Communications Executive

Communications Executive  

Date:  January 2021

Reports to: Head of Communications  

Part of:  IA Corporate Affairs team

Application (CV and covering letter) by Monday 25 January 2021

ABOUT THE INVESTMENT ASSOCATION

The IA champions UK investment management, supporting British savers, investors and businesses. Our 250 members manage £8.5 trillion of assets and the investment management industry supports 113,000 jobs across the UK.

Our mission is to make investment better. Better for clients, so they achieve their financial goals. Better for companies, so they get the capital they need to grow. And better for the economy, so everyone prospers.

Our purpose is to ensure investment managers are in the best possible position to:

• Build people’s resilience to financial adversity
• Help people achieve their financial aspirations
• Enable people to maintain a decent standard of living as they grow older
• Contribute to economic growth through the efficient allocation of capital.

The money our members manage is in a wide variety of investment vehicles including authorised investment funds, pension funds and stocks and shares ISAs.

The UK is the second largest investment management centre in the world, after the US and manages over a third (37%) of all assets managed in Europe.

ABOUT THE CORPORATE AFFAIRS TEAM

The IA’s Corporate Affairs team is led by the Corporate Affairs Director and is a hard-working, sociable and dynamic team. We have a strong mix of domestic and international backgrounds and speak 6 languages between us. The team encompasses a media relations team, a UK government affairs team and an EU affairs team. We have regular exposure with the CEO and interact regularly with the IA’s policy teams, as a big part of our role is shining a light on the expertise within the organisation which we turn into materials to use for advocacy or communications.

The team ethos is one of service - service to one another (we all muck in to help each other out); service to our IA colleagues (we help provide briefing materials for anything from media interviews, to meetings with senior stakeholders, to advising on messaging in policy documents) and most importantly, service to our members (everything we do ultimately must be of value to those we represent every day and a big emphasis culturally in the team is given to member satisfaction).

OVERVIEW OF THE ROLE 

We are looking for a proactive, organised, creative self-starter to fill role of Communications Executive and join a communications team focused on helping the industry better tell the story of what it does and why it matters to people.

The space in which our industry operates – such as corporate governance, delivering public services for an ageing population in an age of continued fiscal constraint, and how to get our nation saving for the long term - has never been more central to the public debate. This is an interesting time to be in this industry. Against this background, the Communications Executive will work closely with the Communications team to drive and implement the IA’s communications strategy, monitor and measure success of media campaigns, and help protect, promote and enhance the reputation of the investment management industry.

MAIN DUTIES

• Support the Communications team to implement a proactive communications strategy to promote the IA and the asset management industry in the media and with stakeholders; make the IA a ‘go to’ commentator on its issues of expertise.
• Support on day-to-day media relations, from handling press queries to preparing press releases and Q&As.
• Draft press plans for events and proactive stories.
• Analyse IA’s media coverage and produce reports and coverage analysis highlighting the team’s successes to share with the Board, IA colleagues, and member firms.  
• Actively monitor media coverage and identify journalists and stories that the IA could leverage. 
• Maintain IA’s media lists, update with any relevant role changes or new journalist appointments. 
• Produce the monthly ‘Nexus’ member newsletter.
• Maintain a calendar of upcoming relevant news events.
• Build and maintain strong relationships with trade press and proactively pitch stories to generate coverage for the IA.
• Build relationships with peers at IA member press teams across the IA membership.
• Manage the IA’s social media channels – LinkedIn and Twitter.
• Draft internal briefing materials in advance of meetings held by the IA CEO or senior ExCo colleagues with journalists.
• Provide an out of hours media duty service as part of a rota system within the press team.
• Work with Government Affairs colleagues in the Corporate Affairs team to ensure work is integrated across media and government relations and ensure consistency of messaging 

EXPERIENCE 

Required experience

• Experience of working in a media relations team in a PR agency, a political party, a government department, or a financial services firm press office with experience of:
  • strategic and tactical PR and media relations 
  • drafting press releases and Q&As  
  • social media and digital campaigns
  • preparing briefing materials for interviews
• Experience of generating proactive media stories delivering media coverage with a strong social media element.   
• First class written and verbal communications skills
• Strong organisational and project management skills

Desirable experience (but not essential)

• Knowledge of financial services and the sector’s regulatory environment in UK and/or EU.

Personal Attributes

• Excellent communicator: articulate and succinct, excellent command of written and spoken English.
• Creative and ideas-driven thinker.  
• Proactive, determined, enthusiastic and ‘can do’ attitude who takes the initiative and works well under pressure 
• ‘Service’ mentality –  taking pride in going above and beyond for team members, colleagues and especially members to deliver great and helpful service 
• Good political awareness and business judgement, and an interest in the business landscape, politics, government and media.  
• Strong people skills and ability to build relationships with journalists, colleagues and members. 
• Excellent time management skills, ability to juggle multiple tasks simultaneously and prioritise to deliver on time.

To apply for this opportunity, please send your CV and cover letter to [email protected] - If you have any questions about the role, please get in touch.