Ford Motor Company, SMS Assist, and Aflac nab top honors in Ragan’s Employee Communications Awards

At a time when employee communications has never been more important, many practitioners rose to the occasion during the past year of crisis.

Communicators were tasked with helping teams transition to remote work overnight—all while providing constant updates and messages around COVID-19, coordinating responses to social upheaval, and helping maintain business continuity with an increasingly dispersed workforce. Communicators have reported working harder this year than at any other time in their careers.

Among the many heroic efforts of our communications colleagues from the past year, some stand above the rest. Ragan has recognized these organizations in its Employee Communications Awards Class of 2021.

Ford Motor Company

Ford Motor Company’s communications team worked to help its 187,000 global employees navigate the COVID-19 crisis, transitioning workers to remote connections and helping to establish a new CEO—all while relaunching two iconic vehicles: the Ford-150 and Ford Bronco. Messages were well-received by employees, with 87% of workers reporting the COVID-related messages were helpful and 77% saying they were satisfied about information received from top leaders about the state of the business.