I'm very proud and excited to annouce that myself, along with my Ford Compensation and Benefits team, have been awarded Ragan Communication's Best Benefits Communication Award for our creation of Ford's Benefits eGuide.

On my first day as a Team Detroit employee working with Ford Motor Company, I was handed a brand new project which was a redesign and refresh of printed booklet Ford mailed to employees to explain their benefits and prepared them for the annual Open Enrollment period where they would have to make their benefit selections.

Together with the Ford Compensation and Benefits communications team, we developed a digital, interactive guide that walks employees through all of their benefits and retirement options as well as outlines the steps for Open Enrollment. The 2015 Benefits eGuide was born!

Our interactive 2015 benefits enrollment guide, which is accessible outside the company firewall on desktop and mobile devices, provides a one-stop shop for benefits information from wherever employees (or the family members responsible for decisions) happen to be.

The eGuide features tabs employees can click to seamlessly move through the materials, identifying what they need to know before enrolling, the various choices available to them, and easy-to-follow instructions for completing their enrollments online. Links to calculators and other tools enhance the document, which is also available in printable versions for workers without online access (or with a preference for print).

A comprehensive communication campaign accompanied the revamped enrollment, which resulted in a significant reduction in the number of calls to the service center and a high rating in a follow-up survey. Ford was also able to tout the ecological benefits of a mainly digital enrollment guide while reducing the cost of production, print, and mailing. And because the document was crafted as an informational resource, it serves employees year-round, and is part of the new hire toolkit.


Ragan writes, "In addition to a sound strategic plan and good, measurable outcomes, the production values of the finished guide blew away the competition"

Recognized for our outstanding work producing what is often a dry, officious communication, Ragan's 2014 Employee Communications Award for Best Benefits Communication was awarded to Ford Motor Company. Congratulations to Catherine Biondi (Ford), Kathleen Hurt (Ford), and Katelyn Davis (Team Detroit), along with our counterparts at Xerox.

Ragan Communications has been the leading resource and publisher of information about corporate communications, internal communication and employee communications for three decades.

One of their most popular award programs, the Employee Communications Awards draws hundreds of the finest internal communicators from around the world. The entries demonstrated the many extraordinary ways that internal communicators are informing and engaging employees. This year’s program offered awards in categories covering digital and print publications, videos, intranets, employee communications and more.