The Employee Communications Enhancement Project: A Pilot to Apply CDC’s Digital First Framework to Employee Communication

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis: The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) informs and engages employees through many internal channels. CDC uses a digital first approach to make health communications more straightforward, effective, and accessible on a variety of digital devices, including mobile platforms. This pilot project addresses the intersection of employee communications and the digital first framework. The CDC Consolidated Daily Announcements System (CDA) is an internal CDC system that summarizes employee announcements into one daily email digest disseminated to CDC employees. In 2018, CDC implemented a review of the CDA system, to determine methods for maximizing employee communication and improving the interface. The resulting CDA Enhancement Project will pilot a customized digital interface that includes the ability for employees to opt-in or out of content based on category and enhances integration with other software platforms, and will add more robust functionality to CDC’s internal communications platforms.

Methods: A user survey for CDC employees was launched in late October 2018 and disseminated across CDC’s employee-facing channels. Interviews were conducted with select stakeholders to gauge reaction and interest in new features.

Results: Survey respondents (n=1,586) indicated that the most popular CDA content was CDC news and events (75%). Almost half (49%) of respondents indicated they read CDA content every day. Respondents indicated a desire for tailored content on education and training (78%); products and services (55%); and organizational changes (53%). While email remains the reported preferred employee communication channel for most respondents (95%), a sizeable number of users (31%) indicated an interest and willingness to receive employee information from a mobile app. Based on these data, CDC developed a prototype for a new, innovative way to engage with CDC employees. The prototype will enhance the outdated CDA system, transforming into a multi-platform solution including a mobile app that is customizable and tailored to each user. The result will be a richer, more visually compelling means of communication that provides new opportunities to engage with employees on topics of importance to them.

Conclusions: Through analyzing the employee survey data, CDC was able to determine a trend of common communication challenges and desired changes to the existing CDA system. In addition to functional changes, the survey results indicate a demand for more customizable features and identified a portion of the employee population that is receptive to receiving employee information in an innovative way. These data indicate that a new digital platform could address employees’ information needs and preferred communication channels.

Implications for research and/or practice: The CDA Enhancement Project is a first of its kind within HHS and potentially throughout US federal government. The larger implications of this project include an overall improvement and modernization of employee communications in reshaping the ways that employees engage with and feel connected to an organization. This project will benefit CDC by employing a variety of communication methods, going beyond standard channels and formats. These enhancements could provide a significant improvement on how federal employees receive information in the future, while increasing opportunities for leadership to share information and receive timely feedback from employees.