Summary:
Are you looking for a role that combines your communications skills with your scientific background and passion for the environment?
Can you create customer and stakeholder campaigns to promote our environmental work and create insightful engagement through collaboration?
Do you have sound experience as a communications officer?
If so, don’t miss this rare opportunity to join our communications team…
We want to be the water company people want to be supplied by and want to work for.
As an enthusiastic, creative and adaptable Communications Officer, you’ll join our award winning Communications team to develop and implement campaigns that support the delivery of our 25 Year Environment Plan, Water Industry National Environmental Programme (WINEP) and water resources management plans.
Perhaps you’re a public relations or communications professional wanting to dive into an exciting project; or someone with a scientific background looking to take your communications career in a new direction. Either way, you know how to engage with people across the social and political spectrum and it’s that ability to build trusted relationships that will enable you to make a difference here.
You will be creating a mix of communication materials aimed at our stakeholders and customers, to highlight the various case studies and innovative works we’ve completed to achieve our environmental targets. Your natural interest in water quality and the local environment will allow you to bring to life the excellent work our teams are doing to balance both customer and environmental needs. Whether you come from a farming or agricultural background, or you have a degree in a scientific discipline, you understand our stakeholders, and will create communication plans accordingly to suit the audience.
You will support our Environment and Water Resources colleagues in both devising and executing communications plans and events which will drive positive change amongst land managers, owners and other stakeholders, within defined catchments. Therefore, communication experience in any company is crucial. You are comfortable liaising with our Water Quality scientists and can convert technical information into easy-to-understand communication materials. You are happy to work from either our Arlington or Farnborough office, with a few days spent in our Snodland headquarters per month. The role is hybrid, but you will be expected to spend some time out on the field with the Environmental teams and at events. As such, a full, clean driving license is necessary. We provide a car allowance of £6,254.
You will also be part of the out-of-hours communications standby rota responding proactively to media enquiries and assisting the business with customer and stakeholder communications during an emergency.
This is an exciting time to join our team as we’re redefining our communications strategy. So, you can expect plenty of room to share new ideas and gain recognition for your talents for writing, media relations, digital communications, stakeholder engagement and event management.
Main responsibilities:
- Working with our catchment advisors, ecologists, local planning authorities, Environment team and Water Resources team to devise and deliver an integrated communications campaign to help us reach our statutory targets under the PR24 Business Plan and WINEP.
- Supporting environmental, water resources and water quality teams with the aim of changing behaviour to protect both raw water quality and quantity.
- Working closely with our Catchment Management Team to encourage farmers and land owners to adopt more sustainable practices and take up our funding and support packages.
- Liaising directly with the Water Resources team to understand the impact of housing growth on our specific regions and assist in developing template responses to the planning process that represent the company’s view.
- Assisting in regular company engagement with Local Planning Authorities.
- Improving the perceptions of our environmental and water resources performance, and business overall, among our customers, stakeholders and employees.
- Being part of the communications out- of-hours standby rota, managing press enquiries and customer and stakeholder messaging during an incident.
You'll need:
Experience / Skills / Qualifications
- At least three years’ experience in either a field related to journalism (newspaper/TV/radio) or public relations/communications, either agency or in-house.
- Previous comms experience in a water company is desirable but not required.
- Degree-level qualification in a communication or PR related discipline or relevant experience.
- A scientific background (education or work experience).
- Understanding of agriculture, farming or environmental policies is highly desirable.
- Experience and knowledge of stakeholder engagement, the media, filming, video editing and social media, together with the ability to deal confidently with a range of audiences
- Competency in using Google Workspace as well as various communications platforms
- Full driving licence
We want to be the water company people want to be supplied by and want to work for.
We know the communities we serve are diverse. We recognise creativity comes from diversity not similarity. That’s why we are enthusiastic about creating inclusion across age, race, gender, ethnicity, religion and identity. You will experience our dedication to equal opportunities and fair treatment for all: through your recruitment, employment and career progression with South East Water.
Benefits package:
- Excellent Stakeholder pension scheme, up to 10% employer contribution.
- 5 weeks holiday plus bank holidays per annum, increasing to 6 weeks with length of service.
- Flexible annual leave policy to buy or sell holiday leave.
- Paid volunteering days.
- Cycle to work scheme.
- Health cash plan.
- Life assurance.
- Wellbeing related benefits.
What can you expect from your recruitment?
- To apply for this position, please submit your CV on our career’s website.
- It is necessary for you to have the legal right to work in the UK when you begin employment with South East Water.
- Additionally, as part of the employment offer, you will need to pass background, identity, and employment referencing checks.
If this sounds like the opportunity you’ve been looking for, apply now!
South East Water kindly asks that recruitment agencies refrain from submitting CVs to our employees or associates without explicit invitation from our HR Resourcing team. CVs sent on a speculative basis will not be acknowledged and will not assume any responsibility for fees or commissions in the event that we hire a candidate who applied directly or subsequently introduced by an instructed agency.
Compensation package:
£32,000 to £36,000 + car allowance of £6,254
