Putting employee communications on the ‘Grid’

For writers and journalists, it’s easy to understand the importance of considering one’s audience. Whose eyes will eventually (hopefully) see a story or article has to be taken into consideration before even a single word is scribbled down or typed out.

For organizations looking to captivate their employees, the same rule should also apply. One must consider the audience.

PPL Corporation did just that. 

With some 17,000 employees who help provide electricity and natural gas to more than 10 million customers in the U.S. and the U.K., PPL is one of the utility sector’s largest investor-owned companies.

Realizing that having such a large workforce ultimately meant an increased obstacle in engaging its team as a whole, PPL looked to harness the power of video as a tool for both delivering and reinforcing corporate news and communications.

Tapping its own field of talented employees, PPL rolled out “Grid Live” in August 2013, a weekly two- to three-minute newscast that sums up top stories and noteworthy individuals from throughout the corporation.

Evaluating various video platforms, PPL decided on Vimeo, which provided the best combination of security and accessibility for the type of password-protected video library that the company looked to create.

Styled after a nightly news broadcast, episodes merge a collection of various live narration, video footage, clips, and still photographs. For this reason, throughout the development of “Grid Live,” PPL’s corporate communications team shifted their responsibilities to focus fully on imagery and video, providing the necessary in-house footage and support needed for its weekly segments.

Stories are pooled from PPL’s aptly named intranet, The Grid, which helps establish a natural connection between the two. Diversifying topic selection from the intranet is key, however, so as not to overload any given week’s installment with news from one particular department.

While an outside video editor helped PPL’s corporate communications team format its initial episodes, as well as build a recurring introduction clip, the videos are now produced entirely in-house. With that being so, and thanks to its use of employee talent, the creation of “Grid Live” proved a cost-effective way to reach its staff in an interesting and more appealing manner.

And in breaking news, we hope the corporate communications team’s efforts are recognized in its next weekly installment, as we are proud to recognize PPL with Ragan’s 2013 Employee Communications Award for Best Informational or Educational Video.

Want to get recognized for your hard work? Find out about Ragan and PR Daily’s award programs here: http://www.ragan.com/Awards/RaganAwardsPrograms.aspx