The StoryConnect Podcast

Allison Young and the Kauai team just won an NRECA Spotlight award for their internal newsletter and intranet. What's their secret for engaging internal communications?

Special: Recorded LIVE at StoryConnect 2024!

Creators & Guests

Host
Andy Johns
Vice President of Marketing

What is The StoryConnect Podcast?

StoryConnect features interviews with marketers, communicators, CEOs and other leaders at cooperative and independent broadband companies, electric cooperatives and municipal power providers. The goal of the podcast is to help listeners discover ideas to shape their stories and connect with their customers. It is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources.

Andy Johns:
Hi StoryConnect listeners, this is Andy, and I am here just to
let you know about a couple of audio problems we had with these

episodes. If you've been to StoryConnect before, you know that
we have a ton of fun recording live episodes there in the

conference center, and we did that once again this year in Hood
River.

Unfortunately, in this episode you're about to listen to, some
of the audio is not quite as good as it is when we're recording

otherwise. I think it's an important episode.

And we did learn a few things from last time we recorded live,
but it's still not perfect.

So, I just wanted to give you a heads up on that.

If this is your first time listening, normally, we're pretty
proud of the pristine quality we're able to deliver, but this one

is a little bit rough, so I wanted to give you a heads up.

We think it's an important episode, and I hope you enjoy.

Intro:
A production of Pioneer Utility Resources.

StoryConnect, helping communicators discover ideas to shape
their stories and connect with their customers.

Andy Johns:
How is an internal newsletter your best option to communicate
with folks inside the shop?

That's what we'll be talking about on this episode of
StoryConnect: The Podcast.

My name is Andy Johns.

I'm your host with Pioneer, and I'm joined on this episode by
Allison Young, who is a communications and public relations

specialist at Kauaʻi Island Utility Cooperative.

Allison, thanks so much for joining me.

Allison Young:
Thank you, Andy.

Andy Johns:
As you may have heard, this is one of the live episodes we were
recording here at the StoryConnect Conference 2024, in Hood

River, Oregon. And we're very happy on this episode.

All of the live episodes recorded here at StoryConnect are
sponsored by Meridian Cooperatives, so we appreciate support from

Meridian. Well, Allison, first off, congratulations.

You won a couple of awards with the NRECA Spotlight Awards.

But the one today I'd like to talk about in particular is the
one for your internal communication, your internal newsletter and

intranet. Tell us a little bit about what you guys do in terms
of the the internal newsletter and the intranet.

How often, what do you cover, all that sort of thing?

Allison Young:
Yeah. So we used to have an internal newsletter, maybe as old as
ten years ago, and it had gone dormant.

And we also had an intranet, which we called the Electranet, and
that had also become a little bit inactive over the pandemic.

So when I was hired, I joined on a year and a half ago, we
revived it.

And we kept the same name, it's called Watt's Up Newsletter.

And then we added the intranet, which we call Watt's Up Hub.

And the purpose of it and our goals were to inform our staff
about current events so that they would understand the big

picture of KIUC and how they play a part and that they feel
valued and that they could provide feedback.

Andy Johns:
Got it. So you've got the intranet, and you've got the internal
newsletter.

How do they work together?

Is it a lot of the same information in two different places, or
how do they work back and forth?

Allison Young:
So the newsletter we decided to publish quarterly.

Here's an example, I have them if anyone wants to see them later.

And that we put together a team of reps from all the different
divisions and they submit their news articles.

It can be anything that they choose to report on.

It can be on operations.

It could be on a new hire, a retirement.

It can be a funny story.

We really left it up to them because we were starting it up
again.

We wanted people to get enthusiastic about it.

And the intranet, we rolled out a little bit later, maybe six
months in or so.

We had a team from IT and engineering working on it.

It's on our SharePoint drive that people can hit their home
button on their internet browsers and get to.

And that one is a little more interactive.

We have links to our social media pages.

So in case people weren't following us on their own, they could
see it from there.

Andy Johns:
Smart.

Allison Young:
And then we have our safety policies, quick links, photos of the
week, and we're constantly adding to it.

Now we have a video channel, and this is all a work in progress
for us.

Andy Johns:
Sure. Well, it's a work in progress, and it's a lot of work.

I mean, where does all this come from?

What's your workflow like for departments?

I mean, are you getting a lot of this from different department
heads?

Or where does this content you're talking about coming from?

Or is it all you and your team working on it?

Allison Young:
Yeah, so we have support from the top, but our reps from each
division were selected by their supervisors

and not everyone is in communication.

So it took a little more encouragement.

This falls under other duties as assigned.

Andy Johns:
As assigned, yeah.

Allison Young:
So I give them a very generous deadline of at least a few weeks.

And, as I said, it's a work in progress.

We found after a few issues that people were having a hard time
coming up with topics, even sometimes you can have too much

flexibility. We wanted to let people express themselves, but
they actually needed a little more prompting.

So I am more proactive now, and I help them come up with topics.

I'll even help them draft something if they don't have enough
time.

But yeah, and then we decided for the fourth issue of the year,
which came out around the holidays, that we wanted to minimize

their work and give them a break.

So we called it our family issue.

And that one is mostly pictures, recipes, funny stories.

And employees can submit those directly to me, anyone, not just
the representatives.

Andy Johns:
Got it. This is obviously takes some resources to put together.

It takes staff time.

Because it's a printed newsletter, so you're spending a little
bit money on printing.

How much do you think, in terms of resources and staff, what
kind of resources are dedicated to this, and why do you – and you

said you have support all the way at the top – why do you feel
like it's worth the investment?

Allison Young:
So the costs in terms of printing, we only have about 140 staff,
so it's not too high.

And we decided that we would go with a print newsletter just
because our crews are not at their computers all day.

And it was just nice to have something in hand where they could
see their faces on the cover.

But so our biggest resource that we a lot to this is staff time.

And in the beginning to start it up and planning it, it did take
more time.

But now, you know, some people are actually pretty quick writers,
and they're getting better.

And as I said, I'm doing communications full time.

So I assist with them as much as possible.

And it's definitely a good channel.

I think people are getting more, they're excited to see pictures
of their coworkers and see what else is going on around the

different offices on the internet.

.

Andy Johns:
Yeah. You touched on it just then.

We know some departments live in their email, others don't.

What do you do to try to keep employees engaged and reading the
newsletter and the intranet?

You know, are they required to read it?

Is there a quiz on this later?

I mean, what do you do to get keep them engaged?

Is it the photos like you were mentioning?

Allison Young:
Uh, yeah. So we decided that we were going to change it up and
try to highlight a different department each time on the cover.

So it wasn't going to be just a picture of our CEO president
every time.

But it would be, you know, maybe them out in the field or a
retirement with someone who retired with their family

, something like that. So we switch it up to make it interesting.

I'm open to other ideas about how to incentivize it.

We added a crossword puzzle with clues within the newsletter and
gave out some swag as prizes.

Andy Johns:
Nice. Nice.

Allison Young:
Yeah. So we're still figuring it out, but we hope that it's
engaging enough that people will want to participate and read.

Andy Johns:
Perfect. Sounds like it.

Last question for you, what advice do you have?

Maybe there's somebody out here in the room.

What advice do you have for someone who is trying to step up
their internal communication?

Allison Young:
I would say encourage people as much as possible.

It might seem like a little extra work in the beginning, but
ultimately it will make people feel more valued.

And you'll actually be really surprised that you might have some
engineers who have a creative streak that they don't get to

exercise very much.

And in communications, I've actually used some of the internal
articles in our external magazine, and they're very popular

because it shows a side that people don't usually get to see.

And I'd also just like to give a shout out to our whole Watt's
Up team.

Thanks.

Andy Johns:
Wonderful. Well, thank you so much for sharing that.

Thank you for being on. She is Allison Young, communications and
public relations specialist at Kauaʻi Island Utility Cooperative.

I'm your host, Andy Johns.

This is our wonderful audience here at StoryConnect.

Outro:
StoryConnect is produced by Pioneer Utility Resources.

Andy Johns:
And so we talk again. Keep telling your story..

Outro:
A communications cooperative that is built to share your story.

StoryConnect is engineered by Lucas Smith of Lucky Sound Studio.