2009 Platinum PR Awards: Internal Publication

General Electric Company: Company-Wide Intranet Redesign (co-winner

To improve employee communications by increasing transparency and enabling two-way conversations among staffers, executives from GE’s communications, digital media and IT departments set out to overhaul the company-wide intranet, insideGE. Among the goals: Simplify navigation, upgrade search capabilities and create more compelling content about the company’s business strategy, innovation and technology.

The results of a comprehensive survey of more than 10,000 employees helped the team define their focus. Then, they initiated the redesign in phases, which included:

• Implementing the new design and upgrading the content management system;

• Creating editorial and style guides, as well as educational and training materials

• Integrating applications and tools;

• Building a new infrastructure and conducting all coding and programming for new target technologies; and,

• Establishing a long-term editorial calendar.

Ultimately, the relaunched intranet received rave reviews from employees, and usage increased exponentially; the site saw a 33% increase in unique visitors per day and a 50% jump in unique page views per day. As for engagement, stories receive anywhere from 80 to 130+ comments. Plus, it will help save $100,000 per year in IT maintenance costs. ■

DaVita Inc.: DaVita Magazine: Stories of the DaVita Village (co-winner)

As a company whose mission is to be the “Provider, Partner and Employer of Choice,” DaVita Inc.’s semi-annual magazine, DaVita Magazine, is a key vehicle for reinforcing its connection with employees and differentiating itself from the rest of the media equipment industry.

To make a 28-page magazine that would resonate with all 32,000 DaVita employees, the communications team conducted aggressive outreach to secure submissions from staffers throughout the company; collaborated with senior execs to review content and secure buy-in; and partnered with affiliated nonprofits such as The Kidney Trust and Bridge of Life to enhance the value of content through third-party validation.

Thanks to these efforts, the magazine saw significant growth in 2006—so much so that the pub is now distributed externally to more than 4,500 physicians, service partners and members of Congress. Plus, the number of contributors increased by 160%, thus prompting a 60% increase in pages by the end of 2008. ■

Honorable Mentions:

Bayer HealthCare/MS&L: Perspectives—Following its 2007 merger with Berlex, MS&L helped Bayer make the Perspective newsletter a communications vehicle to share best practices, build community and inspire all 1,800 US Commercial Operations employees.

PepsiCo & JZMcBride & Associates: Pepsi Post-Campaign Initial Results Internal E-mail—The team created an integrated application to consolidate and distribute e-mail marketing campaign results to Pepsi execs, brand marketers and partners by leveraging the same platform—e-mail—to reach stakeholders.

Con Edison: HealthMatters—Con Edison’s quarterly HealthMatters newsletter engages and educates employees about health issues and behavioral changes they can make to improve their own health, providing them with everything from recipes to additional resources.

Unum: One magazine Fall 2008—The Fall 2008 issue of Unum’s One magazine paid tribute to the company’s history while celebrating the ways in which modern technology supports interactions with every department and stakeholder, from its sales teams to its customers.

Latham & Watkins: Latham News—The global law firm created the Latham News daily news feed to report everything from hard news and feature stories to firm culture pieces to employees based in 27 cities around the world.

October 26, 2009