Communications Team Leader

A
Communications Team Leader
position has become available in Team Marketing at ENS. This position reports directly to the
Marketing Manager.
The successful candidate will be working very closely with the Marketing Manager and COO.

The successful candidate will be required to contribute to the development and execution of the marketing strategy by identifying communication opportunities and leading strategic communications projects. Oversee the communications team, The successful incumbent will be responsible for both the corporate and external communication of the firm.

The corporate communications focus will be to inform, provide feedback and generate buy-in around all firm strategic initiatives and to ensure our people are constantly updated and appraised in terms of the happenings across the firm as well as any specific targeted announcements, as and when required by the firm's leadership.

Their external communications role will be to substantially increase and main the profile of the firm predominantly through countrywide, Africa-wide and international media coverage, and also through client communications. This will involve constantly staying aligned with the strategic goals of and developments within the firm (and translating them into media coverage) on the one hand and keeping up to date with media structures and the news (and formulating/facilitating our response thereto) on the other hand. Include social media and sponsored publications.

Key Responsibilities:

Media / Public Relations:

• Identify opportunities for commentary (media monitoring, social listening and other stakeholders)
• Developing and maintaining media relationships
• Pitching to the media (topics & practitioners) using press releases and media motivations
• Media training for practitioners
• Pulling targeted media lists for events
• Coordinating content submissions and interviews
• Developing media plans to support MKT campaigns
• Determining placement of sponsored content

Crisis communications:

• Develop and coordinate the firm's crisis comms procedure

Monitor developing stories and problematic narratives (media monitoring, social listening and other stakeholders)

Content Marketing:

• Comms support to MKT campaigns across all channels (i.e. Mining Indaba, Budget Speech) leveraging multimedia channels (audio, video, image and text)
• Actively seeking out opportunities; strategic/topic-led (i.e. tourism sector, PE, ESG) and collaborations (i.e. growing business analysts, referrals team)
• Support to door-knocking activities (i.e. topics/ themes that'll make the firm look slicker and coordinated)
• Communication around Rankings & Awards

Publications:

• Overseeing sponsored publications and the content calendar to leverage
• Seeking out sponsorship opportunities that will help us access new markets/ clients (i.e. Brainstorm Magazine, Cliff Central)
• Very NB: Copy development of specialised publications and reports (i.e. Insurance construction report)

Corporate communications:

• CE comms (i.e., promotions, awards and rankings)
• Internal comms campaigns (i.e. POPIA awareness) leveraging available channels (i.e. screensavers, Ecards/ desk drops and posters)
• ENSide (i.e. content development & management, channel for internal campaigns)

Leading and managing:

• Lead, manage, and develop the Communications Team ensuring a high level of performance and engagement through coaching, support, and on-the-job exposure.
• Oversee team responsibilities across Communications.
• Establish clear goals and performance indicators for the talent team, regularly providing coaching, feedback, and development opportunities.
• Foster a collaborative and inclusive work environment where team members feel empowered to contribute to business outcomes.

Quality Control:

• Ensuring quality and consistency of messaging and harmonisation (client, media, social media, internal)
• Ensuring all campaigns have performance metrics (i.e. impressions, engagement & track-ability)
• Training

Social media:

• Insights writing
• Media training
• Recorded and live appearances

Requirements:

• Bachelor's degree in law, marketing/communications, and/or journalism
• At least 10 years' work experience
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills in English
• Driven, dynamic and highly motivated
• Strategic thinker who is able to achieve goals through practical application
• Able to adapt quickly and easily to changes in focus and direction as the firm expands
• Able to run with a number of projects simultaneously
• Understands urgency and enjoys working under pressure
• Good at providing feedback
• Well-read and with a wide reference frame

Personal attributes:

• A hands-on approach
• Strong attention to detail
• Analytical ability
• Proactivity and initiative
• Emotionally resilient
• Problem solving ability
• High level of interpersonal skills and the ability to interact at all levels
• High levels of tact and discretion to deal with sensitive and often confidential situations/matters

This position often has to deal with difficult judgement calls, last minute changes, unreasonable deadlines, frustrated clients and extremely high levels of ongoing pressure and long hours.

It is also essential that the successful incumbent is able to be flexible, understands urgency, knows when to escalate problems, is willing to communicate with the Marketing Manager (e.g. knowing when to seek guidance and when to check if something does not turn out as planned/takes longer than anticipated); and is willing to give ongoing and regular feedback to clients with regards to status and decisions taken relating to all activities, tasks and projects.

ENS is committed to transformation and achieving equity in its workplaces. Placement of a suitably qualified and skilled candidate will therefore be made in line with our Employment Equity objectives.