Communications Manager

At Edward Jones, we help clients achieve their serious, long-term financial goals by understanding their needs and implementing tailored solutions. To ensure a personal client experience, we have located our 14,000+ branch offices where our more than 7 million clients live and work.

A typical branch office has one financial advisor who meets with clients face-to-face and one branch office administrator who enhances the team's ability to build deep relationships with clients. Headquarters associates in St. Louis and Tempe provide support and expertise to help U.S. and Canada branch teams deliver an ideal client experience. Edward Jones currently has more branch offices than any other financial services firm, and we continue to grow to meet the needs of long-term individual investors.

Responsibility Summary :         
 
This position is responsible for developing and executing strategic and tactical communication programs targeting internal and external audiences.  The role is required to consult with business areas to identify key communication points, recommend methods for communicating messages effectively, create communication plans, craft communications and coordinate messaging schedules with other areas throughout the firm.
 
Responsibilities include:
 
     * Write and edit a broad range of external- and internal-facing communications.
     * Lead projects with direction from Team Leader Work with Senior Leaders to develop communication strategies that will influence and help align business objectives and activities.
     * Work with Senior Leaders and Human Resources on sensitive and confidential communications using season judgement and the abitilty to use best practices based on experience
     * Participate in complex cross-divisional projects, collaborating with business areas to develop and deliver clear, timely and accurate communications and communications support.
     * Work with business areas to understand target audience needs.
     * Manage deliverables through rigorous internal editorial, business area and compliance review, while ensuring messages meet the needs of target audience.
     * At leader's direction, assist with evaluation of communication effectiveness and results reporting to stakeholders.
     * Implement standardized project management processes.

 
  Qualifications Required in the Job:
 
     * Bachelor's degree in communication, journalism, marketing, or related field; or equivalent work experience is required.
     * Minimum of 5 years experience in a writing /communication position and with experience  leading projects.
     * Excellent writing and editing skills. Demonstrated ability to take complicated topics and develop clear communications that inform and educate associates and clients.
     * Working knowledge of communication principles, tools, and design elements.
     * Must develop an understanding of brand and home office associate audiences, as well as client segments.
     * Ability to write for different media and to identify most effective channels to deliver key messages to target audiences.
     * Demonstrate ability to manage changing priorities and deadlines.
     * For speciific positions, Web publishing experience is required.
     * For specific positions, knowledge of rich media and software required, including Captivate
     * For specific positions, ability to collaborate with graphic artists, website designers and video producers is required.  Needs basic understanding of graphic design and video production.
     * Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.

 
 
Problem Solving:
 
Using existing communication best practices as a guide, the Communications Specialist will analyze, recommend, and implement solutions to meet firm communication needs and challenges. When established guidelines don't exist, the Communication Specialist will be required to demonstrate creativity while collaborating with other stakeholders to explore and evaulate potential solutions. Requires judgement to determine when to escalate an issue and who needs to be involved.
 
Communication requirements frequently change in response to internal and external influences. Communications Specialists must react to changes quickly and creatively, often altering communication strategies and plans to address changes.
 
Decision Making:
 
Processes and guidelines for communications best practices exist, however, every project is unique. Decisions made in this position are moderately complex and can be non-routine, depending on specific project needs.  Most decisions involve the evaluation of communication needs and selection of appropriate communication channels, as well as decisions around communication content.
 
Requires ability to gather pertinent information quickly, assess situations and make timely decisions with minimal supervision. Some decisions require research of various alternatives and development of a recommendation.
 
Managing a fast-paced and ever-changing workload calls for daily prioritization of projects.
 
Span of Influence:
 
Using firm communication guidelines and tools, this position makes recommendations on how to communicate, what to communicate, and when to communicate to branch teams, home office associates and/or clients.  Quality of work can influence brand image, or may impact processes within other business areas or branches.
 
Message review process routinely includes department leadership, subject matter experts from other business areas and Compliance.
 
Poor performance could result in not meeting communication and project objectives, which could adversely impact branch teams, home office associates, clients and/or the firm.
 
The Communications Specialist interacts with all levels of the firm including executive and senior leaders, as well as leaders and associates in other departments and divisions.