Communications and Engagement Officer

Person specification	Essential	Desirable
Right to work in the UK
1. Proof of eligibility to currently work in the UK.	X
Education and qualifications
2. Good general education with excellent literacy and numeracy skills.	X
3. A degree or relevant professional qualification.		X
Experience
4. Substantial experience in a relevant field, eg communications, journalism, media, marketing.	X
5. Experience using website platforms (eg Umbraco), social media platforms, desktop publishing software, (eg Adobe etc).	X
6. Experience of working in the housing sector.		X
7. Planning and project managing long-running campaigns.		X
8. Experience of planning and delivering events.	X
Knowledge and skills
9.  Excellent interpersonal and emotional intelligence skills.	X
10. Excellent organisation and prioritisation skills with the ability to multitask.	X
11.  Highly developed communication skills, including the ability to share complex information with others (individuals and groups).	X
12.  Demonstrable writing skills.	X
13. Excellent organisational and project/time management skills with the ability to manage a busy workload with competing deadlines.	X
14.  A high level of proficiency using Microsoft Office.	X
15. Creative thinker able to develop original solutions.	X
16. Experience of both internal and external communications.		X
17. Highly organised, adaptable, with a keen eye for detail.	X
18. An understanding of the role of communications as a pro-active strategic partner within a small organisation.		X
Values
Able to always demonstrate and evidence ISHA’s values: Pride in team ISHA Passionate commitment to customers Trusted to make the difference Respect for everyone	X

Recruitment pack

Dear applicant

Thank you for considering joining the Communications Team here at ISHA. This is an exciting time; with a new Chief Executive, and new Board Chair, and a new five-year strategy in development, communications will be pivotal.

This is an opportunity to play a key role in supporting change and connection through communication with focus first and foremost on our residents, colleagues and other stakeholders.

To succeed, you will need to be a good all-rounder, with strong interpersonal skills, and the ability to stay organised and manage competing priorities. You will be pro-active, flexible, with a creative, solution-focused approach. You’ll ensure that customer focus is at the centre of everything you do, while achieving value for money and helping us meet key performance targets. Above all, your work should reflect and be guided by ISHA’s values.

We believe in supporting our staff to grow and develop. This role offers plenty of opportunities for learning, development, and progression — and for you to shape it into something you’ll truly enjoy.

Please take time to read the full recruitment pack to understand more about ISHA and what this role involves. If it sounds like the right fit for you, we would love to hear from you.

To improve your chances of being shortlisted, please ensure that your covering letter clearly answers the following questions:

1. After reading the job description and person spec, why you feel you are a great fit, and how your experience matches the skills and requirements of the role?
2. About one challenge that you’ve had in delivering and sustaining a long-term communications campaign and what did you learn?
3. What you love most about working in communications.
4. When completing multiple tasks with competing deadlines, how do you prioritise?
5. Anything else you want us to know about you.

Please note that we cannot consider applications that do not answer these questions.

Islington and Shoreditch Housing Association (ISHA) is a community and neighbourhood-based housing organisation, managing and developing quality affordable housing for people in North and East London, and building homes in Hackney, Islington, and Waltham Forest.

We are ambitious: Our vision is to co-create homes and communities where everyone can flourish so that “if people could choose, they’d choose us”.

Co-creation is central to our vision. We believe that for people to flourish, they need not only to have safety, security, and a sense of belonging, but they also need to be able to contribute to and shape their environment. We believe that for everyone, including our residents, and staff.

Our values: Our values are important to ISHA.  They are at the heart of who we are and everything we do, and how we approach our work with residents and each other.  They inspire our thinking and help guide our actions.

• Pride in team ISHA
• Passionate commitment to customers
• Trusted to make the difference
• Respect for everyone

Our 2020-25 Corporate Strategy has eight strategic pillars:

1. Safety first – ensuring our homes are safe.
2. Service and satisfaction – being a consistent & quality landlord, building service delivery that drives satisfaction in partnership with residents.
3. Security and growth – setting residents off on a secure footing & helping create the conditions for people to flourish in their homes.
4. Somewhere – anchoring ourselves in North London, especially Islington, Hackney, and Waltham Forest.
5. Supply – building quality homes for social, London Affordable Rent and shared ownership.
6. Sustainability – building green and actively seeking to reduce the environmental harm caused by our stock, our building and business practices - stewarding ISHA’s assets and finances and taking the long view.
7. Staff – engaging with inspired, high-performing staff.
8. Systems – maintaining robust IT and business systems that support the business and our ambitions.

We offer a wide range of housing choices: social rented, shared ownership, intermediate rent, market rent, supported housing and options for the elderly. We also provide homes and support for the Vietnamese, South-East Asian and wider communities. We are committed to ensuring equality, diversity, and inclusion of all communities in our approach to services and the way we work

ISHA is smaller and more local than many other housing associations operating in London. The roots of ISHA go back to 1933 when we were involved with tackling slum clearance, poverty, overcrowding, ill-health, and high rents. Today we employ close to 80 staff and have over 2,500 homes.

We are proud to be a London Living Wage employer, and no employee will earn below that level. It is calculated independently to reflect the high cost of living in the capital, giving a worker in London and their family enough to afford the essentials and to save.

We are a diverse organisation with opportunities across a wide range of roles and professions, and we welcome talent from different backgrounds.

We have provided safe spaces for staff to speak out and have a plan to make us proudly anti-racist, concentrating first on growing allyship. This work has led to co-creating a new diversity and inclusion strategy, and we have recently launched an internal staff-led EDI Council, who hold regular surgeries for staff to share their concerns in a safe space.

We work in close co-operation with our local authorities, the social housing regulator Homes England, the Greater London Authority (GLA) and other local housing associations, including Black and Minority Ethnic, special needs housing associations and co-operatives. Investment in development is provided through our own borrowing, the GLA and through local authorities. ISHA leads the North River Alliance (NRA), which is a consortium of North and East London community-based housing associations.

We have a G1 Governance rating and V2 Financial Viability rating.

Equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) statement

We expect all ISHA’s staff, residents, and stakeholders to be treated equitably and with respect in their dealings with us.

We will be inclusive and reflect the rich and diverse communities we exist to serve.

We will work to earn the trust and confidence of staff, residents, and stakeholders that they can expect - from us and our contractors - respect, fairness, and equitable treatment.

ISHA has co-created an equality, diversity, and inclusion strategy for 2023-25 (running concurrent to the current strategic plan) and works within the framework of this as well as all current legislation and codes of practice.

Employee benefits

Contractual

29 days annual leave (plus bank holidays) rising to 31 days after five years’ service (pro-rata for part-timers). There are three compulsory office closure days between Christmas and New Year, which need to be taken from an employee’s annual leave entitlement.

Non-contractual

Pension
Defined Contribution as a salary sacrifice. Starting at employer (ER) contribution of 6% and 2% employee (EE), or match funded up to a maximum of 10% from ER and EE.

Emergency leave
Up to five days per annum for unexpected emergencies. Day one is paid on five occasions to allow employees time to make alternative arrangements.

Financial services
We joined with the London Credit Union that provides employees with fair, ethical, and affordable financial services. You can also access the home contents insurance negotiated for our residents.

Working flexibly
Up to three days working from home per week, if your role allows and with prior managerial approval. With monthly designated ‘all in’ days.

Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) offering emotional and practical support, advice for legal or financial matters, a manager support line and access to online self-help resources that can help you stay focused and protect your mental health and wellbeing. Support for continuous professional development: Everyone has a Personal Development Plan, and we offer opportunities to take qualifications, contributing partial funding and study leave. We also offer study loans repayable over 10 months.

Management Academy for managers
Ongoing professional development for all managers that supports ISHA to set minimum standards and helps us meet best practice as line managers. We are members of the Institute of Customer Service and other relevant bodies with access to training through them. We also support relevant professional subscriptions (with approval).

Social opportunities
As a small organisation, we meet regularly as a whole team, celebrate successes and share experiences.

Staff awards
Quarterly awards where colleagues nominate one another to express gratitude for great work. There are gift voucher prizes for individuals and a team award.

Health and wellbeing
A health cash plan to reclaim a percentage of the costs for a variety of health services, virtual GP appointments, second opinion diagnosis, online physio, shopping and gym membership discounts. We also offer eye care vouchers, cycle to work scheme, Interest Free Season Ticket Loan (these are all available post probation).

Access to our office

102 Blackstock Road, London, N 4 2DR (map below)

Parking

There is very limited parking in the Finsbury Park area, but ISHA can provide a parking permit to staff with a disability who can only commute via car. We have pool cars or staff can book parking spaces when transport is essential for their role.

Bicycle racks

Are available outside the back and front of the office.

Tube/underground

The nearest tube station is Finsbury Park on the Victoria and Piccadilly lines (10 minutes’ walk to our office).

Trains/overground

The nearest train station is Finsbury Park, with trains from Moorgate and King's Cross. London Overground operates a train from Stratford to Finsbury Park.

Buses

Many buses run between Finsbury Park station and our office: 4, 19, 106, 236. Other buses stop on Seven Sisters Road (7 minutes’ walk) 29, 253, 259, 279.

Physical layout and features

Reception and the Customer Services Team are located on the ground floor. All other departments are on the first and second floors. There is a lift that serves each floor.

Our office is wheelchair accessible, and there is a disabled toilet on every floor, and one at Reception. The height of some desks can be adjusted and would be suitable for wheelchair users or very tall people.

There are soft strip lights throughout with good natural light.  Some managers’ offices are further away from windows and rely more on artificial lighting, however, those offices have an air-cooling system to facilitate temperature control.

As the office is mainly open plan, noise level varies and can, at times, be high. Most employees sit in an open plan office area with colleagues, with computers and printers operating intermittently during the day.

There are audio loop systems in the main meeting room, the resident interview rooms and at Reception.