Strategic Government Internal Communications

 Learn why video should be your go-to source, to communicate, connect with and motivate your employees—and what goes into creating effective, efficient and engaging videos.

In this hands-on workshop, you will learn the foundations of story-based video content development along with proven strategies, practical approaches and useful tips to creating content that engages employees and keeps the door open to ongoing interaction, including how to:

• Recognize the questions you should be asking before you create an ongoing online video content strategy
• Explore best practices for developing compelling, audience-engaging content
• Develop cost-effective video content for multiple distribution channels: both internal and external
• Create a phased strategy for developing content, demonstrating success and achieving acceptance
• Apply these approaches to your specific content needs

Denise McKee, COO, AboutFace Media

So what are some steps to move your government organization out of that silo-based culture that leads to communication, information, and engagement bottle necks? How can you start reducing culture and technology frustrations and move towards an integrated digital workplace?

This interactive workshop will provide you with hands on tools to help you understand why and how to leverage your current digital workplace capabilities to improve internal communications and employee engagement. You will also assess where you are today, map practical steps towards a better digital workplace and gain answers to your most pressing questions, including:

• What exactly is a digital workplace and why is it important for today’s government organizations?
• What attributes of the digital workplace are pertinent to your organization’s strategic business and communication needs?
• Where are you on our digital workplace maturity index and how to overcome the hurdles in your way?
• Who are the key people that need to be involved and who should be leading?
• How can you leverage what digital workplace capabilities you have and what are the next steps you can take to easily add more?

Chris Wightman, Enterprise Strategy Consultant, Nonlinear Creations

 Chances are many employees find themselves spending close to 50 hours a week at work. Employees are seeking an environment that is not only rewarding, but also engages and inspires them. Creating and maintaining a healthy work/personal life balance can often be solved within an agency's culture strategy.

This interactive workshop will dive into your organization’s culture and help you measure just how healthy and productive it is. You will learn how to take more constructive approaches and how to commit to boosting trust in your organization’s leaders, including how to:

• Take an intentional approach to culture
• Set values-based conditions for success
• Make a commitment to 2-way communications & relationships/ collaboration

Jackie Susman, Internal Public Affairs Specialist

USDA

Leave this workshop equipped with the knowledge needed to harness the power of your employees to drive involvement and achieve organizational goals , including how to:

• Utilize digital platforms to showcase the talents of your high-level internal employees to boost engagement and morale
• Choose the right digital platform - blog, website, LinkedIn, Social Media, and more – to achieve your mission
• Use micro-spends to elevate content and  bring it to the attention of targeted groups and individuals ensuring reach and impact
• Tying it all together to not only encourage employee engagement but also use this content to externally showcase the unique aspects of your organization

Ashtan Moore, Founder & Chief Digital Officer

Model B

At the AOC, 80% of employees are more likely to carry a hammer, rake, or paintbrush than to click a mouse during the workday. Their work locations are spread over 460 acres of land and reach hundreds of feet into the air and below ground into a warren of passageways and utility tunnels. Communicating your message to a dispersed workforce that does not have technology at their fingertips called for non-traditional communication strategies.

Discover strategies and techniques to deliver your message to employees wherever they may be, including:

• Investigating the use of digital signage
• Deploying digital signs in place of bulletin boards in order to keep information relevant and timely
• Automating the delivery of content to the signs from your intranet
• Empowering employees to post content to the digital signs with just a few easy steps

Franklin Bradley, Internal Communications Manager

Architect of the Capitol

As your organization grows, it’s important to maintain your culture, key talent and keep employees connected to their works’ mission.

Leave this session with tactical tips and best practices to communicate clearly during times of chance and keep your employees engaged, including how to

• Simplify information before distributing to employees in order to avoid misunderstandings
• Engage employees, maintain culture, and foster collaboration
• Enhance your organization’s culture by having employees share and create information of their own

Take with you from this session three key actionable ingredients to guarantee employee engagement & communication success, including how to:

• ASK: Gain valuable input by asking your employees about assumed definitions and expectations of employees
• BUILD: Build a community by breaking down assumptions of each generation
• CHANGE: Vary your methods of internal communications based on feedback—value the two-way communication method

Courtney Greenley, Strategic Communications Fellow

U.S. Army Corps of Engineers

By far, one of the biggest challenges in VA is communicating about new programs and general updates to its massive audience. In 2013, the highly anticipated VA Mobile program began testing, evaluating and deploying mobile applications in an effort to transform health care delivery for our nation’s Veterans. In 2016, the VA now has multiple versions and platforms for their Veterans to utilize.

This session will provide you with useful ideas on how your communications team can develop non-traditional strategies and tactics to push the communications needle forward, including how to:

• Use innovative techniques to gain agency buy-in among leaders and employees across the country
• Implement effective strategies and best practices for building agency-wide interest
• Utilize alternative methods for gaining traction for your new program
• Incorporate non-traditional communications channels into an overall communications plan
• Training necessary employees to relay and communication the new non-traditional communication channels

Alan Greilsamer, Communications Strategist

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs

Katie Spencer, Director of Internal Communications for Geisel, Library

University of California, San Diego

• Make the best use of focus groups to identify problem areas within your organization
• Understand the forming, storming, norming and performing stages of team development
• Create and empower an Employee Council
• Gain support from leadership to alleviate employee fear of retribution for speaking up

John Verrico, President

National Association of Government Communicators

 Engaging your employees doesn’t have to be time-consuming or costly. A little bit of creativity and outreach can go a long way. More importantly, your employees already have the tools they need to participate!

This session will provide you with a number of  cost-effective strategies that you can easily implement to increase employees engagement on and with your intranet, including how to:

• Spotlight employees for their passions and strengths, both on-duty and off
• Develop on-the-spot peer-to-peer recognition avenues that require little oversight
• Create meaningful calls to action that encourage participation, tied around a monthly theme, holiday, or agency initiative

Griffin Wilson, Intranet Manager

U.S. Department of Homeland Security

The concept of “Digital Storytelling” is everywhere, but what goes into creating effective, efficient, and engaging story-based video content?  And how can you be sure that content is reaching and impacting your audience?

• Learn why story-based content can be a successful development strategy
• Understand the makeup of engaging, compelling, and authentic stories
• Know the questions you should be asking before you start
• Leverage video content across multiple distribution channels

Denise McKee, COO

AboutFace Media

• Consistently and efficiently promote agency-wide initiatives
• Measure the effectiveness of these communications against the backdrop of employee engagement
• Identify audiences where more targeted outreach is needed

Learn how to gain employee commitment and drive action by harnessing the energy of your employees themselves. Discover how the National Park Service and U.S. Geological Survey managed to turn a disparate workforce into a results-driven, problem-solving machine.

Despite the size of your team or size of your budget, this interactive session will provide you with practical advice and techniques you can take back to your office, including how to:

•  Establish a mandate and mission for internal communications across diverse business functions and locations
• Understand employee motivations and inspirations at remote work assignment and in stove-piped work units
• Streamline processes for internally communicating with employees in geographically diverse locations across the enterprise
• Overcome geographical hurdles using strategies to break through to your audience.
• Transform communications efforts and tools into opportunities to solve significant organizational problems

Suki Baz, Intranet Manager

National Park Service

Dave Hebert, Internal & AV Communications Chief

U.S. Geological Survey

• Enable your employees to represent the brand by providing the right tools and guidance
• Enable collaboration as your brand adoption strategy
• Build and protect your brand and ultimately find success within your organization

Mika Cross, Director of Strategic Communications, Digital and Public Engagement

Veterans Employment and Training Services

U.S. Department of Labor

Michael Lawyer, Special Assistant to the Chief Human Capital Officer

What do you do and say from the time you get to the building’s door – until you reach your desk? For internal communications, your stakeholders are everyone in the office.

This session will dive into how to turn your office into a collaborative, communication friendly enviornment using simple traditional communications methods. We'll start the session off by:

• Focusing on how your office communicates with each other on a day to day basis
• Recognizing the behavior patterns of how stakeholders communicate with each other
• Creating a strategic plan to connect your employees with one another to create an engaging workplace setting

Teagan Geneviene, Strategic Communicator