Sanctuary is one of the UK's leading providers of housing, care and community services. With around13,000 employees, we maintain a culture where diversity is valued and talent is nurtured and rewarded.
Head of Customer Communications
Base office location may vary dependent upon suitable candidate - balance of home and office working - Frequent travel will be required
£76,210 - £88,244 per year plus company car or car allowance
35 hours per week - Monday to Friday
Sanctuary, one of the largest providers of affordable housing and care in the UK, is seeking an exceptional communications professional to lead and evolve our customer and employee communications in our housing association business.
This new role is an opportunity to work for a not-for-profit organisation driven by social purpose at a time when social housing has never been more important.
You will be responsible for Sanctuary's communications to social housing tenants, shared owners and leaseholders; ensuring they are cohesive, accessible and deliver an enhanced customer experience that aligns with our values and strategic objectives.
A champion of creativity and collaboration, you will devise and deliver a customer communications strategy that will find new ways to reach and engage a quarter of a million customers across England and Scotland, including maximising the opportunities our recent investment in new customer technology brings.
Alongside customer communications, you will engage and inspire 3,000 colleagues through a compelling internal communications strategy, supporting high-performance and business transformation among a diverse set of geographically spread teams.
Reporting into the Director of Communications, you will be a senior leader within the performance-driven Communications function, managing a team of four communications professionals. Working closely with customers, operational teams and leaders, you will ensure communications activity supports operational objectives, meets regulatory expectations and aligns with wider group strategy.
You will have experience of delivering creative and measurable customer communications within social housing or at a similar large, complex organisation, ideally in a regulated sector. You can navigate complex organisations and build stakeholder relationships at all levels.
This is a hybrid role and the office base for the role is flexible - including options in London, Glasgow, Manchester, Worcester, Hull, Basildon. Regular travel to Sanctuary's Head Office in Worcester as well as locations across England and Scotland will be required.
There will be a two-stage recruitment process with both stages taking place in-person at Sanctuary's Head Office in Worcester. The dates for interviews are:
• Stage one - 3 and 4 June
• Stage two - 12 June AM
The role of Head of Customer Communications will include:
* Devising and leading the delivery of the customer communications strategy for Sanctuary's social housing customers, ensuring communications are cohesive, accessible and drive a positive customer experience
* Devising and leading the internal communications strategy for colleagues in Sanctuary's housing and property teams, driving engagement and high performance in the business area
* Acting as a senior adviser on reputation, communications and the external environment to the leadership team in Sanctuary's housing and property business area
* Supporting the Director of Communications in the delivery of the Group's communications strategy, providing leadership across all areas of communications and contributing to the high performance of the Communications team
* Supporting and influencing colleagues of all levels across the Group to ensure Sanctuary's communications are strategic, rooted in evidence, effectively evaluated and achieve their aim.
* Managing a small team to deliver high quality work that supports Sanctuary's Communications strategy
Skills and experiences:
* A passion for customers and delivering excellence, with proven experience in customer communications
* Recent experience in customer communications in a similar role in social housing; or a large, complex organisation; or an organisation in a regulated sector
* Strong influencing skills and ability to build relationships and collaborate at all levels
* An understanding how to engage an operational and dispersed workforce
* Confidence working at pace and managing priorities in a dynamic business
* A degree, management qualification or relevant professional qualification
* Excellent written and spoken English
* A full, current driving licence
* Membership of a professional body, and ideally CIPR Chartered Practitioner or CIM Chartered Marketer
* Comprehensive knowledge of current relevant legislation (e.g. data protection) and best practice communications principles
Why work for us?
One of the UK's leading providers of housing, care and commercial services, Sanctuary employs more than 14,000 people and manages over 116,000 units of accommodation throughout England and Scotland, including general rented, retirement living, supported housing, student and key worker accommodation and care homes. Sanctuary also provides a range of other services including maintenance, care and telecare, all of which are delivered by our dedicated employees who are completely committed to customer service.
Our Benefits
As part of our commitment to making Sanctuary a great place to work, where your wellbeing is of genuine importance, we have developed an attractive employment package. The package recognises your contribution, supports your physical, mental and financial health and gives you the flexibility to tailor your employee benefits by offering:
* 25 days annual leave (rising to a maximum of 30 days) plus public holidays
* A pension scheme with matching employer contributions from Sanctuary up to set limits
* Life Assurance
* Employee Volunteering scheme
* Employee Advice Service including counselling
* Cycle to Work scheme
* Voluntary health plans
* Employee discounts
* Wellbeing support and tools
* Employee recognition scheme
* Employee platform to access your reward and wellbeing package online, find exclusive discounts, wellbeing resources and recognition tools
* Employee Networks, with a shared interest in inclusion, and who provide invaluable support to colleagues
Role Salary is dependent on successful candidate's home location/ local office base as below:
* London area - £83,832.00 per annum (rising to £88,244.16) after 12 months service and subject to satisfactory performance)
* Elsewhere in the UK - £76,210.80 per annum (rising to £80,221.94 after 12 months service and subject to satisfactory performance)
View the job profile (if the link is unavailable please visit the Sanctuary careers website)
Closing Date: 20 May 2025
If you're unsure about any details, have questions about the role or want to discuss a need for adjustments, our fantastic talent team will be happy to help you -corporate.recruitment@sanctuary.co.uk
We reserve the right depending on application numbers to close or extend the closing dates for positions; we would therefore recommend an early application.
View more detail about what it's like to work for our organisation, and what we offer on our Sanctuary careers pages at - www.sanctuary.co.uk/join-our-team
Inclusion is one of our core values. Our goal is to be a diverse, inclusive organisation where our people thrive and meet our customers' needs with fairness and empathy. We know having a range of ideas and opinions makes a difference. We encourage and welcome applications from people from diverse backgrounds to support this mission. We will make adjustments throughout your application process, in line with Sanctuary's commitment to our Disability Confident employer status.
Building Equality and Diversity
Sanctuary Group encourages and welcomes applications from people from diverse backgrounds to support our commitment to offering an inclusive environment for our employees and customers.
We work closely with the Home Office in order to prevent unlawful working.
Sanctuary Group is a trading name of Sanctuary Housing Association, an exempt charity.