Role Summary
The Communications Officer has responsibility for creating compelling content for digital, print and media communications, that accurately reflects the Bliss brand and tone of voice.
This is a varied and interesting role working with teams across Bliss, with a particular focus on putting storytelling at the heart of our communications.
Terms
- 32-35 hours a week
- Salary: £30,000 FTE
- Permanent
- Hybrid (with minimum 2 days in Bliss Head Office, London SE1)
Role Details
This is an excellent opportunity for someone looking for a creative and varied role working across the mix of digital, print and media communications.
The ideal candidate will be able to demonstrate the following skills and experience:
- At least two years’ experience in a content, communications or media role
- Outstanding copywriting, proofreading and sub-editing skills, the ability to draft compelling content, and an aptitude for storytelling
- Understanding of the principles of brand development and management
- Excellent written and verbal communications skills, with the ability to engage effectively with people from a range of different backgrounds, tailoring your style to their needs
- Excellent organisational and prioritisation skills, a demonstrably methodical approach to work, and experience of project management
- Excellent IT skills, with experience of or aptitude to learn about use of website CMS
- Professional attitude and credibility among colleagues to advise and recommend based on expert knowledge
- Displays initiative and is committed to professional development.
For more details please view the job description and person specification attached to this advert.
About us
Bliss is the UK charity for babies born premature or sick. Our vision is that every baby born premature or sick in the UK has the best chance of survival and quality of life.
We champion the rights of every baby born premature or sick to receive the best care. We achieve this by empowering families, influencing policy and practice, and enabling life changing research.
Why Work for Bliss
If you work for Bliss, you’ll be part of a passionate, hardworking team who are making a real difference to the lives of babies born premature or sick.
Bliss has around 40 staff, most of whom are based in our lovely London Bridge office, with a small number of remote staff based in Scotland. All of our staff work flexibly, with everyone able to choose when to work their hours between 7am – 7pm Monday to Friday (working days are up to 8hrs long). This means we can provide lots of options for flexible working, such as annualised or compressed hours, as well as offering roles on a job-share basis.
We really value in-person interactions, so hybrid working means staff work in the office for two days per week but can choose to work wherever they like for the rest of their hours. Staff are supported to work even more flexibly over the summer and are also able to choose two weeks per year when they work fully remotely, if they would like to.
We are an equal opportunities employer and take pride in our inclusive work culture. We are committed to being inclusive in our recruitment practices and in our ways of working to ensure we recruit and retain a diverse workforce. Having a diverse workforce is important to us, to ensure we can best represent and serve all babies born premature or sick every year. We recognise that babies born into families already facing health inequalities may need more, or different, support in order to have the best chance of survival and quality of life so there is a particular focus in our strategy on driving for equity in neonatal care. We are determined to become even more inclusive and diverse in the future.
Our staff truly embody our values of being supportive, trusted and ambitious. In 2023 we asked staff what makes Bliss unique to work for, and staff said: “the supportive culture, people care about their work and genuinely want to do their best” and “we seem to have a great skill in employing lovely ambitious people. I think it's rare to work somewhere with such a friendly and supportive culture where people genuinely care and go out of their way to collaborate and to support one another”. 95% of staff said that Bliss was a good place to work and 95% said Bliss has an inclusive environment where all staff are welcomed, valued, and respected.
Working at Bliss also means you’ll leave work every day knowing that you make a difference. We take opportunities to share each other’s successes, and we are totally focussed on understanding the needs of our beneficiaries and seeking to address them. We share our findings regularly with each other, so that we all feel connected to the cause and see the direct impact we are having.
Working for a relatively small charity, you will get a real chance to shape the agenda and be able to take ownership of a project or task. We can also provide lots of opportunity to work with different teams and on project and working groups, so you’ll never be bored!
We understand that we all have different priorities at home and we aim to offer a mix of financial and non-financial benefits. Our ‘better than statutory’ benefits include:
- 34 days paid holiday (pro rata for part-time employees) including bank holidays which can be taken whenever desired [26 days of holiday plus 8 days of bank holiday]
- Additional one-off week holiday granted as a 5 years’ service award
- Generous contributory pension scheme
- Interest-free, tax-efficient season ticket and cycle loans
- Enhanced company sick pay
- Enhanced family leave pay (after minimum service)
- Neonatal leave and pay
- Paid time off for volunteering
- Paid Emergency and Dependents leave.
We have a relaxed work-life and dress code, offer free access to an employee assistance programme and ensure a genuine focus on ongoing learning and development for all staff, with dedicated L&D time and paid leave for personal L&D activities. Our staff are friendly and kind, and enjoy social activities together in and outside of working hours.
We are proud to be a London Living Wage employer, and have signed up to the Show the Salary pledge.
Accessibility Statement
Bliss is committed to recruiting employees who reflect the diverse community we serve.
We know that in order to recruit the most talented people, we need to access a wide pool of talent, and this means being as inclusive as possible in how we recruit, support and retain our staff.
Bliss recognises the positive value of diversity, promotes equity and challenges discrimination. We welcome and encourage job applications from people of all backgrounds, including applications from Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority communities, people who identify as having a disability, and LGB+, Trans and non-binary candidates.
Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown that women and people of colour are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Bliss we are dedicated to building a diverse, inclusive and authentic workplace, so if you’re excited about this role, but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every aspect of the job description, we encourage you to apply to tell us what you can offer our organisation. You could be just the right candidate for this or other roles.
Some examples of our accessibility provisions for the recruitment process include:
- Step free access to the building, all key meeting rooms and bathrooms, and an accessible workstation
- Application pack in large / easy read format
- Additional time for interview tasks
- Private space for additional needs (e.g. prayer / breastmilk expression)
- Pre-interview meeting to talk through the role and person specification.
If you need any adjustments to enable you to access this job information, or the application process, please let us know.
How to apply
Interested applicants are requested to submit the following documents to recruitment@bliss.org.uk
- Your CV (please ensure this does not include your age, gender or any other personal characteristics)
- Supporting statement explaining how you meet the criteria in the person specification. This should address the essential points of the person specification and is expected to be no more than 1000-1500 words long
This information is used when shortlisting candidates for interview
Please ALSO submit an Equal Opportunities Form (submit by clicking the link). This will not be used when shortlisting candidates, and is anonymous, but helps us monitor and improve our recruitment practices.
It is Bliss’ policy not to contact applicants who have not been invited for an interview so if you have not heard from us three weeks after the closing deadline, you should assume that your application has been unsuccessful.
Recruitment Timeline
- The deadline for applications is 9am on Thursday 9 May.
- First round interviews will be held virtually (via zoom) with second interviews in person at our London Bridge office.
