Communications Lead, Workplace Services

Job summary

The Government Property Agency is the largest property holder in government, with more than £2.1 billion in property assets and over 55% of the government’s office estate.

We are transforming the way the Civil Service works by creating great places to work, leading the largest commercial office programme in the UK, working towards halving carbon emissions from government offices, and achieving greater value for taxpayers. And we are looking for innovative, solutions-focused people to join our team.

Representing the best covenant in the UK – His Majesty’s Government – we are leading significant transformational programmes such as the Government Hubs Programme, Whitehall Campus Programme and Net Zero Programme. We are also delivering cost- effective property services such as asset management, lifecycle replacement and workplace services.

Innovation and progress underpin our behaviours. We foster a culture of lifelong learning, where curiosity and self-improvement are encouraged. Our four core values are at the heart of everything we do. They shape our culture and guide how we work, lead and grow together:

• Striving for excellence- We always aim to deliver great results
• Empowering through respect- We insist on fair treatment for all, always
• Acting with integrity- We consistently do the right thing
• Succeeding together- We rely on each other to achieve success

The GPA is committed to representing the communities we serve by making Diversity, Equality and Inclusion part of everything we do.

To ensure that we are always recruiting and retaining a diverse mix of talent, we are particularly inviting applications from candidates who are disabled, ethnically or gender diverse, and people who identify as being part of the LGBTQ+ community.

Join our dynamic and diverse team that leads with purpose, improving sustainability, nurturing social value, driving inclusivity and flexibility, and kickstarting economic growth. We are driven by purpose, and you can be part of it too: where you make a meaningful impact; where you influence; where your voice really matters; where you help to shape our future direction.

Job description

We have an exciting opportunity to join the corporate Marketing and Communications team at the Government Property Agency (GPA) as a dedicated Communications Lead for the Workplace Services directorate. This directorate is responsible for the government’s office portfolio, encompassing hard and soft facilities management (FM), health and safety, assurance, digital portfolio, Client Relationship management and workplace experience.

As the subject matter expert for Workplace Services within the central communications team, you will bridge the gap between corporate strategy and directorate-specific delivery. You will be the primary point of contact for the directorate, managing day-to-day BAU communications, including building incidents, service updates, and reactive issues, as well as Workplace Services team engagement comms. While the overarching strategy is set centrally, you will be responsible for creating and delivering the tactical communication plans to achieve it. This role requires a proactive self-starter who can switch between tasks quickly and effectively in a heavily reactive environment.

This is a new role in the team which offers you an exciting opportunity to shape the communications and engagement for the Directorate.

Key Responsibilities

Business partnering: Act as a primary communications point of contact for the Workplace Services directorate, working closely with Marketing and Communications colleagues to handle requests effectively. Be a subject matter expert for the directorate within the corporate Marketing and Communications team.

Supply chain engagement: Establish a communication framework to ensure the performance partners and supply chain remain aligned with GPA messaging standards.

Reactive and incident comms: Play a key role in managing incident communications by liaising with relevant stakeholders in the Directorate to draft reactive and incident communications, supported by the Head of Media or Head of Marketing and Digital where relevant, while also supporting post-incident and recovery activity. Design a process to ensure effective handling of incident communications, and create templates for initial announcements and periodic updates to impacted stakeholders.

Plan delivery: Develop and execute comprehensive, objective-led communication plans that are underpinned by the Workplace Services Communications Strategy.

Brand guardian: As part of the corporate Marketing and Communications team, you will be responsible for ensuring our brand is effectively applied to all marketing and communications activity within the Directorate.

Content creation: Produce compelling, high-quality content for various channels, including service updates, planned work notices, blogs, and newsletters.

Stakeholder management: Build and maintain relationships with diverse internal and external stakeholders, including the supply chain, civil servants and cross-government specialists.

Standardisation and quality control: Establish and manage a standardised process for all directorate-facing communications, ensuring 100% compliance with mandatory approval workflows and templates.

Event management: Plan and manage directorate-specific events, such as supplier engagement days and client briefings, from concept to delivery. Support the corporate communications team to deliver GPA-wide events, playing a key role in programme development and event delivery.

Person specification

• You have extensive experience in a communications role, specifically within Facilities Management (FM), Property, or a large-scale infrastructure environment.
• You have a proven track record of working in reactive or incident communications roles where you were responsible for managing messaging during service outages or building incidents.
• You are comfortable working in a matrix structure, reporting to a central functional lead while being embedded as a subject matter expert within a technical delivery team.
• You have experience acting as a trusted advisor to senior leaders (G7 to SCS level) and technical specialists, demonstrating the ability to translate complex service issues into clear, simple messaging.
• You are a solutions-focused individual capable of working autonomously with minimal supervision.
• You take pride in ensuring that every communication-related activity is accurate, brand-compliant, and timely.
• You are naturally service-focused, always viewing communications through the lens of the client and customer experience to support driving behaviour change and enhancing trust.
• You can effectively build relationships across a diverse supply chain and internal teams to create a strong network.

Experience & Technical Skills

Essential criteria:

• Industry expertise: Proven communications experience within Facilities Management (FM), Property, or a large-scale infrastructure environment is essential to understand the Directorate’s operating environment.
• Reactive communications: Demonstrated expertise in managing reactive communications and incident protocols under pressure.
• Content creation: Highly developed content creation and editing skills, including storytelling.
• Integrated communications planning: Experience in developing and delivering multi-channel communication plans for diverse audiences, meeting brand requirements.
• Stakeholder engagement: Ability to act as a trusted advisor to senior leaders, simplifying complex technical issues into clear, actionable messaging.
• Agility: A proven ability to work at pace and prioritise competing demands effectively.

Desirable criteria:

• Design: A good level of design skills within Adobe creative products.
• Content planning: Experience managing a content grid of multiple channels and audiences to ensure consistent activity.
• Government Communication Service: Experience working within a government communications role, delivering to government standards and requirements.
• Accessibility: A good understanding of accessible communications to deliver inclusive products.

Qualifications and Accreditations

Essential criteria:

• Proficiency in the Government Communication Service (GCS) core competencies at SEO level.
• A recognised qualification, or relevant level of experience, in a communications or marketing discipline, such as MCIM or Chart.PR MCIPR, or have the ability to work towards it.
• Must hold or be willing to undergo SC-level security clearance.

Desirable criteria:

• Membership of a professional communications-related body, such as CIPR or Chartered Institute of Marketing
• Membership of IWFM at MIWFM level or above.

You will need to meet the minimum UK residency period as determined by the level of security vetting being undertaken for the role, which for CTC is 3-years UK residency, SC is 5-years UK residency, and DV is 10-years UK residency.

If you have any questions about this residency requirement, please speak to the recruitment team prior to submitting your application.

Qualifications

Essential criteria:
Proficiency in the Government Communication Service (GCS) core competencies at SEO level.
A recognised qualification, or relevant level of experience, in a communications or marketing discipline, such as MCIM or Chart.PR MCIPR, or have the ability to work towards it.
Must hold or be willing to undergo SC-level security clearance.

Behaviours

We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process:

• Working Together
• Communicating and Influencing
• Delivering at Pace

Technical skills

We'll assess you against these technical skills during the selection process:

• Customer Perspective
• Commercial Acumen
• Property Market Knowledge
• Innovation

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £42,450, Government Property Agency contributes £12,297 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

• Learning and development tailored to your role
• An environment with flexible working options
• A culture encouraging inclusion and diversity
• A Civil Service pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

This vacancy is using Success Profiles (opens in a new window), and will assess your Behaviours, Strengths, Experience and Technical skills.

We encourage applications from people from all backgrounds and aim to have a workforce that represents the communities and wider society that we serve. We pride ourselves on being an employer of choice. We champion diversity, inclusion and well-being and aim to create a sense of belonging in a workplace where everyone feels valued. The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see the Civil Service People Plan and the Civil Service D&I Strategy.

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).

The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.

The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme (RIS) to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.

The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).

Please note - At this time GPA are unable to offer any Visa Sponsorship to candidates as we do not currently hold a visa sponsorship licence. Please do not apply for permanent roles with GPA if you will require your employer to take on the sponsorship of your current or any future visas.

Artificial Intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Sift

The sift is due to take place week commencing 10/04/2026.

As part of the application process, you will be asked to include a CV and a 750 personal statement.

The personal statement should then align with the person specification.

Interview

GPA policy is for interviews to be held face to face, with virtual interviews only by absolute exception. The date and location will be confirmed if you are invited to interview. If you feel this will be a problem for you, please contact recruitment@gpa.gov.uk to discuss prior to submitting your application.

At interview, applicants will be scored against 3 behaviours -Working together, Communicating and Influencing, and Delivering at Pace.

Interview questions will be a blend of Experience, Strength , Behaviours, Presentation and Technical (core skill) questions.

The candidates will be required to do short five-minute presentation at the start of the interview.

Further Information

A reserve list may be held for a period of 12 months from which further appointments can be made.

Any move to GPA from another employer will mean you can no longer access childcare vouchers. This includes moves between government departments. You may however be eligible for other government schemes, including Tax Free Childcare; for further information visit the Childcare Choices website.

Reasonable Adjustment

If a person with disabilities is put at a substantial disadvantage compared to a non-disabled person, we have a duty to make reasonable changes to our processes.

If you need a change to be made so that you can make your application, you should:

Contact Government Recruitment Service via gparecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk as soon as possible before the closing date to discuss your needs.

Complete the ‘Assistance required’ section in the ‘Additional requirements’ page of your application form to tell us what changes or help you might need further on in the recruitment process. For instance, you may need wheelchair access at interview, or if you’re deaf, a Language Service Professional.

If successful and transferring from another Government Department a criminal record check may be carried out.

In order to process applications without delay, we will be sending a Criminal Record Check to Disclosure and Barring Service on your behalf.

However, we recognise in exceptional circumstances some candidates will want to send their completed forms direct. If you will be doing this, please advise Government Recruitment Service of your intention by emailing Pre-EmploymentChecks.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk stating the job reference number in the subject heading.

Please note: In addition to the standard pre-employment checks for appointment into the Civil Service, all candidates must also obtain National Security Vetting at Security Check (SC) clearance level for this vacancy. You will normally need to meet the minimum UK residency period as determined by the level of vetting being undertaken, which for SC is 5 years UK residency prior to your vetting application. If you have any questions about this residency requirement, please speak to the vacancy holder for this post.

For further information on National Security Vetting please visit the Demystifying Vetting website.

New entrants are expected to join on the minimum of the pay band.

Applicants who are successful at interview will be, as part of pre-employment screening, subject to a check on the Internal Fraud Database (IFD). This check will provide information about employees who have been dismissed for fraud or dishonesty offences. This check also applies to employees who resign or otherwise leave before being dismissed for fraud or dishonesty had their employment continued. Any applicant’s details held on the IFD will be refused employment.

A candidate is not eligible to apply for a role within the Civil Service if the application is made within a 5 year period following a dismissal for carrying out internal fraud against government.

This role is full time only. Applicants who wish to work an alternative pattern are welcome to apply however your preferred working pattern may not be available and you should discuss this with the vacancy holder before applying.

If you are experiencing accessibility problems with any attachments on this advert, please contact the email address in the 'Contact point for applicants' section.

Feedback

Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment.

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.Successful candidates must meet the security requirements before they can be appointed. The level of security needed is security check (opens in a new window).

See our vetting charter (opens in a new window).People working with government assets must complete baseline personnel security standard (opens in new window) checks.

Nationality requirements

This job is broadly open to the following groups:

• UK nationals
• nationals of the Republic of Ireland
• nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) (opens in a new window)
• nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS)
• individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020
• Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service

Further information on nationality requirements (opens in a new window)

Working for the Civil Service

The Civil Service Code (opens in a new window) sets out the standards of behaviour expected of civil servants.

We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles (opens in a new window).The Civil Service embraces diversity and promotes equal opportunities. As such, we run a Disability Confident Scheme (DCS) for candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum selection criteria.The Civil Service also offers a Redeployment Interview Scheme to civil servants who are at risk of redundancy, and who meet the minimum requirements for the advertised vacancy.

Diversity and Inclusion

The Civil Service is committed to attract, retain and invest in talent wherever it is found. To learn more please see theCivil Service People Plan (opens in a new window) and the Civil Service Diversity and Inclusion Strategy (opens in a new window).

Apply and further information

This vacancy is part of the Great Place to Work for Veterans (opens in a new window) initiative.The Civil Service welcomes applications from people who have recently left prison or have an unspent conviction. Read more about prison leaver recruitment (opens in new window).Once this job has closed, the job advert will no longer be available. You may want to save a copy for your records.

Contact point for applicants

Job contact :

• Name : Judi Morris
• Email : judi.morris@gpa.gov.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : gparecruitment.grs@cabinetoffice.gov.uk

Further information

If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with the Recruitment Principles and you wish to make a complaint, in the first instance, you should contact HR@gpa.gov.uk
If you are not satisfied with the response you receive from the Department, you can contact the Civil Service Commission:
Click here to visit Civil Service Commission

Attachments

GPA Skills and Specialisms Opens in new window (pdf, 259kB)