working across the full range of Home Office policy areas, this specialist team helps ensure that the department’s communications strategy and activity is audience-led and effectively evaluated. This includes acting as trusted insight advisers to communications colleagues, carrying out high quality research and evaluation activities, and working closely with agency partners to brief, design and deliver commissioned studies.
Do you have:
- An excellent research background.
- A proactive, solutions-focused attitude.
- An energy and passion for applying insight.
- A track record for driving improvements in the insight profession.
- An ability to work well under pressure.
- A clear, engaging communication style.
- Confidence to influence decision-making.
- Confidence to negotiate with colleagues and partners at all levels.
If so, we are looking for you to fill an extremely important role in the Communications Directorate as Head of Insight. The successful candidate will be responsible for research and evaluation across a range of policy areas to inform and evaluate wide-ranging communications activity. They will work with the insight team and communications colleagues to set outcomes and KPIs, and make sure that communications activity is evidence-based and can demonstrate its value. They will help lead the insight team and have line management responsibilities. The role will be fully supported but offers a significant amount of autonomy and responsibility.
This post will stretch and enhance your ability to:
- Operate at a strategic level (often during ambiguous and changing circumstances).
- Work through others, especially outside line management structures.
- Drive decision-making.
- Deliver pragmatic solutions to solve difficult research questions.
- Champion the value of audience-led communications.
Responsibilities
No day will be the same, but the role demands someone who can:
- Be fully embedded in the directorate’s strategic conversations to ensure that insight and robust understanding of our diverse audiences sit firmly at the heart of our communications strategies.
- Be a strong voice and positive advocate for audience insight, championing its use in driving effective communications.
- Be the custodian of the Directorate’s audience intelligence, holding the pen on what we know about our audiences and make sure that knowledge is accessible and shared across the Directorate.
- Work with colleagues to identify opportunities for generating new insight, advising teams on best value research solutions.
- Lead the design and delivery of insight and evaluation projects and programmes, including projects run in-house and those delivered by our agency partners, ensuring that all work is carried out to a high standard and offers value for money to the Directorate and the Department.
- Manage our contracts with external research agencies, working at a peer-to-peer level with senior leaders (e.g. Research Directors) in those agencies, ensuing the Directorate receives a value for money and high-quality service.
- Be responsible (working alongside colleagues) for ensuring that all communications activities have clear outcomes and evaluation.