An Interview with Holly Wetzel, Expert on Internal Communications for Electric Cooperatives

For this edition of The Current, we had the extreme pleasure of interviewing Holly Wetzel about internal communications for electric cooperatives, a topic on which she is a leading expert. Holly has worked in strategic communications for over 25 years, spending the last 10 years in marketing, member communications and internal communications at the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA). As the organization's internal communications leader, she implemented programs that informed and engaged NRECA's 700+ employees. She literally created the guide to internal comms for the entire industry, so we are lucky to tap into Holly's wealth of knowledge on the topic.?

Without further ado, here is everything you need to know about internal communications with Holly Wetzel. Answers have been edited for length and concision.

Jacqui: Why are internal communications so important?

Holly: Today's employees expect transparency; they want purpose-driven work. They also expect clarity on their goals and the role that they have in helping to meet them. Internal communications enhances employee engagement so that employees feel informed and valued. It also helps promote organizational alignment, build the trust and transparency that folks crave, and create an environment of collaboration.?

Something else to consider is member perception. As we know, when working at a co-op, anybody who wears the logo on their chest is being asked questions about what happens at the co-op; employees are the? ambassadors for the co-op. So, if they're not happy or informed, it shows up in how employees service the members. Building knowledgeable and engaged employees is essential for maintaining the great member service and strong reputation in the community that co-ops strive for.

Internal comms is also essential for strategic achievement and function at the co-op because numerous studies (here’s one from Harvard Business Review) show how employee engagement is directly tied to performance. So, it's a strategic imperative for an organization to pursue it (Holly also notes that this is a great argument for getting your boss on board with your internal communications plan).

Jacqui: What are some challenges facing internal communications teams?

Holly: I think the biggest one is staffing; in most cases, co-ops don't have a large communication staff. So when you have 1-3 people trying to do it all, adding internal communications into the mix can be a challenge. But, I think there are ways to address internal comms even with a short staff by being strategic about which channels you choose to implement. There are a lot of options, and we know that you have to use multiple channels to break through just like you do with external audiences, but you could pick a few to start out and manage, because a few is better than none. Developing a communications plan and content calendar can help you keep on track.?

Repurposing content is a way to help save time— a lot of the same content that you're using for your external audience can be used internally as well. And taking advantage of some of the resources that are available through NRECA and other organizations, whether it's a statewide or a G & T, which may have content that can help fill out some of that calendar.?

One significant challenge communicators face is how to reach and engage folks who aren't at their desks in front of a computer every day. Thankfully, most line workers and folks in the field do have tablets, so to reach these folks, it’s essential that your e-newsletter is mobile-friendly. Communicators can also think about how you could leverage the morning meetings before your crew heads out for the day, whether by giving crew leaders some quick talking points on important news or having communicators attend those meetings periodically to give folks the news in person. A lot of co-ops use texting programs to communicate key information to employees. Giving field staff a printed flyer with high-level, necessary info can also be effective.?

Jacqui: How do you measure success??

Holly: I think it is essential to measure success, which you can do in multiple ways. You can obviously look at channel analytics. If you have an email newsletter through Constant Contact or other email marketing system, you can look at how many people are opening the emails. You can also look at your intranet analytics to see who's clicking from your newsletter to content online and how many people are signing up for events, engagement activities or volunteer activities.?

I also highly recommend that co-ops do periodic culture surveys and internal comms surveys.

Internal comms surveys are a way to get feedback on what's working and what's not with your internal comms channels—You’ll learn what people want to hear about and what channels work best for them. That kind of intelligence can inform your strategy and help you hone in on what channels you’re going to focus on.?

Culture surveys get at sentiment and how people are feeling about work, colleagues, and the environment. Communications obviously isn't the only thing that shapes culture, but it is highly influential. The culture survey is helpful for figuring out where you stand with your co-op’s culture and what elements of culture might need to be addressed. Communications can help.

Jacqui: What topics should be addressed in internal communications?

Holly:?

There are so many opportunities for content. Here are some examples of things you can cover:

The basics are always important, like safety, and things that people need to do their jobs, like HR, finance, and administration messages.?

Updates from different departments, like updates after board meetings and other department news can help break down the silos separating departments and increase transparency.?

Organizational strategy and progress toward goals throughout the year can fill employees in on what the co-op is striving for and how you are progressing.?

Co-op 101 topics—some content that might initially be created for an external audience can be great for employees too, such as explainers and messaging on industry hot topics.?

Employee or team profiles, employee news (personal and professional), and showcasing employees expertise are great for building connections between people.

Sharing and celebrating success, big and small—showing the incremental progress toward big goals helps people feel that they and the organization are accomplishing something.?

Talking about upcoming events, community involvement opportunities and giving people plenty of notice if there's an opportunity to participate helps get folks engaged.?

Employees first—employees should be a key audience in member communications. Employees should be the first to know about big member developments, like a new service that’s rolling out, a rate increase, etc. Employees? should be equipped with basic talking points about what's happening.?

P.S. If you can’t do it all, that’s ok!?

Jacqui: What are some effective channels for internal comms?

Holly: Meetings like all-staff meetings and manager meetings are a channel. Research shows that people trust their manager more than senior leadership to give them straight talk and make the CEO’s big picture strategy actionable and personal to the team. (Here’s some research from HBR about how trust trickles up) So, leveraging the managers as an inflection point of communication, who are both communicating about things to their employees and bringing feedback from their employees back up to the broader organization, is important. If you've got something big happening, talk to the managers and give them some talking points to help them reinforce messages with their team. The all-staff meeting can be a great place to talk about what's going on at a strategic level and highlight wins from different departments. You can also showcase some employee expertise so it's not the same people from the leadership team talking all the time.

A lot of co-ops have digital signage systems back in the break room, lobby and around the office. Utilizing those slides, flyers or table tents in the break room is another useful channel. In NRECA’s Internal Comms toolkit (which Holly created), you’ll find a guide to all of the channels. Some co-ops have gotten creative and posted mini versions of their newsletter on the back of bathroom stalls—there are some funny, clever names out there!?

Jacqui: How can communicators elevate internal communication??

Holly: I think aligning internal communications with the business goals of the co-op is the way to get buy in with leadership. When you can show how engagement, transparency, and communications help the co-op meet its other goals, then you can get that buy-in. Being data-driven, getting feedback from employees, and giving employees a voice is essential to your strategy.

Like anything, having a consistent look, feel and voice is important in internal comms and keeping things simple and straightforward, especially when you’re giving talking points to employees about changes.

Just like with external audiences,you have to say something seven times, seven different ways for it to break through. So repeating messages and using multiple channels is key.?

Scaling your efforts so that your plan is actually doable is also important. It’s better to be really good at a few things versus not great at a lot of things. So if you can only manage one or a couple channels, make that awesome.?

And just like with external audiences, photo and video captures attention internally. I've seen some co-ops doing cool stuff with video that's focused internally and, a lot of times, the videos can be repurposed for both audiences. You can highlight something that's cool about your employees or about something the employees did or knows and is talking, which can be fun to show to members also.

Jacqui: Can you give us an example of an internal comms campaign done well?

Holly: During COVID, we worked on a major once-in-a-generation transition to consolidate our finance, HR, procurement, and admin systems into Workday. So, the processes for everyone’s time cards, expense reports, invoices and goal protocols were going to change. It was a major endeavor; hundreds of people on staff were involved in it. We did an amazing, year-long, multi-channel communications plan because it was such a big change for the organization.?

We used all the channels that we had and gave folks updates all along the way, increasing the cadence of communication as we got closer to the launch. We set the stage for what people could expect, what was going to change, and why. We also built a group of change champions across different departments who got a preview of things before everyone else and served as resources for their teams. And we engaged managers to make sure they had tools and talking points.

We made the launch fun by turning it into a movie premiere. We created a little movie preview and a movie-style poster saying “Workday is Coming.” We also did a red carpet video with the senior team on the project for the launch and then created a mini-movie to celebrate all the people who worked on it. For this event, we gave the staff celebration gifts that were movie-themed.?

Lastly, we worked really hard in conjunction with the training team to develop training programs, resources and office hours and to communicate those available resources for staff. It was a successful transition and people knew where to get help because of all the communication we had done.

Jacqui: What about an internal comms campaign gone wrong??

Holly: At NRECA, we had concern for community months that were focused on fundraising. Staff picked a few charities each year and we hosted multiple events during the month. There was one year in particular where we just bit off more than we could chew. A lot of things were pulled together at the last minute, so we weren't able to communicate about things with enough lead time so that people could make time in their schedule to participate in everything. The lesson was to be mindful about streamlining what you're doing and not to spread yourself so thin that you can't accomplish it.

Jacqui: Is there anything else you’d like to share with our community about internal comms??

Holly: I would just reiterate that employees are the number one audience for the co-op. We have to tell them first, tell them often, tell them the truth and we have to give them a voice. The employees are the ambassadors for the organization in the community. They need to be informed, they need to be engaged, and you want them to be out there representing the co-op in a positive way. I have heard stories from co-ops where the culture wasn't the greatest and it impacted member satisfaction and engagement. What happens inside the co-op definitely impacts perception outside the co-op.