Stakeholder Engagement Project Support

Reference Number - 79452

This Stakeholder Engagement Project Support position will report to the Stakeholder Engagement Manager and will work within the Customer Services and Innovation directorate based in our London office. You will be a permanent employee.

You will attract a salary of £40,000 and a bonus of 7.5%. This role can also offer blended working after probationary period (6 months) - 3 days in the office and 2 remote

Close Date: 28/10/2024

We also provide the following additional benefits

• 25 Days Annual Leave plus bank holidays
• Personal Pension Plan – Personal contribution rates of 4% or 5% (UK Power Networks will make a corresponding contribution of 8% or 10%)
• Tenancy Loan Deposit scheme
• Tax efficient benefits: cycle to work scheme
• Season ticket loan
• Occupational Health support
• Switched On – scheme providing discount on hundreds of retailers products.
• Discounted access to sports and social clubs
• Employee Assistance Programme.

The UK’s leading electricity distribution network is looking for an energetic and committed stakeholder engagement project professional to help us support our engagement and research programme to influence important decisions. You’ll work with accomplished colleagues from across the business, including our Innovation, Consumer Vulnerability and Environment teams, to plan, evaluate and report on engagement activities that shape our actions and decisions now and in the future.

Job Purpose

This is a time of unprecedented change for the electricity industry as we move from the old world of large, carbon intensive coal and gas-fired power plants to a much more complex, interconnected world of renewable energy, battery storage and electric vehicles. Energy is one of the most important issues in the country right now, and you will receive an incredible insight into the work that goes in to ensuring a safe, reliable, affordable and green energy supply at in a workplace voted one of the UK’s best big companies to work for.

We pride ourselves on being the best performing UK network operator, and we put customers and stakeholders at the heart of our decisions. Our stakeholder engagement programme reflects our passion for providing the best possible experience to our customers, staying at the forefront of emerging issues, and delivering a network that enables Net Zero at the lowest overall cost to billpayers.

Working as part of a close-knit team, you’ll collaborate with senior managers and teams across the business to shape, facilitate, evaluate and report on engagement that helps teams make good decisions and deliver industry-leading performance. You’ll take the lead on developing stakeholder maps and identifying emerging stakeholders and supporting in surfacing key insights for discussion across the business. You’ll work with teams to publish reports on how our engagement and research programme and consumer vulnerability programme have led to better decisions and delivered measurable benefits for customers and wider society.

Principle responsibilities

Engagement and research programme development

• Stakeholder mapping: Develop and maintain comprehensive stakeholder maps, evaluating important relationships and assessing opportunities for proactive engagement
• Engagement planning: Collaborate with teams across the business to identify potential areas for engagement and research and develop purposeful, inclusive and impactful engagement delivery plans, advising on appropriate methods
• Engagement programme: Maintain the central engagement and research programme plan, documenting the delivery plans for engagement and research activities across teams and how these contribute to business priorities

• Analysis: Assist in strategic analysis to identify emerging issues for engagement and research, support teams to extract key content from our engagement systems and to identify actionable insights from engagement feedback
• Best practice: Enhance understanding of best practice in engagement and research across the business, including guidance, materials, training and advice
• Continuous improvement: Support in identifying and delivering continuous improvement to the stakeholder engagement team’s systems and processes to remain at the forefront of best practice.

External engagement reporting

• Report project management: Facilitate the development and delivery of the annual Ongoing Engagement Report and Annual Vulnerability Report, maintaining key project management documents, coordinating the review and approval process, and collaborating with the Communications and Media team to develop a communications plan for publication
• Strategy development: Help develop the strategy and approach for the Annual Vulnerability Report, working with the Consumer Vulnerability team to identify enhancements and incorporate best practice.
• Report development: Contribute to the storyboarding, drafting, design and publication of the reports, including commissioning and managing external support as needed
• Content coordination: Collaborate with teams across the business to source key report content, including robust quantitative and qualitative benefits with supporting evidence
• Alignment across multiple reports: Collaborate with owners of key external reports across the business to ensure engagement-related content is consistent across the reporting suite

 Internal engagement reporting

• Programme reporting: Drive regular internal reporting on the scope, progress and impact of the engagement and research programme, sourcing quality, timely updates from teams across the business
• Analysis: Assess reporting information provided by teams and recommend key updates, insights and issues for escalation 

Person specification

You would bring knowledge and enthusiasm for stakeholder engagement, project management skills, an eagerness to learn about new topics, and a desire to make positive change. A detailed knowledge of the electricity industry isn’t required, but the ability to quickly grasp complex or unfamiliar subjects is.

Skills, qualifications and experience

• Experience in engagement, communications, PR or marketing
• Project management qualification at foundation level (e.g. PRINCE2) or equivalent experience
• Experience of developing engagement strategies and delivery plans across a wide range of topics, involving a range of stakeholders and engagement methods
• Experience of developing and maintaining stakeholder maps, including for strategic issues
• Strategic thinking skills, with experience aligning engagement activities to strategic goals
• Analytical skills, including the ability to extract actionable insights from engagement feedback
• Understanding of best practice in stakeholder engagement, with experience of guiding others on best practice approaches
• Project management experience, with ability to deliver to time, cost and quality
• Organised with experience of juggling multiple tasks and competing deadlines
• Strong written and verbal communication skills with the ability to quickly grasp complex issues and distil important points
• Experience working with multiple stakeholders including senior managers to deliver successful outcomes
• Experience of reporting on the progress and effect of engagement activities
• Commitment to continuous improvement

Health & Safety Responsibilities

Managers and supervisors carry both legal and company responsibilities for ensuring the health and safety of their employees, those under their control and those who might be affected by the work undertaken, i.e. public, visitors and employees of other organisations. This includes briefing individuals working for them and ensuring there is the necessary understanding, competence and application of requirements to work safely and without harming the environment.

Employees will ensure they understand the health and safety risks involved in their work activities and their responsibility to apply the controls needed to manage those risks to acceptable levels. Similarly where work activities can have an adverse impact upon the environment, and where there are legal requirements, employees will understand those impacts and the controls they must ensure are applied.

If in doubt ask!

We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, colour, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. We are proud to be an equal opportunity workplace.