We’re hiring to become digital first at RNID
As the UK’s largest charity supporting deaf people and those with hearing loss and tinnitus, RNID is striving to reach and support many more people than we do today.
We launched an ambitious strategy which is centred around providing information and support to people whenever they need it, as well as carrying our groundbreaking research into treatments for hearing loss and tinnitus for those who want them and campaigning to make life fully inclusive.
We are going to put digital front and centre of what we do. It is the best way to reach more of the 1 in 5 adults in the UK who are deaf or have hearing loss and the 1 in 8 with tinnitus. That’s why we are designing a new digital service (which I’ll tell you more about later) and building a roadmap for our future capabilities. By making these services straightforward and convenient, anyone who can use them will choose to do so.
We are changing the way we work to help deliver on our strategy. We’re organising ourselves differently, with five new capability teams supporting four new programmes focused on health, inclusion, employment and research.
We’re also striving to become the best charity to work for, by becoming a fully remote employer with enhanced benefits, meaning we can employ the most talented people, no matter where they live in the UK. More on that later too.
Who we are looking for
We are now recruiting to a number of roles in our newly formed Digital and Innovation team. As a capability team, we will:
- Design, build and iterate services and products, but will not be limited to digital
- Work on discoveries, prototypes and continuous improvements that span the charity
- Translate and join up user and organisational needs into the end-to-end design and delivery of valuable services, no matter the channel
To do this we work in Scrum teams but organise ourselves around two principle areas:
- Service design including service designers, interaction design, content design and working closely with our user researcher. They design new and improve existing products, services, processes and policies, by carrying out multiple discoveries at the same time and creating prototypes or alpha versions.
- Product and delivery including product managers, agile delivery management and software development. They take discovery phases and turn them into prototypes and final versions of products, services, processes and policies, which they test, scale-up and continuously improve.
We are going to be recruiting for:
- 2 x Service Designers
- 2 x Product Managers
- Interaction Designer
- Agile Delivery Manager
- Innovation Lead
- Full-stack Developer
- Dynamics 365 Administrator
Some of the roles are already open to apply for, while others will follow later. We will be reviewing applications as and when they come in and we may close a role early if we find the right candidate. So don’t delay in getting your application in!
We want to do things a little differently around here. So, you can expect the following from us:
- We will give shortlisted candidates the interview questions in advance. The interview process isn’t about trying to trick you. I want you to give the best possible interview so we can really get to understand why you are the ideal person for the job.
- We will happily have pre-application conversations with anyone who wants one. Perhaps you’re curious about a role but would like to know more before you apply? Just let us know and we can arrange a 15-minute slot with you.
Here’s a video I recently recorded to tell you more about RNID and our recruitment drive:
What you’ll be working on
If you want to know a little more about what you would be working on if you join our team, you can view our open roadmap, which we recently published. It’s subject to a fair bit of change at the moment as we grapple with all the exciting challenges ahead of us, but hopefully it will give you an idea of the work we are planning to do.
In a nutshell, we are building a new digital service ‘Get support online’ which aims to provide people with the right information and support, whether they are deaf, have hearing loss or tinnitus. It is likely to link to or be made up of some key products, such as:
- Hearing check: An impartial online hearing check which provides a result and next steps in just 3 minutes.
- Demos: Live or recorded demonstrations that help people understand what products and technology might help and how they work.
- Directory: A directory of services that support people with hearing loss or tinnitus that are reviewed and provided by the community, and approved by us.
- Community: Online peer-to-peer support via a forum or social media groups, moderated by staff and volunteers.
The digital service will also be supported by a contact centre made up of friendly experts who are on hands to provide people with more in-depth support.
For context, the minimal viable service was launched in May 2021, starting with the hearing check and the first version of the self-help tool. Our product roadmap over the coming months will see us continuing to build on this until we have the full digital service in place.
We are really pleased with the launch of our hearing check, which has so far seen:
- 20,000 completed checks
- 57% of people may have a hearing loss
- 3,000 people went on to download a certificate to take to their GP
Great reasons to work for RNID
There are many great reasons you should work at RNID, not least because you will be directly shaping the future of our services, helping to design and build products that help the 1 in 5 UK adults with hearing loss and the 1 in 8 with tinnitus.
As a charity we learnt a lot of lessons from the Covid-19 pandemic, one of which was that we feel more connected to our colleagues than we did before, thanks to embracing remote working, technology and all of its benefits. That’s why we recently announced that all of our staff will be moving to remote working.
We are also enhancing our benefits for staff in our mission to be one of the best charities to work for. These will include:
- 28 days of annual leave, plus bank holidays
- 2 annual wellbeing days
- Remote working, but with opportunities to meet up with co-workers
- No core working hours, to allow staff to work flexibly
- A new laptop to help you work remotely
- Improved family friendly benefits entitling everyone to benefit from at least 10 weeks leave on full pay when they become a parent
- A salary sacrifice scheme to allow you to contribute to your pension savings
- Sickness benefit entitlement from day one of your service
How to apply
RNID is working with The Talent Set to help us recruit a talented team. Please check the Talent Set’s microsite to see which opportunities are currently open for applications. If you’d like to arrange a pre-application chat let them know and we can set one up for you.
