We are recruiting an Edinburgh & Lothians Community Engagement Manager (CEM) to join our Scotland projects team and lead on the outreach, engagement and management of a portfolio of exciting projects (Edinburgh, East Lothian, West Lothian)

Love to Ride is the online platform that gets more people riding bikes.

Both a web platform and App - people participate by logging trips, setting goals, posting photos and stories and encouraging others. We share targeted and localised information, prizes and incentives and deliver a rolling year-round calendar of engaging campaigns, known as Ride 365. We support individuals, communities and businesses, to cycle more often, more confidently and long term for transportation.

With 15 years experience delivering successful cycling behaviour change projects around the world, we have a solid reputation as a specialist social business creating positive change. As well as encouraging existing riders to ride more often and commute by bike, we support people who are new and returning riders.. We help individuals overcome real and perceived barriers and advocate for local cycling organisations and partners in project areas. We then monitor, measure and report on the outcomes.

Check out this animation to learn more about how we achieve behaviour change

Our Mission

Is to create, maintain and deliver the very best online platform and behaviour change programmes in the world, that are proven to get more people riding bikes more often.

The Community Engagement Manager (CEM) role

The purpose of this role is to successfully deliver the 'Ride 365' 2023/24 programme, by encouraging organisations, communities and individuals to take part in the programme. You’ll work closely with the council teams (transport, comms, economic development) to drive up engagement through their networks and act as the ‘on the ground’ face of Love to Ride.

You will work across the Edinburgh & Lothians region to promote and support our flagship programme – Ride 365. This includes 5 core campaigns:

1. Now We Ride (Apr -Aug 2023) - in partnership with the UCI Cycling World Championships Team
2. Bike Month (May 2023)
3. Cycle September 2023
4. Winter Wheelers (Dec 2023)
5. Ride Into Spring (Mar 2024)

Throughout the year, individuals who live or work in our funded project areas can take part in the programme - log trips, post photos and stories, receive localised information, and take part in our engaging campaigns (prizes, incentives, leaderboards) which support people to cycle, and make it fun.

Each project is supported by a local, regional or transport authority client, with funding from local and central Government typically supported by

Requirements

The primary roles and responsibilities are to:

Encourage workplaces to register and participate in campaigns. This will involve: contacting workplaces by phone, email and in-person (with both warm and cold leads); giving presentations; meeting with relevant staff & selling in the concept of Love to Ride; supporting media activity; distributing marketing materials.

• Act as a central liaison for stakeholders and project partners, developing and maintaining effective working relationships and providing regular progress reports.
• Contact and engage local partner organisations and encourage them to promote the campaign to their networks.
• Identify suitable ‘Champions’ within participating workplaces, develop effective working relations with them and provide ongoing support so that they can promote Love to Ride internally and succeed at getting a high number of co-workers participating.
• Provide excellent customer service to all participants and workplace Champions.
• Carry out monitoring activities to help evaluate the programme, e.g. collection of individual and group case studies.
• Carry out any other duties defined by the Scotland Partnerships Manager that may be necessary to further the aims of the programme.
• Work alongside the client teams, to deliver a highly effective programme of activity, enabling it to become an ongoing and successful programme, promoting positive change.
• Attend events where appropriate

Person Specification

As the Community Engagement Manager, you will be excellent at building relationships and capable of representing Love to Ride in a professional manner. An enthusiastic, quality-driven self-starter, you will also have a can-do attitude and a structured approach to your work. The ideal candidate will have the following experience:

Essential

• Relevant previous experience in managing projects or delivering projects to a variety of clients
• Proven track record of working to targets and exceeding them
• Experience of successful working across organisations using strong influencing skills
• Experience of working with external stakeholders including communities, clients, partners, businesses, cycling partners

Desirable

• Experience of overseeing project budgets and effective spend in aspects of delivery
• Experience of working remotely and within a small dynamic team

Skills & Abilities:

Essential

• Excellent influencing and motivational skills
• Excellent relationship building skills - clients, stakeholders, project partners, community groups and workplaces; In particular the ability to create persuasive arguments and tailor your approach to the given audience.
• Strong communication skills (including presentation, written and verbal/interpersonal)
• Good time management and organisational skills - ability to juggle several projects
• Confident to work independently

Desirable

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills
• A high degree of IT literacy and demonstrated use of online applications and tools such as Slack, Monday, Hubspot, Excel

Knowledge:

Desirable

• Solid understanding of the cycling & sustainable transport landscape in Scotland and local working areas.
• Understanding of the varied geography of Edinburgh and Lothians and how this influences approaches to cycling locally
• Ride Leader / Cycle Training Qualification would be fab but not a game-changer :)

Reporting and working locations

As CEM you will report into the Scotland Partnerships Manager and Community Engagement Lead at Love to Ride. You’ll also work closely with our network of regional CEMs and wider project delivery team.

Home-working and an adaptable approach to the working week is required, and can be supported by a co-working space in the local area. Some regional travel and weekend work may be required on an occasional basis.

About Love to Ride

Love to Ride is the online platform that gets more people riding bikes.

We have over 15 years experience in delivering successful cycling behaviour change programmes around the world. Through our online platform we work with governments, local authorities and businesses to get more people riding bikes.

As well as encouraging existing riders to ride more often and commute by bike, we also support people returning to or completely new to cycling. We help individuals overcome their barriers with highly targeted communications and behaviour change techniques. We then monitor, measure and report on the outcomes.

Check out this animation to learn more about how we achieve lasting behaviour change.

The Community Engagement Manager role

The purpose of this role is to support the delivery and success our year round cycling campaigns by encouraging workplaces, communities and individuals to take part.

This role is an exciting opportunity for a proactive individual to work with our clients across Scotland, managing a portfolio of programmes and maintaining relationships. We’re looking for someone who can drive engagement and reach new audiences (particularly those hard to reach areas, and those new to cycling) with a strong focus on cycling trips for transportation.

You will work closely with the Sotland based Business Development Coordinator, and the wider Love to Ride team.

The primary roles and responsibilities of the Community Engagement Manager are to:

• Encourage workplaces to register and participate in campaigns. This will involve: contacting workplaces by phone, email and in-person (with both warm and cold leads); giving presentations; meeting with relevant staff & selling in the concept of Love to Ride; supporting media activity; distributing marketing materials.

• Act as a central liaison for stakeholders and project partners, developing and maintaining effective working relationships and providing regular progress reports.

• Contact and engage local partner organisations and encourage them to promote the campaign to their networks.

• Identify suitable ‘Champions’ within participating workplaces, develop effective working relations with them and provide ongoing support so that they can promote Love to Ride internally and succeed at getting a high number of co-workers participating.

• Provide excellent customer service to all participants and workplace Champions.

• Carry out monitoring activities to help evaluate the programme, e.g. collection of individual and group case studies.

• Carry out any other duties defined by the Business Development Manager that may be necessary to further the aims of the programme.

• Work alongside the client teams, to deliver a highly effective programme of activity, enabling it to become an ongoing and successful programme, promoting positive change.

• Attend events where appropriate

Person Specification

As the Community Engagement Manager, you will be a friendly people-person who is excellent at building relationships and capable of representing Love to Ride in a professional manner. An enthusiastic, quality-driven self-starter, you will also have a can-do attitude and a structured approach to your work. The ideal candidate will have the following:

Experience:

Essential

• Relevant previous experience in managing projects or delivering projects to a variety of clients

• Proven track record of working to targets and exceeding them

• Experience of successful working across organisations using strong influencing skills

• Experience of working with external stakeholders including communities, clients, partners, businesses, cycling partners

Desirable

• Experience of overseeing project budgets and effective spend in aspects of delivery

• Experience of working remotely and within a small dynamic team

Skills & Abilities:

Essential

• Excellent influencing and motivational skills

• Excellent relationship building skills - clients, stakeholders, project partners, community groups and workplaces; In particular the ability to create persuasive arguments and tailor your approach to the given audience.

• Strong communication skills (including presentation, written and verbal/interpersonal)

• Good time management and organisational skills - ability to juggle several projects

• Confident to work independently

Desirable

• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills

• A high degree of IT literacy and demonstrated use of online applications and tools such as (Monday, Hubspot, Excel)

Knowledge:

Desirable

• Solid understanding of the cycling & sustainable transport landscape in ScotlandRide Leader / Cycle Training Qualification

• Understanding of the varied geography and how this influences approaches to cycling locally

Travel: The role will require travel within Scotland. There is a budget to facilitate this and where possible we encourage sustainable and active travel.

We are recruiting a Community Engagement Manager (CEM) to join our project in West Lothian.

Initially, the CEM role will ideally be delivered during July, August and September and into early October 2021

Love to Ride

Love to Ride is the online platform that gets more people riding bikes. With 15 years’ experience in delivering successful behaviour change projects right around the world, we have a solid reputation as a specialist social business creating positive change.As well as encouraging existing riders to ride more often and commute by cycle, we also support people returning to or completely new to cycling. Our year-round programming - Ride365 - gives seasonal campaigns, online activity and social engagements, also providing information, incentives and encouragement to overcome real and perceived barriers. We then monitor, measure and report on the outcomes.

Check out this animation to learn more about how we achieve actual behaviour change

We believe…

We believe that life is much better when we feel happy, healthy, energised and connected to the people and places around us. We believe riding a bike has so many benefits to us individually, to our communities and our world. We know how great it feels to ride and we want more people to experience this feeling too.

Our Mission

Is to create, maintain and deliver the very best online platform and behaviour change programmes in the world, that are proven to get more people riding bikes more often. The rest will follow.

Background to the CEM roles

Community Engagement Managers work in a single UK location to promote and support our flagship year-round programme – Ride 365. This includes Cycle September (previously the National Cycle Challenge), the centrepiece of our annual programme in the UK, as well as Winter Wheelers in December, Ride it Out in March, and Bike Month in June. Each regional project is supported by a local, regional or transport authority client, with funding from central Government departments such as DfT, Public Health or other sources.

Cycle September is a fun, free competition between workplaces and individuals to see which can encourage the most employees and people living or working in the target area to cycle. The organisations and departments that earn the most points for riding and encouraging will win. There are 7 size categories to level the playing field and incentives and rewards for individuals who play an important role in making the programme successful. Points are heavily weighted towards encouragement because we’re all about getting more people on bikes.

The Scope of the CEM roles

The purpose of this role role is to successfully deliver the Ride 365 and Cycle September programme, by encouraging organisations, communities and individuals to take part. An aim of this role is to enable ‘new-riders’ or ‘non-riders’ to participate and for this group to be around 20% of all participants. The focus will be on working with existing riders to encourage new or inexperienced riders to participate. A bonus payment will be linked directly to a performance ‘stretch target’ and included within your agreement as a contractor.

The primary roles and responsibilities of the CEM are to:

• Encourage organisations to register and participate. This will involve: contacting workplaces by phone, email and in-person (with both warm and cold leads); giving presentations; meeting with relevant staff & selling in the concept of Love to Ride; supporting media activity; distributing marketing materials to bike shops & co-promoters, on cycle paths & on parked bicycles; promotion at local events etc.
• Act as a central liaison for stakeholders and project partners, developing and maintaining effective working relationships and providing regular progress reports.
• Contact and engage local partner organisations and encourage them to promote the Challenge externally to their local networks.
• Source and manage locally sponsored incentives and prizes.
• Identify suitable ‘Champions’ within participating organisations, develop effective working relations with them and provide on-going support so that they can promote Love to Ride internally and succeed at getting a high number of colleagues participating in the programme.
• Deliver registration packs to Champions and them to enable internal promotions at their workplace.
• Provide excellent customer service to all participants and workplace Champions.
• Distribute prizes to winning individuals and organisations.
• Carry out monitoring activities to help evaluate the programme, e.g. collection of individual and group case studies.
• Carry out any other duties defined by the Love to Ride Project Manager that may be necessary to further the aims of the programme.
• Work alongside the client teams, to deliver a highly effective programme of activity, enabling it to become an ongoing and successful programme, promoting positive change.

Person Specification

As the CEM, you will be a friendly people-person who is excellent at building relationships and capable of representing Love to Ride in a professional manner. An enthusiastic, quality-driven self-starter, you will also have a can-do attitude and a structured approach to your work. The ideal candidate will have the following skills and experience:

• Excellent interpersonal and communication skills
• Strong organisational skills, with a target-orientated approach
• Dedicated ‘make it happen’ attitude
• Effective at developing and maintaining relationships at all levels
• Confident to work independently
• Knowledge of the region, community and business sector
• A high degree of IT literacy and demonstrated use of online applications and tools
• Ability to communicate and collaborate effectively with people in a wide range of workplace settings, from large public services and corporates to SMEs and local businesses and communities and other local groups and stakeholders

Reporting and working locations

As CEM you will report to the designated Project Manager at Love to Ride. However, the role is best facilitated from an appropriate regional base, such as the client offices or cycling hub for example. This is dependent on the recruited individual(s), availability of desk space and evolving guidance under the ongoing C19 pandemic. Home office and/or remote office working will be required, so this role will suit someone who generally has a flexible approach to their working environment.

Remuneration

This position is a fixed-term contract for an independent contractor working a minimum of 50 days over a 3-4 month period from July to October 2021. Some projects may also secure extra funding for more LPM days after this initial delivery period, as our engagement and support work is ongoing.

The contractor rate is £125 per 7.5 hour day worked, so in this case 50 days = £6,250 + bonus. The package is the pay equivalent of a £32,500 pro-rata salary. The bonus of up to £1000 will be made available based on achieving or part achieving specific targets around engagement levels and within the programme delivery timeframe.

In Summary

If you think you would be a great match for this Community Engagement Manager role, live locally or within the target region and have what it takes to help us deliver a successful and highly engaging local programme, we look forward to hearing from you soon.

View the live platform here: lovetoride.net/westlothian