Director of Internal Communications

SUMMARY OF RESPONSIBILITIES

The Internal Communications Director will focus primarily on developing and implementing internal communication initiatives that engage FirstKey Homes’ team members, reinforce company priorities, and shape company culture. The Director of Internal Communications will be responsible for developing and implementing all aspects of internal communications, including internally facing Executive messaging. The individual will work in close collaboration with vital function stakeholders, including Executive Leadership, the VP of Media and Public Relations, and leaders in operations and functional departments.

This position requires a passion for storytelling. The ideal candidate will be innately curious, self-driven, multifaceted with proven communications experience, effective interpersonal skills, project management and planning capabilities, and exceptional verbal and written communication skills. They will be a player-coach, able to both set the vision and take actionable steps to deliver successful outcomes.

RESPONSIBILITIES:

• Develop and implement company-wide internal communication strategies and programs that engage, inspire, and align employees with FirstKey Homes brand, vision, goals/KPIs, and key initiatives.
• Seamlessly integrate internal communications into the wider communications approach and potential external context (e.g. social media channels).
• Develop and actively manage scalable communications channels to share information and ensure employees are kept apprised of key activities, including the current channel mix.
• Determine best ways to effectively communicate information, including the development of an editorial calendar, tone/manner, content, and distribution strategy.
• Develop best practices/KPIs to enable continuous improvement of the internal communications function. This includes using internal employee engagement and communications data to drive insight that helps us continue to continuously improve the way we listen and communicate across the channel mix.
• Lead communications for major business programs and company-wide processes and initiatives using channels and content to engage and inspire our employees where they are and create desired actions and outcomes.
• Design and implement employee engagement activities to promote awareness and adoption of key company initiatives, processes and change programs
• Collaborate and provide strategic counsel on other internal communication efforts, as may be required to support Operations, HR (including DEI), Finance, Technology, Legal and Marketing initiatives.
• Oversee, generate and/or edit written, visual and auditory content and messaging.
• Work cross-functionally to influence outcomes, manage project teams, as well as manage, coach and mentor other team members in the Internal Communications department

EXPECTATIONS:

• Ensure all program communications are excellent, reflect our brand, our culture and align with our corporate goals, mission and values.
• Ability to work in a fast-paced environment, with multiple and changing priorities while maintaining strong focus on execution and results.
• Ability to influence conversations and work through building of relationships, thoughtful framing of issues, and building influence through excellent work.
• A critical thinker, with good judgment, who frames decisions within FirstKey Homes’ strategy, culture of service, and single-family resident rental enterprise.
• Exceptional writer with strong strategic, content creation/shaper with solid issues management messaging experience.
• Highly collaborative with the ability to gain consensus.
• Ability to deal with sensitive issues and maintain confidentiality.
• Balance great decision making with thoughtful speed to execution.

SUCCESS QUALITIES:

• A passion and constant example of modeling FirstKey Homes values:
• Integrity (do what’s right);
• Kindness (lead with compassion);
• Excellence (deliver results);
• Inclusiveness (welcomes everyone);
• Team orientation (thrive together); and
• Accountability (own it).

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS & EXPERIENCE:

• 10+ years’ progressive experience in strategic internal/employee communications plan development and execution.
• Bachelor’s degree in Communications, Journalism, Public Relations, marketing, business or appropriately related field.
• Proven experience working directly with executive teams
• Demonstrated experience leveraging multiple channels and formats, including social media, video, blog, vlog and podcast.
• Blend of agency and corporate communications work
• Experience in residential real estate and/or other distributed service industry (e.g., hospitality)
• Experience developing a strategy for communications with a geographically dispersed team(s) or Field/Market-based communications experience/strategies

WORK STYLES & BEHAVIORS

• Deductive Reasoning — The ability to apply general rules to specific problems to produce answers that make sense.
• Inductive Reasoning — The ability to combine pieces of information to form general rules or conclusions (includes finding a relationship among seemingly unrelated events).
• Oral Comprehension — The ability to listen to and understand information and ideas presented through spoken words and sentences.
• Oral Expression — The ability to communicate information and ideas in speaking so others will understand.
• Problem Sensitivity — The ability to tell when something is wrong or is likely to go wrong. It does not involve solving the problem, only recognizing that there is a problem.

FirstKey Homes is an equal opportunity employer and will not tolerate discrimination in employment on the basis of race, color, age, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, religion, disability, ethnicity, national origin, marital status, veteran status, genetic information or any other legally protected classification or status.

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