Vacancy -- Digital Communications Manager (Welsh Essential)

Working for the Civil Service

The Welsh Government's recruitment processes are underpinned by the principle of selection for appointment on merit on the basis of fair and open competition as outlined in the Civil Service Commission’s Recruitment Principles.

The Civil Service Code sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

Vacancy Details

Chief Operating Officer’s Group
Communications
HEO - £32,460 - £39,690
£31,210
Full time (applications are welcome from people who work part time, as part of a job share or who work full time)
Fixed term
Two years (With the potential for permanency, subject to funding and approvals available at the time)
Other location
Pan Wales (You will be required to be available to travel to film videos, including with Ministers in Cardiff)
TBC

Purpose of Post:

Background:

The Welsh Government is the devolved government for Wales and is responsible for key aspects of public life in Wales including health, education, the economy, transport, agriculture and the environment. Welsh Ministers are supported by a workforce of more than 5,000 civil servants with offices in Wales, London, Brussels and further overseas.

The Welsh Government uses its digital channels to communicate and engage with audiences across a wide range of subjects and policy areas. 

This post sits within the communications profession, and there are multiple roles in departments across the Welsh Government.  

The Role:

As a digital communications manager you will be responsible for creating engaging bilingual content that informs, stimulates discussion and reaches a broad audience. You will also be expected to work with colleagues to identify areas for further content development and to respond to queries.

You will be expected to provide advice to policy colleagues, senior management and potentially Welsh Ministers on digital strategy, and work with other communications teams to achieve comms objectives.

You will be supported in your role by your line manager (senior comms manager) and may be required to provide line management for other team members (executive officer) and ensure they have the right support, guidance and skills necessary to carry out their duties.

Key tasks:

  • Develop high quality bilingual content to standards on style, tone of voice and publishing. 
  • Use timelines and scheduled content to create a consistent stream of new content for audience interaction while analysing, managing, and altering schedules where necessary to optimise. 
  • Work closely with colleagues to create content that raises awareness and boosts engagement with key WG policy announcements, events and launches. 
  • Monitor user engagement and trends - using analysis to improve content. 
  • Storyboarding, shooting, editing and optimising video content for upload. 
  • Curate, tag and store content, documenting rights and usage. 
  • Editing photography and written content. 
  • Stay up-to-date with new digital technologies and social media best practices. 

Development opportunities:

Your role will form part of Welsh Government’s communications profession. This is a growing profession and you will have the opportunity to be part of shaping and growing it.

We are committed to developing the skills and capability of our staff and encouraging them to use five days of learning a year. 

To support this we offer a range of opportunities which could include:

Conferences / Shadowing / Mentoring / Work-based learning / qualifications / coaching.

Proactively making links and working with a wide range of Welsh Government teams and external partners including other Governments in the UK. 

Closing Date:

05/12/2022, 16:00

Eligibility

Posts recruited to as part of this recruitment campaign are broadly open to UK nationals, those with right to remain and work in the UK and those that meet the Civil Service Nationality Rules only. Check your eligibility here:

Prior to appointment, all successful applicants will be required to produce original, acceptable documents as part of the pre-employment checks. If it becomes apparent at a later stage in the process that you aren’t eligible to apply, your application will be withdrawn, or offer retracted.

Equality and Diversity

The Welsh Government is committed to providing services which embrace diversity and which promote equality of opportunity. This is underpinned by the Equality Act 2010 and will be adhered to at each stage of the recruitment process. Our goal is to ensure that these commitments are also embedded in our day-to-day working practices with all our customers, colleagues and partners.

We are committed to being an anti-racist organisation and increasing diversity in the Welsh Government by removing barriers and supporting all our staff to reach their potential. We are committed to recruiting Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic people and disabled people who are currently under-represented in Welsh Government.

We welcome applications from everyone regardless of age, marriage and civil partnership (both same sex and opposite sex), impairment or health condition, sex, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, gender identity or gender expression.

We are a Stonewall Diversity Champion and a Disability Confident Level 3 (Leader) organisation. Key to supporting this work and providing peer support are five Board sponsored Staff Networks (Disability Awareness and Support (DAAS); Minority Ethnic Support Network (MESN); Mind Matters (Mental health and well-being); PRISM (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex +) and Women Together.

Disability Confident

A Great Place to Work for Veterans

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans initiative.

Welsh Language Requirements

The Welsh Government is a bilingual organisation and Welsh language skills are considered an asset to the organisation. We encourage and support staff to learn, develop and use their Welsh language skills in the workplace. 

The following list of language requirements represents an objective assessment by the line manager on behalf of the Welsh Government of the Welsh language skills required to undertake the duties of this particular post.

Essential
Full understanding of all work related material
Fluent
Can understand all work-related conversations
Can prepare written material for all work-related matters

Social Partnership

In Welsh Government, the relationship between the employer and trade unions is based on social partnership. We believe our goals can best be achieved by management and trade unions working together.

Our 3 recognised trade unions are:
•         PCS
•         Prospect
•         FDA

This relationship is underpinned by a partnership agreement. This sets out how our unions work with Welsh Government on issues such as:
•         pay
•         terms and conditions
•         policies and procedures
•         organisational change.

Our Welsh Government trade union colleagues work together to give their members a real say in the workplace. They make sure that the interests of their members are promoted and protected. They also help reduce inequalities and improve terms and conditions.

The Welsh Government has an excellent track record of working in partnership with its trade unions. We encourage staff to get involved. We support you to join a recognised trade union, to ensure your voice is heard in the workplace. and to learn more about trade unions and partnership working.

Competencies / Job Specific Criteria

The following job specifics skills are also ESSENTIAL for this role. Please ensure your CV and covering letter demonstrate your ability in relation to these skills.

  • A track record of delivering innovative, audience-focused content to support communication objectives. 
  • Demonstrable experience of managing social accounts; Facebook, Twitter and Instagram including advertising platforms.
  • Experience in design software, such as Adobe Creative (premiere pro, indesign) and /or Canva.
  • Experience in creating high quality written and video content.
  • Good communication skills with high level of accuracy in written work.
  • Proficiency at reporting and analytics.

Assessment Process

To apply for this role you will be asked to attach the following:

  • An up to date CV and covering letter evidencing the essential job specific skills. Each of these must be no more than two sides of A4. Please remove from your name and address from your CV to support us in undertaking a “name free” sift.

Please ensure that your CV and covering letter fully reflect the essential criteria and your suitability for the role. You should use the covering letter to provide evidence for each essential criteria within the person specification. As the criteria are scored, we would recommend that you give clear examples for each including the impact of your actions

If you are successful at the sifting stage, you will be invited to interview.  The interview will focus on your skills and experience in relation to the essential requirements of the role.  We may also include a test or assessment if appropriate.

Following the sift, we'll assess you against these behaviours for the remainder of the selection process:

Civil Service Success Profile:

  • Making effective decisions: Invite challenge and where appropriate involve others in decision making.
  • Delivering at pace: Act promptly to reassess workloads and priorities when there are conflicting demands to maintain performance.

Government Communication Service framework:

  • Insight: Build audience insight using appropriate tools to monitor content and listen to conversations on key external digital channels, including social media.
  • Ideas: Demonstrate a practical understanding of emerging digital services, tools and trends, including techniques for optimising. 
  • Implementation: Demonstrate a good understanding of accessibility and usability issues. Create content that meets accessibility requirements.
  • Impact: Advise on, monitor, summarise and provide analysis of effectiveness indicators for digital communication. 

Following the interview, if successful, we may keep your details for up to 12 months on a reserve list should other similar posts become available.

Other Information

  • Unless stated otherwise in ‘actual starting salary’, all candidates will start at the minimum of the pay scale being appointed to (this includes existing civil servants).This is not negotiable.
  • Unless stated otherwise in ‘type of opportunity’, this recruitment advert is not open on a Loan or Secondment basis.
  • For more information on the eligibility criteria and terms and conditions for Loan and Secondment positions in Welsh Government, please see external recruitment candidate guidance.
  • Unless stated otherwise in ‘Location of Post’ the role/s recruited to via this campaign can only be worked in the UK, not overseas.

The Welsh Government offers a variety of benefits, including:

  • Frequent development discussions and the training you need for your role and to grow.
  • 31 days annual leave, plus a day for Christmas and the King’s Birthday.
  • Generous parental leave, including 26 weeks at full pay for qualifying employees.
  • Generous pension scheme with employer contributions.
  • Cycle to Work Scheme: choose a brand new bike up to £1000, saving at least 32%.
  • Advances of Salary: request advances for Christmas, computer equipment or Tenancy Deposits.
  • Season Ticket Loans.
  • Flexitime policy.

Aeddan Davies - socialmedia@gov.wales

How to apply

All applications for this vacancy should be made online via the Welsh Government's online application system.  If you have an impairment which would prevent you from applying on-line, please e-mail SharedServiceHelpdesk@gov.wales to request an application pack in an alternative format, or to request a reasonable adjustment related to an impairment in order to submit your application.

To apply, you'll need to have an account on our online application system.  Click the 'Apply' button below, and you'll be asked to 'Log in' if you already have an account, or 'Register' if you don't yet have an account.  Registration takes just a few minutes to complete.  You'll need an e-mail address to be able to register.  Once you've registered for an account and logged in, you'll be taken to the online application form, which you'll need to fully complete and submit before the deadline on the closing date.  

If you’d like to apply for this vacancy in Welsh, please use the ‘Newid Iaith / Change Language’ link at the top of this page, to take you to the Welsh version of this advert, from which you can apply in Welsh.

For further information regarding the Welsh Government recruitment process, please see the Recruitment Guidance for External Candidates (link).

When evidencing your suitability for the post, it is recommended that you refer to the Civil Service Competency Framework (link)

Grievance and Complaints

Anyone who believes they have been treated unfairly, or has a grievance or complaint, about how the process was conducted should either write to the Head of Resourcing, Welsh Government, Cathays Park 2, Cardiff CF10 3NQ or email SharedServiceHelpdesk@gov.wales.  If you are unhappy with the outcome of the complaint raised with the Welsh Government and feel that the principles of appointment on merit through fair and open competition have not been met you have the right to pursue your grievance with the Civil Service Commission.

This vacancy is closed to applications.