Colleague Communications and Experience Business Partner

Job Description

Role title: Colleague Communications Business Partner

Contract type: Permanent

Location: Edinburgh/ London/ with blended home working

We have an excellent opportunity for a Colleague Communications Business Partner to join our Colleague Comms and Experience Team, reporting to the Colleague Comms and Experience Director.

About the Department  

The role of the Colleague Comms and Experience Team is to engage colleagues across the abrdn business – connecting them to strategy, creating pride and belief in the business and developing a colleague experience that builds trust and advocacy with our people. 

About the role  

The Comms Business Partner role is responsible for the business partnering of ELT and Executive Team members, defining market leading comms & engagement strategies and execution of effective communications to engage and connect with abrdn colleagues.  The role will build trusted and robust relationships with key stakeholders, providing strategic counsel and advice, focusing on colleague outcomes.  It will have a ‘seat at the table’ and a voice to shape and influence the agenda. 

This role is a business partnering role, focused on Vector and functional teams, but is there to connect with and deliver consistent and efficient processes within the wider business partnering team.  The role is responsible for building an efficient, consistent and robust approach to comms and engagement in its aligned Vector/Market and Functions.  The role is focused on outcomes and creating connections with our leaders and their teams to unlock the performance of the business.  It will have a particular focus on partnering, coaching and strategic communications to support our leaders and build trust in the business.   

• Communication strategy and plan which can be deployed consistently across your aligned Vectors, functions, or areas of focus

• Engaging content that can been deployed across the global organisation to engage colleagues and increase connection, advocacy and trust

• A focus on simplifying the complex and making communications accessible for colleagues

• An insight-led approach, using data to effectively influence the agenda and measuring the impact of everything we do to drive continuous improvement

• Co-ordinated communication planning across the wider CCEX and BMCA teams

• Business partnering strategy and approach – matrix management of key stakeholders

• Leadership and delivery of communications activity that is inclusive, culturally aware, promotes engagement and incorporates regular feedback loops to ensure colleagues’ needs are understood

• Leadership and delivery of issues and crisis communications plans, joined up with other stakeholders as appropriate including External Communications, External Affairs, CSR/ESG, client/customer/adviser communications and HR

About the Candidate

To be successful in this role you will need (minimum experience/ requirements) 

• A deep understanding of employee engagement – outcome focused

• Experience with global channels, managing content effectively and developing strategies that deliver consistency across a global business

• Executive and leadership communication – building trusted relationships and using coaching and challenge to influence the agenda

• Cultural literacy

• A passion for content and using words and stories to engage colleague hearts and minds

• Business consultancy - Understand stakeholder requirements and present logical and articulate colleague communications solutions and advice to meet those requirements

• Presentation and visual communication skills

• Business acumen

• Strategic planning

• Change management with a particular focus on business readiness and embedding change

• Issues and crisis communications management

Moreover, we recognise that supplementary skills beyond the minimum criteria can greatly enhance your success in this position. These skills are:

• A team player – able to collaborate effectively with your colleagues, consistently putting the teams’ goals and interests ahead of personal ones and actively contributing to the wider teams shared objectives.

• Strong Organisational Skills and an acute attention to detail.

• Excellent time management skills – the ability to demonstrate exceptional time management skills by efficiently planning and prioritising tasks to meet deadlines.

• Self-Motivation – you exhibit a high level of self-motivation and can take the initiative to identify and tackle challenges proactively.

• You are able to take ownership of your work, ensuring that it aligns with organisational objectives and quality standards.

We are proud to announce that we have officially become a Disability Confident Committed – Level One employer. Therefore, if you have a disability and would like to submit an application to one of our UK roles under the Disability Confident Scheme, please notify us by completing the relevant section in our candidate questionnaire and one of our team will reach out to support you through your application process.

Our Benefits

There's more to working life than coming home with a good salary. We have an environment where you can learn, get involved and be supported. 

When you join us, your reward will be one of the best around, including 40 days annual leave, a 16% employer pension contribution, a discretionary performance-based bonus (where applicable), private healthcare and a range of flexible benefits including gym discounts, season ticket loans and access to an employee discount site amongst many others. You can read more about our benefits here.

We’re committed to providing an inclusive workplace where all forms of difference are valued and which is free from any form of unfair or unlawful treatment.  We define diversity in its broadest sense – this includes but is not limited to our diversity of educational and professional backgrounds, experience, cognitive and neurodiversity, age, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, religion or belief and ethnicity and geographical provenance.  We support a culture that values meritocracy, fairness and transparency and welcomes enquiries from everyone.

If you need assistance or an adjustment due to a disability please let us know as part of your application and we will assist.