Working Pattern: Monday to Friday. 9am-5:30pm
Job Purpose:
The Internal Communications Manager supports the effective delivery of internal communications to all OCS colleagues, globally, although predominantly in UK & Ireland. The role is responsible for shaping and delivering communications that are clear, timely, relevant, and aligned with business priorities – while also strengthening connection, trust, and belonging across a dispersed and diverse workforce.
Reporting to the Group Chief Communications Officer, the Internal Communications Manager plays a vital role in helping OCS engage colleagues across all levels and functions – captivating and nurturing the hearts and minds of our colleagues.
This is both a strategic and delivery-focused position. It requires strong planning, content creation, channel management, analytics, and a deep understanding of how communication drives culture, connection, and performance. The role will focus on continuous improvement, insight-led decision making, and delivering practical, people-centred outcomes.
Key Responsibilities:
Internal Communications Strategy and Planning
- Develop and maintain a 12–to 18-month internal communications strategy aligned with business objectives.
- Plan proactive communications linked to leadership updates, campaigns, and operational changes.
- Build communication plans for business-wide initiatives, projects, and change programmes.
- Maintain a forward communications calendar, working with stakeholders to anticipate needs.
- Identify communication risks and opportunities early and prepare appropriate responses.
Internal Channels and Content Delivery
- Manage and continuously improve internal communications channels, including Viva Engage, SharePoint, email platforms, lock screen messaging and banners.
- Lead the bi-monthly Colleague Connect newsletter, from story sourcing through to layout and engagement reporting.
- Ensure consistency in tone, language and style across all internal content.t
- Develop accessible and inclusive content suitable for all roles, particularly operational and frontline colleagues.
Frontline and Manager Communications
- Tailor messages to the needs of frontline teams, shift workers and site-based colleagues.
- Provide toolkits, FAQs and clear communications guidance for operational and people managers.
- Support managers to cascade key messages effectively and consistently.
- Establish and maintain feedback channels and two-way communications mechanisms.
Change, Mobilisation and Integration Communications
- Lead internal communication during TUPE, acquisitions, contract mobilisations and structural change.
- Create messaging frameworks, Q&As, stakeholder updates, and briefings.
- Support post-change communications to help embed new ways of working.
- Collaborate with HR, mobilisation, and operational leads to ensure colleagues feel informed and supported.
Measurement, Reporting and Insights
- Own measurement of communications performance, including open rates, clicks, views, engagement, and sentiment
- Lead on the end-to-end delivery and analysis of the bi-annual colleague survey.
- Produce regular internal communications performance reports with actionable insight.
- Use feedback and data to inform planning and adjust delivery to improve outcomes.
- Track and report engagement trends to senior stakeholders, identifying gaps or issues early.
Campaigns and Engagement
- Deliver internal campaigns linked to wellbeing, safety, culture, values and inclusivity.
- Use colleague voice and real-world stories to strengthen the connection to the OCS purpose and values.
- Champion consistent tone, accessible language, and relevance across internal campaign materials
- Support colleague engagement initiatives and events through precise communication planning and content creation
Digital Tools and Innovation
- Use communication tools effectively to support planning, creation and delivery, including email campaign platforms, Microsoft Viva Engage, SharePoint and Office 365 (Teams, Word, PowerPoint, Excel)
- Use Grammarly or similar tools to support clarity and tone in written content. tent
- Apply generative AI tools (such as ChatGPT or Copilot) to support drafting, visual asset creation, message tailoring, and sentiment analysis.
- Stay informed on communications technology and innovation to improve reach, engagement, and quality.
Governance and Guidance
- Maintain transparent communications governance, including tone of voice, approvals, naming conventions, and publishing timelines.
- Support development of communication capability across teams by providing templates, guidance and coaching
- Ensure internal communications content adheres to OCS brand and accessibility standards.
- Work closely with the Group Chief Communications Officer and senior leaders on high-priority announcements and updates.
Person Specification:
The successful candidate will have:
- Strong experience in internal communications within a large, operational, or multi-site organisation.
- Experience developing and delivering internal communications strategies aligned to business and people outcomes.
- Experience leading internal communication for change, integration, or contract mobilisation.
- Proven writing and editing skills for different stakeholder groups, particularly frontline and operational teams.
- Highly experienced in using Microsoft Viva Engage, SharePoint, and Office 365 tools.
- Familiarity with email platforms such as Mailchimp or similar tools for campaign delivery.
- Experience using content-enhancing tools such as Grammarly to maintain tone and clarity.
- Understanding and practical use of generative AI tools for communication support.
- Ability to analyse communications data and use insights to improve planning and delivery.
- Strong stakeholder engagement and the ability to advise and influence across functions and seniority levels.
- Excellent planning, organisational and multitasking skills.
- An inclusive approach to communication that considers accessibility, representation, and colleague voice.
- A continuous learning mindset, with an ability to implement feedback and improvement at pace.
- Professional presence and the confidence to operate as a trusted advisor to senior leaders.