Public Relations/Communication 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 15,000+ branch offices where our more than 7 million clients live and work.
In a typical branch office, a financial advisor meets with clients and receives branch office support, so they can focus on building deep relationships with clients. Headquarters associates in St. Louis, Tempe and Mississauga provide support and expertise to help U.S. and Canada branch teams deliver an ideal client experience. We continue to grow to meet the needs of long-term individual investors.This position is responsible for developing, executing and measuring effectiveness of our public relations and external communication efforts to help build brand awareness and familiarity of Edward Jones across Canada. This individual will work closely with the PR agency to lead all media relations, reputation management and thought leadership programs. They will consult and partner with the internal communications team and other business areas to identify key communication points, recommend methods for communicating messages effectively, create communication plans and strategies, and craft communications.
Responsibilities include:

• Define KPIs, measure effectiveness, report out regularly through a standardized reporting cadence and process, and make recommendations to improve/ optimize.
• Manage deliverables through rigorous editorial, business area and compliance review, while ensuring messages meet the needs of the target audience.
• Manage PR budget.
• Own development and execution of the corporate social media strategy using various social media channels and distributing social media pieces that are strategically aligned with the other external communications to ensure cohesive brand building.
• Collaborate with the Office of the President as well as other senior leaders, internal communications and change management colleagues to contribute to building and implementing a comprehensive communication plan, ensuring the right message is delivered to the right audience at the right time for maximum effectiveness. Implement proactive strategies to cultivate key national and regional media relationships. Support financial advisors' local presence, relationships and business through media training, key messaging and community engagement opportunities.
• Effectively build relationships to achieve business outcomes. Influence business area leaders and associates by providing guidance on goals, key messages and targeting to deliver client-centric content for a variety of audiences and channels. Serve on virtual teams that cross multiple divisions.
• Assist in the development and maintenance of an effective crisis management and response plan. Collaborate with legal, compliance and other internal stakeholders in the handling of issues and events.
• Lead the firm's awards and rankings program, advancing the brand and reputation of the firm and helping to accomplish key business objectives and aiding awareness with a broader group of stakeholders.
• Write and edit a broad range of external communications that build up the Edward Jones' brand awareness, opinion and consideration among key external audiences. Lead public and media relations, corporate social media, crisis and reputation management, awards and rankings, thought leadership and other communications projects with direction from Team Leader and partner closely with PR agency and other content creators to develop and execute communications strategies and tactics.

Position Requirements:

• Experience working with senior executives.
• Ability to learn about and apply client segment insights to develop highly relevant communication that appeals to the segments.
• Must develop an understanding of our brand promise and voice, and deliver that promise through effective external communications.
• Bi-lingual (English and French) is nice to have.
• Demonstrate ability to manage changing priorities and deadlines.
• Ability to write for different media and to identify most effective channels to deliver key messages to target audiences.
• Agency and budget management experience.
• Proficient in Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
• Experience with social media , thought leadership strategy development and execution, and some level of crisis communication experience.
• Financial services industry experience highly desirable.
• Working knowledge of communication principles, tools, channels and design elements.
• Bachelor's degree in communication, journalism, or related field; or equivalent work experience is required.
• Ability to collaborate with graphic artists, website designers and video producers is required. Needs basic understanding of graphic design and video production.
• Minimum of 7 years experience in a writing/communication position with experience leading projects.
• Excellent English writing and editing skills. Demonstrated ability to take complicated topics and develop clear communications that inform and educate.

Problem Solving:
Using existing communication best practices as a guide, the Communications Manager will analyze, recommend, and implement solutions to meet firm communication needs and challenges. When established guidelines don't exist, the Communication Manager 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 Manager 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. Many decisions will require gathering input from and gaining alignment with internal stakeholders (business leaders, internal communications, change management).
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 external audiences. Quality of work will influence brand image, and timing of communication 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.
The Communications Manager interacts with all levels of the firm including executive and senior leaders, as well as leaders and associates in other departments and divisions.

• 2022 Fortune's 100 Best Companies to Work For, published April 2022, research by Great Place to Work®, data as of August 2021. Compensation provided for using, not obtaining, the rating.
• 2022 Fortune Best Workplaces for Women, published September 2022, research by Great Places to Work®, data as of August 2021. Compensation provided for using, not obtaining, the rating.
• For the 23rd time, Edward Jones has earned a spot on the Fortune 100 Best Companies to Work For® ranking by Great Places to Work® and Fortune® magazine. Edward Jones ranked No. 35 on the prestigious 2022 list.
• Edward Jones has been named to the 2022 Best Workplaces for Women list by Great Places to Work® and Fortune® magazine, ranking No. 45.
• 100 Best Workplaces for Millennials in 2022, published Fortune July 2022, Great Places to Work® data as of March 2022. Compensation provided for using, not obtaining, the rating.
• Edward Jones was recognized as one of the Best Workplaces for Millennials by Great Places to Work® and Fortune® magazine. The privately held firm ranked No. 2 overall, in its fourth appearance on the list.
• 2022 Best Places to Work For LGBTQ+ Equality, Great Place to Work® in partnership with Human Rights Campaign Foundation, published Equity Magazine January 2022, data as of July 2021. Compensation provided for using, not obtaining, the rating.
• Edward Jones scored 100 percent on the Human Rights Campaign Foundation's 2022 Corporate Equality Index (CEI) the nation's foremost benchmarking survey and report measuring corporate policies and practices related to LGBTQ+ workplace equality. The ranking designated Jones as one of the best places to work for LGBTQ+Equality.

Edward Jones does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, gender, religion, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation, pregnancy, veteran status, genetic information or any other basis prohibited by applicable law.