CAI, a global IT services firm, had over 9,000 associates across the US, India, and Philippines without a unified system for reaching them. Internal communications was decentralized, inconsistent, and reactive. It lacked an intake process, multi-channel strategy, writing standards, and alignment between how CAI was positioned externally to the market and what employees were hearing internally.

It needed a scalable communications function to reinforce a single narrative both internally and externally.

Employees are your most important audience. They should never learn company news from their newsfeeds or a journalist before hearing it from leadership. I designed the internal communications function with the employees’ interest at its center.

To foster that alignment, I developed a comprehensive Corporate Communications Playbook that included:

• Comms impact vs. complexity matrix to determine level of involvement

• SLAs and SOPs — specifically an SOP established the internal communications for company news

• Writing style guidelines

• Channel strategy

• Annual how-to guides

A key backdrop to our success was the multi-year integrated communications calendar spanning PR, award announcements, employee resource group (ERG) events and communications, executive communications, open enrollment, change management, and many others.

Equally as important was making sure executive thought leadership was echoed internally. For example, when the Chief Technology Officer spoke externally about a "glass box, not black box" approach to using AI — showing clients the work rather than hiding the machinery behind the scenes — that same language showed up in internal communications about the same initiatives.

One of the most distinctive programs I pitched and launched was an internal podcast called Ally in the Room. It served a dual purpose:

1. An interactive platform for employees to share their professional stories and give colleagues a glimpse into what was happening across the organization

2. Ongoing executive media training in a low-stakes environment before putting them in front of a reporter

Ally in the Room was a culture-building, messaging discovery, media-training engine that continued on for four seasons.

As we were driving company strategy, we had to balance and prioritize requests. I introduced a formal intake system with separate workflows for internal communications, events, intranet content, press releases, and employer branded materials. This eliminated constant triage mode and established clear expectations to the business.

After I established the integrated communications function, the team increased click-through rates by 150% and open rates by 25%, including:

• 86% ERG membership growth with communications guidelines and planning support

• Organization-wide adoption of Corporate Communications Playbook standards and intake system

• Integrated communications calendar to synchronize external and internal messaging and events

• Ragan Employee Communications Team of the Year for 2026

Some content was for internal use only. Confidential details were redacted.

• Corporate Communications Playbook (coming soon)

• Change Communications for AI Adoption (password protected)

• Communications Intake System (password protected)

• Communications & Events Calendar (password protected)

• SOP: Internal Communication of Press Release (password protected)

• ERG Communications Guidelines (password protected)