Timely and relevant information and intelligence is the lifeblood of political consultancy. Interel’s research and monitoring unit lies at the heart of the company’s research and intelligence-gathering process. The Head of Research and Intelligence manages the monitoring unit and is responsible for undertaking day-to-day monitoring. The executive also has a direct interface with a number of clients, liaising with them on information requests and sending them weekly monitoring reports. In addition, the executive provides research support to consultants, both with regular client requests and new business/market scoping.
MONITORING AND INTELLIGENCE
The objective of the monitoring element of the position is to:
- Provide to all consultants and clients timely, accurate and relevant information on activity in the UK Houses of Parliament, UK government and its agencies, political parties, think tanks, NGOs and pressure groups;
- Become an authority and first point of contact on parliamentary and political procedures;
- Monitor political blogs and Twitter feeds and other political and policy gossip in social media/newspapers/magazines/journals;
- Produce and distribute to consultants note of next week’s parliamentary and political business;
- Present parliamentary and political business for coming fortnight at weekly consultants’ meeting;
- Finalise and distribute weekly monitoring reports;
- Manage the company relationship with monitoring and monitoring plus clients;
- Advise consultants on progress of Bills, secondary legislation and select committee inquiries;
- Produce reports for consultants and clients where required on key political events such as party conferences, Budget and Pre-Budget Reports and Queen’s Speech;
- Organise quarterly meetings with sector teams to receive briefings on clients, and new business issues/developments;
- Maintain strong and regular communications with consultants on political and regulatory issues of the day;
- Keep client and consultant issues lists up-to-date;
- Support the work of the rest of the monitoring team through IT and administrative tasks when necessary, including managing magazine and newspaper subscriptions;
- Write regular intelligence briefs.
Supporting intern
- Covering for absent colleagues responsible for monitoring devolved assemblies and EU institutions, and also to develop an expertise in these areas;
- Producing the monitoring reports by cutting and pasting relevant text;
- Collating and distributing the monitoring reports;
- Collecting parliamentary papers from the parliamentary bookshop daily.
RESEARCH AND CLIENT SUPPORT
The objective of the research part of the position is to support staff and clients with research requests.This gives Head of Research and Intelligence a strong grounding in consultancy.
Ad hoc research
- Develop good relations with key parliamentary and departmental contacts;
- Conduct research requests for clients and consultants on wide range of issues, through desk research, telephone inquiries and using the company’s suite of research tools;
- Research into new business/specific companies and sectors once targeted;
- Research into areas of policy.
Business development
- Direct potential new business opportunities uncovered in routine monitoring to relevant sector heads, investigate new business leads and targets;
- Contribute to the development of new business initiatives and proposals as required;
- Conduct follow-up mailshots if required;
- Contribute to blog, Twitter feed and website development.
Select Committees
- Attending and reporting on proceedings when relevant.
PERSON SPECIFICATION
The Head of Research and Intelligence is a vital part of the company’s machinery, and the position provides the person with a strong grounding in the tools of political consultancy.
The attributes and qualities that they will need to demonstrate will include:
- Demonstrable knowledge and understanding of political, policy and legislative processes;
- Ability quickly to become proficient in new subject areas or tasks;
- Ability to master complete gamut of public policy issues quickly and effectively;
- Ability to move seamlessly from issue to issue;
- Good process, organisational and time management skills, and proven ability to deliver high quality work within tight deadlines;
- Confident communicator with ability to understand and grasp detail;
- At least a basic commercial awareness and understanding of the financial imperatives of consultancy work;
- Ability to work well and co-operatively in a small team;
- Enquiring mind with desire to follow up leads and intellectual curiosity;
- Ability to contribute, as appropriate, to new business initiatives;
- Demonstrable ability to absorb information rapidly and develop practical responses to identified issues;
- Attention to detail;
- Persistent and tenacious;
- Helpful and personable;
- Self-motivated;
- Lateral thinker capable of seeing the angle in an issue that no-one else can;
- A flexible attitude and approach, to be able to work in a variety of different roles and contexts;
- Enthusiasm and determination;
- IT literacy.