Head of Content (Digital Communications) London, England
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Job summary
DESNZ
The responsibilities for the Department for Energy Security & Net Zero for 2023 are as follows:
- Delivering security of energy supply
- Ensuring properly functioning energy markets
- Encouraging greater energy efficiency
- Seizing the opportunities of net zero to lead the world in new green industries
For 2023, our priorities are:
- Ensure security of energy supply this winter, next winter and in the longer-term – bringing down energy bills and reducing inflation.
- Ensure the UK is on track to meet its legally binding Net Zero commitments and support economic growth by significantly speeding up delivery of network infrastructure and domestic energy production.
- Improve the energy efficiency of UK homes, businesses and public sector buildings to meet the 15% demand reduction ambition.
- Deliver current schemes to support energy consumers with their bills and develop options for long-term reform to improve how the electricity market works for families and businesses.
- Seize the economic benefits of Net Zero, including the jobs and growth created through investment in new green industries.
- Pass the Energy Bill to support the emerging CCUS and hydrogen sectors; to update the governance of the energy system; and to reduce the time taken to consent offshore wind.
Our Inclusive Environment
We are building an inclusive culture to make the Department a brilliant place to work where our people feel valued, have a voice and can be their authentic selves. We value difference and diversity, not only because we believe it is the right thing to do, but because it will help us be more innovative and make better decisions.
We offer first-class flexible working benefits, excellent employee well-being support and a great pension. We are fortunate to have a range of excellent staff networks and are proud to be a Disability Confident Leader employer. We will support talented people from all backgrounds to build a career and thrive.
We actively welcome applications from anyone who shares our commitment to inclusion. We will fully support candidates with a disability or long-term condition who require adjustments in our recruitment process.
Job description
You will have years of public or private sector experience in content creation and a range of specialist skills under your belt – brand management, illustration, animation and graphic design in particular – primarily for social media. To complement your practical experience, you will also have strong creative vision and confident leadership skills with experience heading a team/s.
(If this advert sounds a bit like you, but you don’t quite have the level of experience we’ve described – there is also an advert for an expert Content Manager in the same team that we recommend you check out!)
Working with us, your content will speak about issues that really matter to people, from this winter’s energy bills to jobs for generations to come - and it will have the opportunity to be seen by hundreds of thousands of people.
Part of the challenge will be to make it visually engaging enough for people to take notice! You will have a strong understanding of brand development, you will keep across trends and the changing way social media platforms treat different types of content, and you will have an instinct for innovation and risk-taking that helps us stop people from scrolling past our messages.
You will report to the Head of Digital Communications, and work collaboratively with other leaders in the team, whose staff focus on social media channel strategy, photography/videography and website content on gov.uk. You will manage a team of at least two fellow content designers, but you will often task manage or support other junior content creation specialists, and you will also work directly with creative agencies.
Person specification
There are 4 key areas of responsibility:
1. Planning a strategic approach to content
You will develop the department’s corporate look and feel, as well as campaign branding, and be able to work on cross-government projects within others’ brand guidelines. You will implement content strategies that take account of varying resource and time pressures for different projects - and communicate them clearly to designers and collaborators.
Social media is fast-paced - you will encourage creativity and innovation and be willing to try new things - new software, new styles, new techniques – that help us keep up and stand out. You will closely monitor how platforms’ requirements change - and use data and insight to inform what target audiences are likely to engage with.
2. Managing the pipeline of work for the team
Your team will deliver major projects, including campaigns and series of content. They will need to juggle this with short-notice, reactive asks that need to be turned around within hours. Some work will have detailed briefs, and you will be able to have extensive discussions about what is needed and craft an approach over weeks. Other work supports a busy news desk, where lines and priorities can shift day to day.
You will stay on top of lots of asks at once, prioritise them, and ensure your team is on track to deliver them. Throughout, you will have exacting standards for quality and creativity, and act as a gatekeeper to ensure our content always meets those standards.
3. Leadership
As a leader, you will help the new Digital Communications team work effectively, but also help make it a good place to work, with a kind and caring team culture. You will ensure the staff that report to you have the support and resilience to deliver their best work – as well as the equipment and software. You will implement L&D plans for each of them, ensuring they are regularly benefiting from formal training and in-work development opportunities.
You will also help people outside the team understand the work you do, help them to upskill on projects where they can self-serve, and improve the way they engage with and brief you.
Experience managing work with creative agencies would also be helpful – making sure briefs are clear and met and that taxpayers are getting the high value outputs they deserve when we employ them.
4. Collaborating with colleagues
Most projects will involve different parts of the Digital Communications team working together. You may also need to work directly with other parts of Communications, policy teams, private offices and senior stakeholders – as well as external agencies. Building and managing relationships is an essential part of this job.
Skills and Experience
You will be ready to jump in on content creation projects, so it is essential you have certain technical skills (using Canva is helpful but not sufficient). Our team uses Adobe suite, in particular InDesign, After Effects, Illustrator and Premiere Pro, and you will need to be very confident with this software – we are looking for someone with formal training, years of experience on the job or both.
We will be looking for experience in:
- Designing striking visuals optimised for social media
- Hand-drawing and adapting illustrations
- Creating motion graphics and transitions that enhance videos
- Animating videos
- Using subtitles and text on screen effectively
- Delivering brand guidance documentation
- Setting up and sharing graphic templates for other producers
- Ensuring content meets accessibility guidelines
- Editing content to ensure it meets a range of specifications for different social media platforms
You may have more experience with some of these skills than others, but you will be comfortable leading a team working on all of them. You will be able to provide examples of your work as part of the interview process.
As we have a separate videography and photography function within the team, the ability to shoot high quality film and photos is not a requirement for the role – experience editing video is desirable, however, and part of your brand strategy will be about making sure video and photography on our channels matches our wider look and feel.
As a leader, you will also have experience running teams, and be able to demonstrate leadership skills, including:
- Creating a strong supportive team culture and developing the skillsets of junior staff
- Managing a complicated pipeline of very varied incoming projects and adapting to changing priorities - optimising team efficiency and workflows
- Enthusiastically collaborating with other teams, making sure they understand your offer, and that your team has the information they need to succeed
- Managing difficult feedback and challenging clients/stakeholders effectively
- Embracing innovation – and helping others to change, grow and innovate
Behaviours
We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:
- Communicating and Influencing
- Leadership
Technical skills
We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:
- Implementation - Develop and implement effective communication strategies and plans. Work with stakeholders and partners to deliver communication.
- Ideas - Develop the communication strategy and plan. Select channels and develop key messages and content for target audiences. Identify evaluation criteria.
Benefits
BEIS offers a competitive mix of benefits including:
A culture of flexible working, such as job sharing, homeworking and compressed hours.
Automatic enrolment into the Civil Service Pension Scheme, with an average employer contribution of 27%.
A minimum of 25 days of paid annual leave, increasing by 1 day per year up to a maximum of 30.
An extensive range of learning & professional development opportunities, which all staff are actively encouraged to pursue.
Access to a range of retail, travel and lifestyle employee discounts.
A hybrid office/home based working model where staff will spend a norm of 40-60% of their time in the office (minimum of 40%) over a month with flex dependent on balancing business and individual need (from September 2021, depending on how the public health guidance evolves).
Things you need to know
Selection process details
As part of the application process you will be asked to complete a CV and personal statement. Further details around what this will entail are listed on the application form.
Please use your personal statement (in no more than 500 words) to tell us how your skills and experience match that listed in the advert. Please also provide links to a portfolio or a few examples of your creative work.
Applications will be sifted on CV and Personal Statement.
In the event of a large number of applicants, applications will be sifted on the personal statement. Candidates who pass the initial sift may be progressed to a full sift, or progressed straight to assessment/interview.
The interview will consist of behaviour and technical questions, as well as a written exercise.
Interviewees will be asked to deliver a presentation; further details will be provided nearer the time.
Expected Timeline subject to change
Sift dates: w/c 8th May 2023
Interview dates: w/c 15th May 2023
Interview Location: London.
Candidates are asked to note the above timetable, exercising flexibility through the recruitment and selection process.
Further Information
Existing BEIS recruitment campaigns are continuing as usual, but candidates should be aware that following the Government’s announcement on the changes to some civil service departments, roles may be subject to the machinery of government moves and will ultimately be located in one of the new departments. We will provide more information if you are selected for a role. This work remains of high importance to the civil service, and we thank you for your continued interest.
Reasonable Adjustment
If a disabled person is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.
If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:
- Contact Government Recruitment Service via [email protected] as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.
- Complete the “Assistance required” section in the “Additional requirements” page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.
We are proud to be a disability confident leader, more information about the Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) and some examples of adjustments that BEIS offers to disabled candidates and candidates with long-term health conditions during our recruitment process can be found in our candidate guidance document. A plain text version of the guidance is also available.
If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.
If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.
New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.
A location based reserve list of successful candidates will be kept for 12 months. Should another role become available within that period you may be offered this position.
Please note terms and conditions are attached. Please take time to read the document to determine how these may affect you.
Any move to Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare. Determine your eligibility https://www.childcarechoices.gov.uk
BEIS does not normally offer full home working (i.e. working at home); but we do offer a variety of flexible working options (including occasionally working from home).
BEIS cannot offer Visa sponsorship to candidates through this campaign. BEIS holds a Visa sponsorship licence but this can only be used for certain roles and this campaign does not qualify.
In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service / Disclosure Scotland on your behalf. However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing [email protected] stating the job reference number in the subject heading.
For further information on the Disclosure Scotland confidential checking service telephone: the Disclosure Scotland Helpline on 0870 609 6006 and ask to speak to the operations manager in confidence, or email [email protected]
Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.
A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.
Feedback
Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.
Security
See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).
Nationality requirements
This job is broadly open to the following groups:
- UK nationals
- nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
- nationals of the Republic of Ireland
- nationals from the EU, EEA or Switzerland with settled or pre-settled status or who apply for either status by the deadline of the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
- relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals working in the Civil Service
- relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals who have built up the right to work in the Civil Service
- certain family members of the relevant EU, EEA, Swiss or Turkish nationals
Working for the Civil Service
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).
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