SAP, Mastercard, Visa, Honda triumph at employee communication awards

Teamwork and boldness were the watchwords for winners at Ragan’s Employee Communications Awards Luncheon Friday, Feb. 28 in New York City.

The awards luncheon covered the spectrum of responsibilities in the highly creative industry, recognizing winners in 42 categories, including three Grand Prize recipients.

In their acceptance remarks, multiple winners cited the theme of collaboration highlighted in the keynote address by best-selling author Carla Johnson.

“I’ve been fascinated with teams my whole career,” Johnson told the rapt audience. “I’ve studied high-performing teams and what makes them click during times of transformation. And I’ve found that it takes six different archetypes to make a team successful.”

She detailed how those archetypes—from strategists to provocateurs to collaborators—bring distinct assets (and trigger points) to developing projects and processes.

And the award goes to …

Coca-Cola North America’s took home top honors for ­­­­­­­­­­­­Outstanding Podcast—which is employee-focused yet also available to outside audiences. Katherine Cherry, manager of employee and leadership communications, said, “We knew that employee adoption would be limited if it was not seamless.” Again, the priority was cooperation at all levels.