A day in the life of an associate director in the content and channels team
Sanjay Tanday
Sanjay started his second stint at NICE in September 2021. He came from Public Health England where he was head of content. As our associate director for content and channels, Sanjay tells us about his team's remit to tell the corporate story and bring NICE’s vision to life through our internal and external channels.
Tell us about your role
I’m one of 3 associate directors in the Communications Directorate, and I head up the recently created content and channels team. The newest element of my team is the creative content team, which consists of our in-house graphic designer Rachel Brandon, our writer Pranam Mavahalli and our social media manager, Simon Jukes. This content team works alongside our web and internal communications teams and we’re seeing real synergies since we brought the teams together. It’s a pleasure managing them.
How long have you been at NICE?
It's been just over a year now, and it’s really flown by. In that time, the content and channels team has been created and is now fully formed and up and running. We have exciting plans afoot for revamping our social media channels, as well as developing a new intranet and accelerating the pathway to a new external website.
But, I’ve actually worked at NICE before, back in 2009 to 2014. Check out my old photo on NICE Space if you don’t believe me! My hair is significantly more salt and pepper now and I’ve sprouted a beard. I blame the pandemic and maybe my kids. Anyway, I think it speaks volumes for the organisation that I choose to return. At its heart it is an organisation that does incredibly valuable work that really makes a difference to people’s lives.
Previous work or education history
My role as head of content at Public Health England was fantastically rewarding. It involved creating public health content and campaigns for professionals and the public. The highlight of my time there was working on the response to the COVID-19 pandemic and, in particular, the stay-at-home messaging. It was an incredibly stressful time but nevertheless a privilege to have played my part in the response.
I started my career as a health reporter, working on GP trade publications and journals, including The Lancet. Going even further back in time, I studied Biochemistry at King's College London and have a masters in science communication from the University of Bath.
Where do you live?
Home is Peckham Rye in Southeast London. These days it’s far removed from the image of Del boy and Rodney and dodgy market traders – although there's still a 3-wheeler Robin Reliant proudly on display just off the high street.
What time do you get up?
I’m usually up between 6:30am and 7am. My morning routine involves switching on the Today programme, consuming as much coffee as possible, dishing up bowls of cereal for the kids (Martha, 8, and Emilia, 5) and then hitting the school run.
I’m fortunate that it’s a short stroll up the road to the local school. It's nice to get some steps in before the working day gets into full swing. Since my wife bought me an Apple watch (what’s she hinting at?) I’ve become obsessed with hitting my 10,000 steps for the day! Although, as an evidence-based organisation, I need to point out that the evidence base for this particular physical activity goal is flimsy and based on an old Japanese marketing campaign!
How do you travel to work?
I’m normally in the Stratford office 2 days a week and I find that it’s a good way to break up the days. It gets me away from my home office desk which is in the kitchen and far too close to the fridge and the biscuit tin!
It's also a great chance to meet up with my team, which is particularly important for me as my team is relatively new. Today, I’ve been able to meet face to face with our new social media manager, Simon Jukes. We discuss the development of our new social media strategy to optimise the use of our channels. Did you know that we have close to half a million followers on our social channels – Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram?
How long does it take?
Door to door, I can do the commute into the office in around 40 minutes, which is a bit of a result for London. Getting lost in the mammoth Westfield shopping centre right next to our office can easily add on another 40 minutes!
Do you ever travel to the Manchester office?
I oversee the content, web and internal communications teams. Both the web and internal communications teams are based in Manchester, as well as our writer, Pranam. So, I’m making sure that I get up to Manchester as often as I can for in person catch-ups.
Talk us through a typical day
A typical day will often involve a number of regular meetings – be it with my teams, the wider directorate, or other teams across NICE.
This morning, we’ve just had our fortnightly strategic communications planning meeting. This is a new addition to the diary and is proving to be a really productive meeting. It brings our communications teams together to discuss the progress we’ve made around the priority areas and other 'big ticket' campaigns.
October has been a really exciting month for us as we launched a new webpage designed to help commissioners tackle health inequalities. This page brings together all the relevant pieces of our guidance and maps them out using the Labonte model against the factors that determine health and wellbeing. You can find out more in our 'A NICE way to reduce health inequalities' feature.
We bring it to life with infographics and videos. It's a great example of the kind of creative content that we're planning for our website. We also discuss the related brand campaign for commissioners that the marketing team have led on.
Meetings, meetings, meetings
Later on, I join the operational management committee with other senior leaders across NICE. This is always a fascinating meeting and an opportunity to learn more about our inner workings. The agenda is so diverse. Today, we approved new hotel booking and home working equipment policies and had a discussion on temporary recruitment and underspend.
Working in communications means regular contact with a whole host of stakeholders, both internally and externally. Today, I have a call with the internal communications team and our partner Civica, to discuss our proposals to upgrade the intranet to SharePoint as part of the Digital Workplace plans. Later on in the week, I’ll be joining the cross-government communications group that meet regularly to discuss our plans for communicating the changes to the Innovative Licensing and Access Pathway.
What do you do for lunch?
I try and make a packed lunch when I’m in the office to keep the costs down, but also as a way of making sure I eat healthily. If I’m lucky there’ll be some leftovers from dinner that I can repurpose, such as bolognese or some chicken for a salad. On those days when I’m less organised, there’s always a Pret. In London, you're never further than 6 feet from a rat or a branch of Pret!
What does your afternoon look like?
After lunch, I’ll check on my emails and then get stuck into proofing and approving new content from the teams. Today, it’s the latest transformation newsletter for staff. I highly recommend it as an easy and engaging way to keep on top of the latest progress with our priority workstreams.
When do you finish work?
I take turns with my wife to do the school pick up. So, when it’s my turn, I’ll tend to work later into the day until between 6pm and 6:30pm. Then, the laptop gets shut down and cleared away for the dinner plates. I enjoy cooking, and slowly but surely the kids are becoming more adventurous with their choices so I can start to expand beyond pasta and noodles. Tonight, it’s a chicken korma!
What do you with the rest of your evening?
The bedtime routine takes a while, especially now that my eldest daughter, Martha, has discovered Harry Potter. We’re reading them together and are now on the sixth book. Last week we went to Harry Potter World - it’s the most fun you can have in Watford!
When the kids are finally down, then it’s time to relax in front of the television. If I’m lucky, there’ll be some football on to watch, otherwise my wife and I will continue with one of the many boxsets we have on the go. My current favourite is 'Succession'. I do also try and get out for an evening jog a couple of times a week, although this is starting to become harder now that the nights are drawing in. And anyway, I’ve done my 10,000 steps for today right!
Enjoy this article?
Get in touch and let us know.
Built with Shorthand