Hamilton City Council communications team restructures and expands

Two new positions in the Hamilton City Council communications team pay a collective $220,000. Image / Google Maps

Hamilton City Council is bolstering up its communications team with two newly created PR roles costing the city an extra $220,000 a year.

The council currently has eight vacancies in its strategy and communications unit following a restructure at the end of 2018.

The raft of vacancies include the two newly created communications and engagement team leader roles, as well as six existing roles that were already vacant, to boost the number of people in the teams from 30 to 32.

The additional roles cost $220,000 and take the operational budget for the strategy and communication department to $1.987m a year.

A digital communication specialist role is also being introduced and replaces the disestablished brand manager role.

As part of the restructure seven positions were disestablished and all but one staff member was redeployed in similar role. One person took redundancy in December.

Hamilton City Council strategy and communication general manager Sean Hickey said the restructure was undertaken so council could better understand the community's needs and ensure the council responded better.

"We are trying to shift the communication focus to being one of communication and engagement... So rather than us telling people what we are doing... we are trying more and more to make that a two-way conversation."

Hickey expected the costs associated with the two new roles would be offset by savings made by not having to outsource or use as many professional services such as consultants and contractors.

Hickey said it was not about council putting out more spin and was instead about council trying to engage more with Hamiltonians. He said the addition of two new team leaders in the communications unit would enable one team could focus on growth, another on being a great river city and the third would look after the corporate side such as finances and the 10-year plan.

"As a council we are investing $2 billion in the council's biggest ever 10 year capital programme so there's a whole lot of significant projects that come with that. Engaging with the community, understanding what it is that people want is more important than ever so we need to work with the community to make those projects happen and to make sure they happen in a way that's consistent."

To help attract candidates, a video has been created at the cost of $2500 to promote Hamilton City Council as a great place to work and to advertise the position. The video maybe re-used for council's other recruitment drives.

Hickey said there seemed to be a "bit of a buzz around" the positions. He had already been contacted by a number of people wanting to find out more about the new roles.

The vacancies:
Communication and Engagement Team Leader – Best in Business
Communication and Engagement Team Leader – Great River City
Communication and Engagement Advisor – Best in Business
Internal Communication and Engagement Advisor
Digital Communication Specialist – Social and Content
Events Coordinator
Corporate Planning Manager
Business Strategy Manager