Strategic Internal Communications for Government

A committed and engaged workforce is the holy grail of any healthy institution, organization, or government Agency – but employee engagement is as much an art as any science behind it.  The United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) employs over 7,000 “front-line field employees”, many of whom are unwired employees, without access to a government issued email address or computer. In 2016, FSIS launched a new employee engagement initiative, titled “i-Impact;” this was delivered to the majority of FSIS employees as a one hour, in person workshop. 

Learn the structure and successes of the 2016 i-Impact initiative, and hear how employee engagement was utilized to create FSIS’ 2017 i-Impact workshop, including:

• Tips and tricks of building an employee engagement initiative from scratch or livening up what programs exist
• How to move from talk to action; practical advice about how to turn employee engagement from a buzzword into something that is all the buzz
• The importance of bridging the gap between “Headquarters” and “Field” employees and overcoming logistical challenges
• How to convince leaders that employee engagement is an investment worth making

Aaron Lavalee, Deputy Assistant Administrator

United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), Office of Public Affairs and Consumer Education (OPACE)