Cuyahoga County Internal Communication Plan

- Make Cuyahoga County an Employer of Choice
Strategic Priorities
  • 15.4 Ensure proactive, regular two-way communication among county staff
    - Make Cuyahoga County an Employer of Choice
About this measure

This measure provides updates on major milestones and anticipated next steps associated with efforts related to the development and implementation of the Cuyahoga County Internal Communication Plan. Updates are provided by the Cuyahoga County Department of Communications.
Why is this important?

The Cuyahoga County Internal Communications Plan provides a roadmap for the Department of Communications to improve internal communications channels, create a positive, open, supportive culture that values staff and ensures proactive, regular two-way communication among County staff. Strategies detailed in the plan include:

  1. Creating an Internal Communications Departmental Committee
  2. Planning standing face-to-face meetings with members of the Executive Leadership Team
  3. Revamping the intranet so that it is robust, utilitarian, and informative
  4. Administering the Annual Cuyahoga County Employee Survey
  5. Devising standardized internal communication policies & procedures
  6. Developing a resource document for mass communications that show a roadmap to follow with the Department of Communications input
How are we making an impact?

The Department of Communications will be leading implementation of the internal communications plan. Through plan implementation we will foster an environment that will:

  • Listen to staff to identify challenges and preferences and facilitate a greater buy in,
  • Facilitate formal communications to encourage confident, clear and succinct communication of County news to avoid confusion and apathy,
  • Give employees access to senior management creating a venue to encourage sharing of views, questions and concerns,
  • Formally recognize staff at an individual, team and project level in front of colleagues ensuring they feel valued, and
  • Stratify material to meet different audiences in tone, content, and format to deliver the message effectively.
Reporting Agency

Cuyahoga County Department of Communications 
Milestone Measure

In the second quarter of 2019, the Communications staff continued executing the Cuyahoga County Internal Communications Plan. Production and distribution of the “In the Know” newsletter increased to once a week. Internal intranet content audits were performed on the County’s current intranet, MyHR and Infor landing pages. This included an analysis of peer community intranet pages through conversations with the intranet managers from Sedgwick County, Kansas, and Yolo County, California. From this analysis, the Communications Department, Department of Information Technology, and the Project Drive “Infor” team began plans to connect each platform and determine what content the intranet, Infor, and the benefits sites will hold. A SharePoint site was created to accept content submissions for events and blog posts for the new County Intranet. In the third quarter of 2019, the Department of Communications will test and launch of the County’s new intranet site.