ERP Communications and Engagement Lead

Hybrid
* must be able to attend site (Dorchester DT1 1XJ
)

£600 a day

Ongoing assignment (18 months)

Outside IR35

Connect2

Dorset is the managed service recruitment partner to Dorset Council, providing temporary, contract, and interim opportunities across the organisation. Built on values of being ethical, trustworthy, and caring, our profits are reinvested back into our Local Authority shareholders.

To lead the communications and stakeholder engagement workstream for the Council's ERP transformation - the migration from SAP to Oracle Fusion Cloud across Finance, HCM, Payroll and Commissioning & Procurement. The role holder develops and executes the end-to-end communications and engagement strategy that carries every stakeholder group, from executive leadership and elected members through to operational front-line users, on the journey from the current SAP environment to confident adoption of the new Oracle Fusion Cloud system.

This is a hands‑on senior role: it both sets the strategy and delivers it. The successful candidate is ERP‑literate, fluent in the language of business change, and has a demonstrable track record of having designed and run communications and engagement on a major ERP transformation - not communications in the abstract, but the specific challenge of taking a large, diverse workforce through a system and ways‑of‑working change of this scale.

The role operates as a fully embedded member of the Council's Internal Communications function, ensuring ERP communications are fully aligned with corporate messaging, priorities, channels and governance, and contribute to a joined‑up organisational narrative.

• Develop and maintain the ERP communications and engagement plan as part of the Council's overall internal communications forward planning, ensuring alignment with corporate priorities, other transformation programmes, and organisational messaging.
• Work within established Internal Communications governance, planning cycles and approval processes.
• Define the audiences, core narrative, key messages, channels and cadence - aligned to the programme roadmap, waves and milestones.
• Translate complex, technical ERP and process change into a clear, compelling, plain-English story that resonates at every level.

• Engage senior stakeholders - the SRO, Senior Leadership Team, programme board and (where relevant) elected members - building credibility and securing visible, active sponsorship.
• Engage middle management, service leads and directorate stakeholders, equipping them to lead change within their teams.
• Engage operational and front-line staff and end users - the people whose day‑to‑day work changes - with tailored, relevant, reassuring communication.
• Map and segment stakeholders, track sentiment, and tailor messaging and approach to each audience's needs and concerns.

• Plan and run multi‑channel campaigns - intranet, email, leadership briefings, town halls, roadshows, drop‑ins, digital and video.
• Create high‑quality content: the programme narrative, FAQs, briefing packs, plain-English guides, leadership talking points, and go‑live and adoption materials.
• Plan and deliver engagement events and the rhythm of programme communications across the lifecycle.
• Establish, brief and support a change champion / change agent network to extend reach into every service.
• Ensure all ERP communications are coordinated with wider organisational communications activity, avoiding duplication, message conflict or overload across programmes and services.
• Align timing, messaging and channel use with the corporate communications grid and…