Press & External Affairs Officer

About us

We’re Abri, a housing association based in the south of England. One of the largest in fact. We’ve got 35,000 homes and 1,500 colleagues. And if all our 80,000 residents lived in the same place, we’d have a town roughly the size of Guildford.

We’re a passionate bunch. We think we can make a real difference. Homelessness, poverty, inequality, a lack of affordable housing. They’re all linked. They’re issues that affect so many, young and old alike. And we don’t think that’s right. We want to give people the chance to dream big and be who they want to be. Homes are at the heart of everybody’s lives. And we exist to help make good homes, and good lives a reality for everyone.

About you

We’ve all got different backgrounds, strengths and experiences. But we share the same values. It’s these shared values that bring us together as one team.

Our colleagues embrace these every day. Be the difference to our customers and colleagues, always curious and look for better solutions, achieve together by working in partnership with others, own it openly through working with others in an open and honest way, and finally embrace possibility and see changes and challenges as welcomed opportunities.

If you share our values and want to make a real difference in the world, you’re on to a winner and we’d love to hear from you!

Your new role

We’re excited to be looking for a new Press & External Affairs Officer to join our fantastic Comms team and proactively and creatively promote our brand – and we need you! This is a twelve month fixed term maternity.

We’ve got a lot to be proud of and shout about, so you’ll play a key role in developing, planning and delivering comms plans that promote the great work we do to the outside world and the huge difference we make in peoples’ lives.

You’ll work in an agile manner with occasionally visits to our offices either in Eastleigh or Yeovil.

No two days will be the same in this role and you’ll need to be a pro at being able to work under pressure in an ever-changing environment. One day could be providing urgent crisis communications support and the next, be writing media releases and thought leadership articles on behalf of senior stakeholders.

Media-savvy, an exceptional communicator and a pro at engaging stakeholders at all levels, you’ll play an enormous role in proudly promoting who we are and what we do.

As well as making a difference to the lives of our customers and communities, you’ll be joining an organisation that wants the best for you too. We’re an inclusive employer striving to make Abri a great place to work for everyone, with tons of opportunities for personal and professional development.

We’re all about flexible, agile working too. You can choose how and where you work best – as long as the high-quality work gets done, we don’t mind where you do it. Great ideas come from being part of a great team though, so you’ll pop into our vibrant workspaces every so often to bounce ideas around with the team.

If you want to the opportunity to join a team as dedicated and dynamic as you and want to join an organisation that puts people at the heart of all it does, we’d love to hear from you!

What you can expect from us

We want our colleagues at all levels to be bold, inspiring and not afraid to speak up and be their authentic selves.

Your wellbeing is really important to us, so you can expect a competitive reward package to ensure you and your family are supported at work and at home. You’ll receive 28 days of annual leave a year (pro-rata for our part time colleagues) with Bank Holidays on top as well as being entitled to our generous pension scheme.

We’ll work with you to help you reach your goals through personal development plans and our in-house People Development team.

Depending on your role you may need to work a set shift pattern, or you may have greater flexibility to choose when and where you work. Either way, we strive to ensure all colleagues have a degree of flexibility to attend life’s important events.

Be yourself

Abri is committed to promoting an inclusive culture. We want our colleagues to bring their individual differences, life experiences and knowledge into the workplace and we welcome their contribution to our amazing company. Everyone is different, everyone is unique.

Interviews will be held via Microsoft Teams

To our agency friends

We already have a number of carefully selected agency partners who know our business well and who support our in-house recruitment team during exceptionally busy periods. We’re not looking to add to our preferred supplier list right now but if you’d like to be considered at a future date please don’t hesitate to register on our procurement portal.