Taking a chapter-based approach to layoff comms, grounded in feedback
REI reimagined its change comms based on how employees wanted leaders to communicate.
The winds of change and uncertainty will shake and batter all organizations eventually. When this happens, comms leaders can build the sails with qualitative employee insights.
Outdoor retailer REI Co-op understood this in 2022 when it developed the Compass Group as part of its larger “The Way Forward” initiative. Led by Director Rachel Lum, the Co-op Compass Group helps the organization determine the most important employee experience topics by gathering employee input and co-creating solutions with hourly frontline employees.
During Ragan’s Employee Experience Conference in Nashville last month, REI Senior Manager of Internal Communications Nicole Bernard explained how the Compass Group drove additional insights around how the Co-Op could refine its strategy around communicating change.
Learning that about 88% of communications flowed through leaders and channel preferences differed by division prompted REI to launch the Co-op News tool in October 2023, a means to improve access and streamline information sharing.
Around the same time this tool launched, REI also had one of the largest organizational changes in the Co-op’s history.
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