Departmental Head – Employer Brand & Communications

SUMMARY:
Our client is looking for a Departmental Head - Employer Brand & Communications to join their collaborative and fast-growing team.

POSITION INFO:
Role Purpose
The Departmental Head: Employer Brand & Communications is responsible for building, protecting, and strengthening our clients reputation by integrating internal communications, employer brand, PR, and reputation management into a single, coherent capability.
This role exists to ensure that what the Bank believes, says, and does is consistent across employees, leaders, media, and the public. It positions employees and leaders as credible advocates, manages reputational risk, and builds trust at scale.
The role leads a team of approximately 8 people and works in close partnership with HR, Legal, Risk, Marketing, and Executive leadership.

Strategic Objectives

1. Build a strong, credible Employer Brand rooted in our clients culture and purpose.
2. Ensure clear, consistent, and trusted internal communication across the organisation.
3. Protect and enhance the external reputation through proactive PR and issues management.
4. Enable employees and leaders to act as authentic brand and reputation advocates.
5. Shift communications from broadcast-led to personalised, platform-enabled, and scalable models.

• Define and the Employer Brand and EVP in partnership with HR and Brand.
• Translate culture, purpose, and values into compelling employer narratives and proof points.
• Lead the development and rollout of employer brand campaigns (internal-first, then external).
• Ensure employer brand is embedded across the employee lifecycle (onboarding, growth, leadership, exits).

• Own the internal communications strategy and channel mix.
• Move the organisation away from mass email toward personalised, role-relevant communication journeys.
• Oversee internal platforms (e.g. Viva Engage) to ensure high engagement and psychological safety.
• Establish clear governance, moderation, and escalation protocols for internal communications.

• Lead proactive and reactive media relations strategy.
• Act as a senior advisor on reputational risk, issues management, and crisis communications.
• Develop and manage key narratives for the organisation in partnership with Brand and Leadership.
• Maintain strong relationships with key media stakeholders.

• Design and run a leadership advocacy programme, with particular focus on LinkedIn.
• Audit and optimise leadership profiles for credibility and consistency.
• Support leaders with content themes, guidance, and narrative alignment.
• Ensure leaders are prepared and supported during high-risk or high-visibility moments

• Build and scale an employee advocacy programme that enables authentic, opt-in participation.
• Implement appropriate advocacy platforms and tools.
• Develop share-ready content that employees can use across their own social channels.
• Measure advocacy impact and continuously improve participation and quality

• Lead and develop a high-performing team of approximately 8 people.
• Establish clear priorities, workflows, and delivery cadences.
• Define success metrics across employer brand, internal communications, and reputation.
• Report regularly on performance, risk, and insights to senior leadership.

• Employer Brand & Advocacy
• Internal Communications & Platforms
• PR, Media & Issues Management
• Exact structure may evolve as capability matures.

• Head of Brand & Communications
• Human Resources (Culture, Talent, Learning)
• Executive Leadership and Exco
• Legal, Risk, and Compliance
• External media and agency partners

• 8+ years’ experience in a senior role in communications, reputation, employer brand, or related fields.
• Proven leadership experience managing multi-disciplinary teams.
• Experience engaging at Executive and senior management level.
• Experience in a complex, regulated, or high-scrutiny environment (financial services preferred).
• Demonstrated success in reputation management and stakeholder communications.
• Proven ownership of employer brand/EVP and large‑scale internal communication programmes.
• Exercising risk judgement under pressure.

• Integrated communications strategy; employer brand/EVP; PR and media ecosystems; issues/crisis protocols.
• Governance, risk and compliance basics for communications in a regulated environment.
• Channel/platform management (e.g., Viva Engage), content operations and moderation frameworks.
• Measurement frameworks: sentiment, trust, engagement, advocacy, brand health.
• Stakeholder orchestration

• Strategic thinking with strong execution discipline.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills.
• High emotional intelligence and judgement under pressure.
• Strong stakeholder management and influence skills.
• Deep understanding of modern communication platforms and advocacy models.
• Ability to balance openness with risk management.

• Calm, credible, and trusted in moments of pressure.
• Commercially and reputationally astute.
• Values-led and people-centred.
• Comfortable operating at senior and executive level.
• Resilient, pragmatic, and outcome-focused

• Improved employer brand sentiment and awareness.
• Higher internal engagement and trust scores.
• Increased leadership and employee advocacy.
• Reduced reputational incidents and faster, clearer crisis response.
• Strong alignment between internal and external narratives.