Role Purpose
The Senior Communications Business Partner leads the development and implementation of integrated communication strategies and tactical plans to support key projects and initiatives. The incumbent is responsible for providing quality advice and support to internal stakeholders regarding effective communications; including content, timing, presentation, speech, and choosing the right medium for the message.
Role Responsibilities
- Partner with senior leaders and business areas to provide high quality, authoritative and contemporary strategic communications advice that supports organisational priorities, initiatives and change initiatives.
- Develop and deliver best practice communication strategies and plans that align with business objectives, stakeholder needs and organisational priorities.
- Build trusted relationships across the organisation to identify communication opportunities, manage issues and support effective stakeholder engagement.
- Lead the development of clear, high-quality communication materials, including key messages, briefs, content and stakeholder communications.
- Coordinate communication activity across teams and channels, providing advice on risks, issues and opportunities to support consistent and effective delivery.
- Work effectively under pressure, manage competing priorities and adapt to changing business needs while maintaining the quality and timeliness of output.
- This role may require work outside standard business hours during peak operational periods to meet business requirements.
Capabilities
Personal Attributes
- Flexibility and Adaptability: Adapts systems and processes quickly to changed priorities and situations.
- Working Collaboratively: Guides others to create a culture of collaboration. Identifies and works to overcome barriers to knowledge or information sharing. Identifies opportunities to work with other teams to deliver outcomes.
Meaningful Outcomes
- Innovation and Continuous Improvement: Uses understanding of stakeholder's context to design and implement systems for continuous improvement within the department. Reviews and analyses internal and external information to improve effectiveness and quality of work. Creates team environments where innovation and creativity are fostered and rewarded.
- Future Focus: Understands the broader context when reviewing an issue or problem and supports others to do so.
Enabling Delivery
- Critical Thinking and Problem Solving: Considers the wider departmental context when assessing options to resolve issues. Identifies recurring problems and prevents future recurrence by integrating solutions into work process. Delivers tangible business outcomes, as a result of critically evaluating problems from multiple perspectives and delivering effective solutions.
Authentic Relationships
- Stakeholder Management: Identifies issues in common for one or more stakeholders and uses them to build mutually beneficial partnerships. Identifies and responds to stakeholders underlying needs. Uses understanding of the stakeholders departmental context to ensure outcomes are achieved.
- Influence and Persuasion: Gains agreement on proposals and ideas and builds behind the scenes support for ideas, to ensure buy-in and ownership. Uses chains of indirect influence to achieve outcomes and involves experts to strengthen a business case.
- Communication: Initiates and maintains relationships with peers and senior internal/external stakeholders. Relies on formal and informal communication channels to achieve goals and engages stakeholders to help them identify opportunities for improvement. Manages consultation processes, including engagement with key stakeholders.
People Leadership
- Managing People: Holds self and team accountable to public sector values and agreed performance standards. Supports achievement of outcomes, by anticipating and resolving issues. Establishes and implements actions to increase level of people engagement. Creates opportunities for recognising performance.
- Develop Capability: Improves others' skills and talents by providing knowledge, constructive feedback, coaching and learning opportunities. Consistently develops team capability and recognises and develops potential in others.
Key Selection Criteria
Generic Criteria:
Criteria 1: Demonstrates the 'Victorian Public Sector Values' of Responsiveness, Integrity, Impartiality, Accountability, Respect, Leadership and Human Rights.
Position Specific Criteria:
Criteria 2: `Stakeholder Management' - please see the Capabilities section above for more detail.
Criteria 3: `Innovation and Continuous Improvement' - please see the Capabilities section above for more detail.
Criteria 4: `Communication' - please see the Capabilities section above for more detail.
Qualifications & Experience:
- A relevant tertiary qualification in communications, public relations, journalism, marketing or a related discipline and/or equivalent experience is mandatory.
- Demonstrated experience in strategic communications, stakeholder engagement and business partnering in a government, public sector or similarly complex organisation is mandatory.
- Demonstrated experience providing communications advice to senior leaders and partnering with business areas to deliver communication strategies, plans and materials across a range of channels is mandatory.
How to Apply
Applicants are encouraged to include a Curriculum Vitae and a Cover letter addressing the key selection criteria provided in the advertisement. Kindly upload all required documents in a single file, ensuring the file name is short and contains no special characters.
For further information pertaining to the role, please contact Dave Sheridan on 0403 382 155 or [email protected].
Organisational Values
The incumbent shall carry out duties in accordance with legislation and governance requirements, policies and procedures, safety principles, code of conduct for Victorian public sector employees, and Victorian Public Sector Values. The VCAA employees commit to upholding the public sector values: Responsiveness, Integrity, Impartiality, Accountability, Respect, Leadership and Human Rights. Information on the VCAA values is available at: https://www.vpsc.vic.gov.au/ethics-behaviours-culture/public-sector-values/.
We are committed to the principles of equal opportunity, and diversity and inclusion for all. We value diversity and inclusion in all forms - gender, religion, ethnicity, LGBTIQ+, disability and neurodiversity. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander candidates are strongly encouraged to apply for roles within the VCAA. The VCAA recognises that the provision of family friendly, supportive, safe and harassment free workplaces is essential to high performance and promotes flexible work, diversity and safety across all our workplaces. It is our policy to provide reasonable adjustments for persons with a disability.
Child Safe Standards:
The VCAA actively promote the safety and wellbeing of students, and all VCAA staff are committed to protecting students from abuse or harm in the school and corporate environment, in accordance with their legal obligations including child safe standards. VCAA Child Safe Policy & VCAA Child Safe Code.
Location Profile
The VCAA is a statutory body responsible to the Victorian Minister for Education, serving both government and non-government schools. We provide high quality curriculum, assessment and reporting for all Victorian students birth to 18 years.
An exciting opportunity exists to join the Strategic Communications and Content Unit for a fixed-term full-time position.
- Salary: $121,249 - $132,763 p.a. (Plus Superannuation of 12%)
- Fixed Term until 16 April 2027
- Usual hours of work: Full time (Some out of hours and on call work may be required. Flexible work conditions may be available)
- Usual work location: 200 Victoria Parade, East Melbourne
The Strategic Communications and Content Unit is a multidisciplinary team that manages communications strategy, channels and media. It operates as a business partnering model to provide support to the other divisions through high quality, authoritative and contemporary strategic communications advice and materials.
The Unit ensures a `One VCAA' approach to positioning the organisation and achieve its vision, mission and strategic objectives, embedding the strategic narrative in every communication and partner with VCAA divisions to build communications plans that support strategic outcomes.
Conditions of Appointment
The following conditions of appointment apply for all roles. Applicants will be asked to confirm these requirements in their application and complete a declaration following an offer of appointment.
- The incumbent must declare any close relationships or associations with a student or teacher - such as a spouse/partner, sibling, child, grandchild, or niece/nephew - who is either teaching the study or enrolled as a VCE and/or VET student during the year of the incumbent's employment.
- The incumbent must declare any association with any textbooks, study guides or other student resource materials that are in general use in schools or TAFE in the relevant VCE study area if applicable.
- The incumbent must not have accepted a voluntary resignation or career transition package, e.g. Voluntary Departure Package (VDP), Voluntary Separation Package (VSP), Resignation Incentive Scheme (RIS) from a Victorian Government agency or department within the last three years.
- The incumbent can expect to be allocated duties, not specifically mentioned in this document, but within the capacity, qualifications and experience normally expected from persons occupying positions at this level.
- All employees of the VCAA are required to have a current and satisfactory Department of Education run National Criminal History Records Check (DE NCHRC) or current Victorian Institute of Teaching (VIT) registration before they commence working with the VCAA. If you have an employment limitation with the DE, you will need to advise HR VCAA immediately via email: [email protected].
- A probationary period will apply during the first year of employment and induction and support programs provided.
- Detailed information on all terms and conditions of employment is available on the VCAA's Human Resources website at Letter of Offer of Employment - Terms and Conditions