Internal Engagement Officer

Job summary

What you’ll do…

Forestry England’s national Internal Engagement Team of six communications experts sits within the wider engagement function. We work across the whole country to ensure our staff are well-informed and engaged in Forestry England’s purpose. As well as important corporate information and supporting our staff to remain safe and well, we also share success and help to build a sense of pride and belonging.

You'll be the team’s go-to technical expert for Forestry England's intranet and other digital internal channels. This means you'll handle any day-to-day technical requirements while helping shape how we engage with our people. You'll know your way around the tech, but you'll also work closely with the wider team to make sure our internal engagement works well for everyone.

The team manages Forestry England's internal engagement across multiple channels for our geographically spread-out organisation of around 1,500 staff. Our Wordpress intranet is our number one internal channel – in 2024-25, it had 3.1 million page views, with 152 news stories, 135 blogs and 438 notices published that year.

Where you’ll work…

You'll mainly be based from our Bristol office or at one of our Forestry England offices across the country, with blended working options available. You'll need to travel to our national office in Bristol at least once a month, with occasional travel to other parts of England with plenty of notice.

Job description

Keeping the tech running and developing it

• You'll be a go-to person for our intranet and other internal digital channels. That means helping people across Forestry England get the most out of the platform, sorting out any technical issues, and working with our supplier on improvements and developments. You'll train new users, keep guidance
  up to date, and provide ongoing support when people need it. You'll also handle the technical side of webinars, such as simple editing, managing transcripts and getting videos published afterwards.

Planning and editing content

• You'll manage content planning for the intranet, making sure content is scheduled and the workflow runs smoothly. You'll review, approve and publish page updates from across the business, checking they follow our editorial and brand guidelines. You'll occasionally work on wider intranet content, such as news and blogs as and when required.

Supporting the team and the organisation

• You’ll work with our team admin officer to manage incoming requests in our team mailbox, making sure things get to the right people quickly. You'll support internal engagement activities that help us meet our organisational goals, including helping with national staff briefings.

Working with others

• You'll collaborate with the Internal Engagement Team to support the delivery of effective communications and engagement campaigns across different channels.
• You'll share knowledge, help colleagues with technical questions, and collaborate with the Forest Services' and Forest Research Internal Engagement teams on content planning and alignment.
• You'll work closely with teams like Knowledge and Information Management (KIM) and IT. You'll collaborate with these teams on internal engagement planning, and reviews and improvements, including looking at our channels and testing new technology. You’ll step in for the Internal Engagement Manager at project meetings at their request and let the team know what’s discussed.

And any other tasks, reasonably requested by your line manager

Person specification

Essential professional and technical experience

• Experience managing content management systems or intranets – you should know how to troubleshoot problems and support users. Experience of Wordpress sites would be a plus.
• A communications professional with strong editing skills – you can review, edit and publish content to a professional standard, applying our house style.
• Experience planning content and managing workflows.
• Great organisational skills – you can juggle multiple things and meet deadlines.
• Strong communication skills – you can explain technical things in ways non-technical people understand.
• Experience of video editing and basic photo editing.
• Confident in using Microsoft 365 applications to carry out your work.
• An excellent knowledge of SharePoint and how it can be used to support the business with internal engagement and collaboration.
• Experience working as part of a communications team.
• Competent at using AI tools and an understanding of how they can support yours and others’ work.
• The ability to work independently within guidelines, knowing when to ask for help.
• Good IT skills and confidence picking up new digital tools.
• Substantial relevant experience showing you have the knowledge and skills for this role.

Desirable professional and technical experience

• Internal engagement experience
• Knowledge of accessibility requirements for digital content
• Experience supporting face to face and digital events such as webinars
• Experience working with external suppliers or agencies
• Understanding of communications principles and best practice
• Experience using WordPress
• Awareness of the Government Communications Service (GCS) standards and ways of working.

Qualifications

Essential

• A BTEC (HN) or 2 A levels or equivalent

Desirable

• A relevant communications or marketing qualification

Behaviours

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

• Changing and Improving
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing

Technical skills

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

• he interview will include a skills exercise which you do not need to prepare in advance for.

Benefits

Alongside your salary of £33,854, Forestry Commission contributes £9,807 towards you being a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension scheme. Find out what benefits a Civil Service Pension provides.

Benefits…

Alongside your salary, Forestry England contributes an average of 28.97% towards your pension. You will become a member of the Civil Service Defined Benefit Pension Scheme.

• 25 days holiday a year, raising by one day every year’s service, up to 30 days (pro-rated for part time employees) plus additional days off such as bank holidays.
• STaR is our employee benefits scheme offering discounts on everyday supermarket shopping, as well as other things such as hotel stays clothes, mobile phones, other electrical items, medical and car insurance, holidays, gym discounts, household bills, Headspace wellbeing app.
• free parking at Forestry England sites and free entry to our National Arboretums at Westonbirt and Bedgebury.
• a commitment to lifelong learning through career development. Forestry England will support your career development in a variety of ways, including continual professional development, support for individual learning plans and sponsored membership of professional bodies.

Read more about the benefits on the Forestry England website.

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.

How to apply…

You will be asked to write a 200 word statement on your relevant experience and career history, along with a personal statement of no more than 500 words. You will be assessed on both during sifting. More details about how to apply are listed on the application form.

You will be assessed on a technical skill and strengths and experience based questions during your interview.

The Behaviours being assessed at interview are –

• Changing and Improving
• Working Together
• Delivering at Pace
• Communicating and Influencing

The interview will include a skills exercise which you do not need to prepare in advance for.

Successful candidates will undergo a criminal record check and the government baseline personnel security standard check.

If you require any reasonable adjustments, please email fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk.

If you're planning to use AI to support your application, please ensure you've read our guidelines here first.

Read more about our application process and working with us on the Forestry England website.

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

Security

Successful candidates must undergo a criminal record check.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 : FC Recruitment Team
• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

Recruitment team

• Email : fcrecruitmentteam@forestryengland.uk

Further information

Our recruitment process is underpinned by the principle of appointment on the basis of fair and open competition and appointment on merit, as outlined in the Civil Service Commissioners’ Recruitment Principles.If you feel your application has not been treated in accordance with these principles and you wish to make a complaint, you should in the first instance contact FCE by email: englandhr.services@forestryengland.uk. If you are not satisfied with the response you receive, you can contact the Civil Service Commission, which regulates all Civil Service recruitment.

Attachments

Forestry England Job Description - Internal Engagement Officer (PB5) (1) Opens in new window (pdf, 137kB)