Cape Town City Centre: Departmental Head – Employer Brand & Communications

About the Role

The Departmental Head: Employer Brand & Communications is a senior leadership position responsible for building, protecting, and strengthening our clients’ reputation by integrating internal communications, employer brand, PR, and reputation management into a single, coherent capability.

Key Responsibilities

• Define and develop the Employer Brand and EVP in partnership with HR and Brand.
• Translate culture, purpose, and values into compelling employer narratives and proof points.
• Lead the development and rollout of employer brand campaigns (internal-first, then external).
• Ensure employer brand is embedded across the employee lifecycle (onboarding, growth, leadership, exits).
• Own the internal communications strategy and channel mix.
• Move the organisation away from mass email toward personalised, role-relevant communication journeys.
• Oversee internal platforms (e.g. Viva Engage) to ensure high engagement and psychological safety.
• Establish clear governance, moderation, and escalation protocols for internal communications.
• Lead proactive and reactive media relations strategy.
• Act as a senior advisor on reputational risk, issues management, and crisis communications.
• Develop and manage key narratives for the organisation in partnership with Brand and Leadership.
• Maintain strong relationships with key media stakeholders.
• Design and run a leadership advocacy programme, with particular focus on LinkedIn.
• Audit and optimise leadership profiles for credibility and consistency.
• Support leaders with content themes, guidance, and narrative alignment.
• Build and scale an employee advocacy programme that enables authentic, opt-in participation.
• Implement appropriate advocacy platforms and tools.
• Develop share-ready content that employees can use across their own social channels.
• Measure advocacy impact and continuously improve participation and quality.

Requirements

• 8 years experience in a senior role in communications, reputation, employer brand, or related fields.
• Proven leadership experience managing multi-disciplinary teams.
• Experience engaging at Executive and senior management level.
• Experience in a complex, regulated, or high-scrutiny environment (financial services preferred).
• Demonstrated success in reputation management and stakeholder communications.
• Proven ownership of employer brand/EVP and large-scale internal communication programmes.
• Exercising risk judgement under pressure.

Qualifications

None mentioned.

Salary & Benefits

Not specified.

Team Structure (Indicative)

The role will typically oversee: Employer Brand & Advocacy Internal Communications & Platforms PR, Media & Issues Management

Key Stakeholder Relationships

Head of Brand & Communications Human Resources (Culture, Talent, Learning) Executive Leadership and Exco Legal, Risk, and Compliance External media and agency partners