Communications and Engagement Manager

Job summary

The Communications and Engagement Manager is a new role for Forestry England’s Central District. The district Marcomms team is small, and a significant opportunity has been identified to enhance and expand communications activity - to help our audiences better understand our work, build our supporter base, and make sure our workforce remains informed, engaged and motivated to do their jobs effectively.

Reporting to the District Marketing & Communications Manager, the role will be responsible for delivering internal and external communications strategies and workplan for Central District. This will focus on promoting the work of Forestry England and telling the story of the nation’s forests, highlighting the wide-ranging benefits
they provide for climate, nature, people and the economy. This will involve communicating not just what we do, but why we do it.

Sitting within the Recreation & Public Engagement function, this role will work closely with national communications colleagues, and teams across the district, including Sustainable Land Management, Civil Engineering, Ecology & Heritage, Woodland Creation and Business Support. This will involve meetings both online and in-person, and occasional representation of the district at events and forums.

While there is no line manager responsibility, the role will work closely with the Marketing & Communications Officer (who will provide administrative and implementation support), as well as benefiting from peer support from the Marketing Manager and direction from the Marketing & Communications Manager.

Job description

Key responsibilities & accountabilities

Implement the district communications strategy and workplan to effectively support district priorities and targets.

Develop and deliver engaging and effective proactive communications content for the district to support brand building and supporter development (emotional engagement and connection to cause, donor motivation, increase membership and volunteer numbers) across multiple channels and touchpoints.

Become the district’s lead storyteller – bringing our work to life so that people see beyond forests as places to visit whilst championing our position as industry leaders and building understanding of forestry as a critical, future-facing sector delivering sustainable timber and environmental benefits.

Manage and deliver reactive communications in the district to protect the organisation’s reputation, maximising opportunities as they arise. This includes incident management, communications around district development projects (such as new facilities being installed, or other investment works), visitor behaviour management, stakeholder engagement and support for forestry operations.

Deliver effective internal engagement, including editorial ownership of the district’s weekly staff newsletter, identifying appropriate content for the national intranet and external channels, and supporting the wider programme of internal staff events, meetings and engagement activity.

And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager.

Person specification

Skills, knowledge & experience

Essential professional and technical experience

• Proven experience in a communications role with responsibility delivering activity and outcomes
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with experience creating engaging content for different channels and audiences, working to brand guidelines
• Confidence using digital tools such as website content management systems, social media platforms and content creation tools
• A collaborative, team-focused approach, with the ability to build strong working relationships with a range of internal and external stakeholders
• Creative thinking, with experience generating content to meet communications objectives within tight budget constraints
• An eye for detail with the understanding that all communication represents the organisation and our work so needs to be accurate and correct
• A self-starter, able to identify and act on priorities, and work unsupervised

Desirable professional and technical experience

• An understanding of, or strong interest in, forestry, conservation, sustainability or land management issues
• Budget management experience
• Video production expertise
• Experience of internal communications within a large, multi-departmental organisation

Qualifications

Essential

• Undergraduate degree (or equivalent) in communications or a related field is desirable, however we recognise that candidates may be qualified through relevant experience.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Seeing the Big Picture
• Working Together
• Managing a Quality Service
• Communicating and Influencing

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £33,854, Forestry Commission contributes £9,807 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides (opens in a new window).

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours.

How to apply…

You will be asked to write a 200 word statement on your relevant experience and career history, along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Seeing the bigger picture
• Working together
• Managing a quality service
• Communicating and Influencing

Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.

If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email [email removed].

If you're planning to use AI to support your application, please ensure you've read our guidelines