Programme Officer – East Midlands

CITIZENS UK
Important Information:

• We allow flexible working, including the option for compressed hours. We can accept applications to work 4 days/week if preferred.
• The role will require some travel throughout the East Midlands region, and occasional travel to London. All travel expenses are covered. We strongly encourage applications from people based in the East Midlands, although this is not an essential requirement of the role.
• If you have questions about the role, please contact us. Please note that the office is shut from 20th December – 6th January.
• Interviews are scheduled to take place between 13 – 15th January.

About the Citizens UK and Living Wage Foundation

The Living Wage Foundation (LWF) was launched in 2011 to tackle in-work poverty. We encourage and celebrate employers that pay the real Living Wage- calculated according to the cost of living – through an accreditation programme. We have additional schemes which address other aspects of in-work poverty, such as insecure contracts and pensions. We also run local and national campaigns to promote the Living Wage in different sectors and regions. There is more information on our website: What do we do?

The Living Wage Foundation is one of several projects run by charity Citizens UK – the home of community organising. Citizens UK train and coordinate civil society leaders to work on the issues that matter to them.

Our culture is driven by our six organisational values: Solidarity, Kindness, Courage, Integrity, Inclusion, and Relational. You can read more here.

Please note, at the Living Wage Foundation, we take a deliberately broad-based approach and accredit all organisations who pay the real Living Wage to their directly and indirectly employed staff and are committed to tackling in work poverty. As a team we work across a range of industries and sectors to achieve this mission. We seek pragmatic coalitions in order to progress specific campaigns, and partnership around a particular issue such as Living Wage, does not imply an endorsement of broader purpose and policies.

Summary of Role

We are looking for highly motivated and organised individual to deliver our accreditation scheme. The role will work with our network of employers, and support new organisations through the accreditation process.

Responsibilities may change over time, but at present your day-to-day activities will include:

• Growing the Living Wage movement in the East Midlands. You will have remote support from a Senior Manager.
• Provide administrative support to a Programme Manager in an additional region (currently East London).
• Support one of our additional projects or schemes (such as our Recognised Service Providers, Living Hours, Living Pensions, Global Living Wage or Living Wage Funders)
• Additional responsibilities, such as: Working closely with colleagues across the Living Wage Foundation and Citizens UK, develop resources, facilitate meetings, coordinate events, represent LWF externally, contribute to our strategy, develop our policy, and prioritise your training and personal development.

Main Responsibilities

Living Wage Accreditation:

• Support potential Living Wage Employers through the accreditation process, from dealing with initial enquiries to checking and processing their accreditation.
• Deliver a high-quality experience to accredited employers in your region and build strong relationships. Encourage employers to be advocates and engage with our additional schemes and campaigns.
• With help from the wider team, develop plans and build strategic relationships to grow the number of accreditations in your region.
• Review and monitor Living Wage policy issues and communicate these through internal and external facing guidance.

Project Support:

• Provide support to projects which grow Living Wage accreditations and improve the quality of service offered.
• Engage with a diverse range of internal and external stakeholders to further project goals
• Support the growth and development of new and existing Living Wage schemes such as Recognised Service Providers, Living Wage Funders, Living Wage Places, Living Hours, Global Living Wage.

Administration:

• Respond to telephone and web-based enquiries by providing advice and guidance to employers and supporters.
• Provide administrative support for all aspects of the accreditation journey.
• Manage and keep information up to date on our administrative systems, including the Salesforce database of employers.
• Support the maintenance of our systems to ensure efficient processes
• Develop reports to enable effective monitoring and evaluation of our impact and progress against plans.
• Coordinate and administrate steering, advisory or leadership groups as required, including coordinating agendas, sending out timely papers, taking minutes and following up on actions.

Events and Communications:

• Plan and organise events to celebrate and grow our network of Living Wage Employers, including playing an active role in the delivery of Living Wage Week and assisting other members of the team with event logistics.
• Represent and speak on behalf of the Living Wage Foundation at internal and external meetings and events.
• Develop or feed into employer resources including marketing materials, blogs, reports, templates and guides.

General:

• Work with Citizens UK Community Organisers, members and leaders to promote civic engagement with and ownership of the Living Wage campaign.
• Responsibility for delivering agreed areas of the Living Wage Foundation’s work plan and leading on agenda items to report into team meetings.
• Feed into the Living Wage Foundation strategy and objective development.
• Work collaboratively with colleagues to share learnings and experience and ensure that we are meeting the expectations of our network and stakeholders.

Personal Specification

(D) Desirable, (E) Essential

EXPERIENCE:

• A minimum of 2 years proven, comprehensive experience in an administrative role (E)
• Experience of managing and updating Salesforce or similar databases (D)
• Experience of delivering a range of high quality communications materials, including websites, reports, newsletters (D)

KEY SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE:

• Excellent time management skills with the ability to juggle a wide range of competing demands (E)
• Understanding of database and systems management (E)
• Ability to take in and interpret information and present in a succinct manner (E)
• Excellent communication skills, both verbally and written, combined with the ability to liaise with senior stakeholders (E)
• Ability to act on own initiative to introduce and develop new systems as appropriate (E)
• Strong attention to detail (E)
• Strong IT skills to include MS Office and database software (E)
• Understanding of the policy and campaign landscape in the UK (D)

PERSONAL ATTRIBUTES:

• A proactive approach to all areas of work with a ‘can do’ attitude and a flexible approach to work demands (E)
• A strong commitment to the Living Wage campaign and principles of Citizens UK (E)

About the Application Process

The Living Wage Foundation is committed to being an inclusive employer. We would love to see applications from LGBTQIA+ people, people from racialised communities, people living with disabilities and people of faith. We want our employees to be themselves and thrive doing so, and we have employee networks to support staff. Even if you don’t quite meet all the required criteria still consider applying, as we invest in our employees and support them to develop the skills and knowledge required to deliver their role. It’s important that our team represents the communities we serve, therefore we are particularly interested to hear from candidates who have experience of low pay.

At Citizens UK, we use Applied, an applicant-tracking recruitment system. Applied aims to overcome unconscious bias in recruiting. The responses are anonymised and reviewed by the panel. The Applied platform also asks some demographic questions before you start your application. Citizens UK cannot see individual demographic responses, only summary statistics to monitor our candidate pool for balance. Applied aims to give an equal chance to be hired irrespective of background. Candidates can opt out of answering the demographic questions.

We welcome applicants from different backgrounds and will do our best to meet reasonable adjustments and access needs for disabilities during and after the recruitment process.

Applicants must have the right to work in the UK as Citizens UK is unable to sponsor visa applications. Our community organisers work in the community and their employment is subject to satisfactory standard/enhanced DBS checks.

For questions and reasonable adjustments regarding your application including information in a different format, or our recruitment process, please contact us.

Got any more questions?

If you would like further information on the role, the organisation, or our commitment to addressing under-representation and the development and progression of all colleagues, we would be happy to answer any questions, please contact us (Please note that the office is shut between 19th December – 6th January).