Department of Labor Problem Sets

Starting in 2020, the Delaware Department of Labor was in search of consulting support to help with emergency communications and marketing, as the COVID-19 Pandemic forced state government officials to reassess in-office work and remote work options. Newly appointed agency leadership was looking for ways to effectively communicate to both staff and the public about changes that were taking place. I

OVP was asked to assess the situation and present a needs assessment for the agency to consider. As part of that needs assessment, our firm identified several key gaps that were limiting the effectiveness of communication the new Secretary of Labor.

First, there didn’t appear to be a strategic change management plan  dedicated to providing mid-level leaders tools to supervise a distributed workforce that  is learning how to adjust to new work environments. Secondly, the department appeared to be struggling to synthesize both its internal and external  communications strategies to accommodate changing needs of employees, as well as  Delawareans that sought to avail themselves of department services in a pandemic environment. There didn’t seem  to be an effective and secure technology solution to address some of the  communications gaps that exist in the system, currently.  

OVP Recommendations

OVP worked with the DOL administration to develop several new protocols that helped guide the way communications was conducted across the organization.

• Centralized the communications functions with OVP as the Coordinating Director

• Established weekly Strategic Communications meetings

• Conducted organization-wide communication surveys to better understand the current state

• Established measurement criteria for digital and social media communications efforts

• Drafted periodic leadership reports summarizing all of the communications work being done

• Led internal Town Hall meetings and all external media opportunities

• Develop a six-part television series for local cable access to showcase DOL’s operational reach and influence across Delaware
  

OVP Process Designs

OVP established several communications templates as standard ways of documenting and measuring efforts by the administration. We established an overall Communications Charter that laid out the mission, vision and values that DOL aspired to achieve in their communications. We introduced the use of Communication Planning documents for specific projects. We managed all of the external marketing, communications and advertising operations on behalf of DOL to ensure continuity across all of the department’s platforms.

Outcomes

OVP was able to document improvement of results across multiple categories over the course of four years, including overall engagement with online and social media audiences, increased numbers of legacy media interviews, increased exposure of the DOL leadership across state and regional media entities and the increase of requests for the Delaware Secretary of Labor to participate in public events. In addition, the Delaware Department of Labor’s “Did You Know…?” advertising campaign became one of the more widely recognized engagement efforts that helped to improve the organization’s reputation.