Indiana Department of Transportation Entry 2a) Newsletter Internal

Situation The Indiana Department of Transportation’s (INDOT’s) monthly e-newsletter, Inside INDOT, is built through an online database and links to individual stories. Only the clicks generated by the email are calculated, thus improving readership relies on persuading the reader to click within the email to “Read more.” Click rates are calculated by the amount of employees who click on “Read more.” This link then opens a PDF with the complete news story.

Situation In fall 2013, INDOT’s content team analyzed data from previous e-newsletters to determine ways to improve readership without redesigning the basic newsletter template. The team decided that several steps could help improve the newsletter: Create monthly series to engage audience month to month. Feature stories highlighting employees at work and outside of work. Increase image size and include more photos of INDOT employees. Use creative headlines and teaser text to grab the readers’ attention and encourage them to click to read the full story.

Goal and Objectives Goal: Increase readership by at least 10 percent over the previous year, based on the averages for click rate percentage and total clicks. Objectives: Communicate and reinforce important information to INDOT employees, such as project updates and completions, policy changes, new programs and ribbon cuttings. Share stories that humanize employees across the state and make them feel more connected to one another.

Target Audience The target audience of Inside INDOT is INDOT employees, primarily the 2,900 individuals with state email access. INDOT’s workforce is split between the Central Office, six district locations and dozens of subdistricts and units.

New Monthly Series Created two new series to help captivate an audience month to month: Division profile series, which highlights and explains the work of an INDOT division and helps to introduce the employees on the team to the rest of the agency. Safety series, which spotlights the agency’s initiative to reshape its hierarchy regarding safety, empowering employees at job sites to take control and ensure a safe workplace for themselves and their co-workers.

Employee Highlights Featured stories each month that emphasize employees’ successes at work and their lives outside of work. INDOT Employee’s Artwork Inspires Others LaPorte District Highway Technician Brad Foster uses spray paint art to inspire others in his community. This type of art is completed through layering spray paint and creating images by scraping some of the paint away.  Successful South Split Project Highlights INDOT Teamwork The South Split project was completed and opened to traffic Oct. 16, more than two weeks ahead of an aggressive 59-day schedule bid by the construction contractors. INDOT’s ‘Marathon Man’ Sprints to the Finish While employees are setting yearly performance goals, Greenfield District Highway Engineer Walter Evans is working toward a personal goal that fewer than 4,000 people have accomplished. He is on his way to completing a marathon in all 50 states. Vincennes District Employees Come to Motorist's Rescue Three Vincennes District employees practiced INDOT Values while driving to a job site Aug. 29, and assisted a grateful motorist in need.

Layout Improvements Increased the image size and used more photos of INDOT employees. The May 2013 issue (left) is an example of how the newsletter looked before the content team improved the layout. The March 2014 (right) shows the larger images and increased employee-focused content. Click on each image for an example of the newsletter before and after the changes were implemented. May 2013 March 2014

Results INDOT employee feedback: “What a great newsletter! There was so much GOOD stuff to read that it took me forever, but I didn’t want to stop reading! I love the 2 human interest stories too!” – Central Office employee “I wanted to tell you that I really enjoyed this newsletter!” –Vincennes District employee “Thank you for doing such a great job with the INDOT newsletter. It looks great!” – Central Office employee The monthly click rate increased by 22 percent compared to the 2013 average click rate, 12 percent higher than original goal. 2013 Average Clicks: 2,297 or 63 percent 2014 Average Clicks: 2,932 or 90 percent