DIRECTOR, INSTITUTIONAL COMMUNICATIONS

FUNCTION: Formulates institutional communications strategy and plans that promote a cohesive focus of shared values; facilitates employee understanding of the college, its priorities and initiatives; helps employees and students access institutional resources that support them; and fosters employee and student engagement and feedback. Develops effective processes and channels for sharing institutional information with employees and students. Manages, monitors and tracks communications flow, as well as measurement and feedback mechanisms to assess reach, impact and engagement. 

RESPONSIBILITIES: 

  • Develop communications strategy and plans to enhance employee satisfaction and engagement, further institutional effectiveness and support advancement of the college’s mission, priorities and initiatives. 
  • May work with executive director, senior leadership and legal counsel to develop and implement a broad suite of institutional communications policies. 
  • Develop communications strategy and plans to support coordinated, effective communication with students, providing them with timely information, resources and opportunities to ensure an excellent experience at the college. 
  • Foster processes to feed institutional communications from within all levels of the college. 
  • Assist administrators in developing communication plans, processes and specific communications for their departments. 
  • Incorporate and sustain effective channels to facilitate relevant and meaningful institutional communication. 
  • Manage employee and student portals (intranets). 
  • Help conceptualize and manage interactive in-person and digital forums with senior leadership. 
  • Establish methods to collect metrics to track effectiveness of communications. 
  • Integrate frictionless feedback mechanisms into communication channels to assess engagement and effectiveness, and to gather general institutional feedback to be shared with senior leadership. 
  • Counsel and mentor college staff to support and enhance employee communications competencies. 
  • Support communications needs of senior leadership. 
  • Create content for college’s communications channels. 
  • Develop and monitor departmental budget. 
  • Hire and evaluate staff. 
  • Performs other duties as assigned and as changing conditions necessitate. 

SUPERVISION RECEIVED: General direction and supervision from the Executive Director of Communications and Public Relations. 

SUPERVISION GIVEN: May supervise full- and part-time staff as assigned. 

EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree, with preference for a degree in communications, public relations, organizational communication, strategic communication or related communications discipline. 

EXPERIENCE: A minimum of six years of professional experience in a communications role, with demonstrated experience in internal communication, and two years of experience in managing teams. 

KNOWLEDGE, SKILLS AND ABILITIES: 

Knowledge of effective communications principals, methods, channels and measurement applicable to an organizational setting. Highly developed verbal and written communication skills. Experience with driving collaboration. Proficient in supervising direct reports and supporting growth in their skills and capabilities, as well as managing cross-functional teams from throughout an organization. Excellent organizational and project management skills. Facility with counseling and mentoring to enhance employee communications competencies. Digitally savvy, with understanding of intranet platforms, enterprise solutions and associated dynamics. 

Demonstrates agility and responsiveness in a complex, multi-modal communications environment. Ability to prioritize and reprioritize to meet deadlines. Ability to conceptualize and develop new solutions. Ability to synthesize a large amount of information and data. Ability to work independently with minimal supervision. 

WORKING CONDITIONS: Office environment. Travel between campuses and other locations within southeast Michigan. 

HOURS: Hours may vary, requiring some evenings or weekends. Typically, Monday through Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m.

For more information and to apply go to https://jobs.macomb.edu, click on Search Jobs and search for Director, Institutional Communications.

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