Indiana Department of Revenue
Internal Newsletter InsideDOR
The Indiana Department of Revenue employs roughly 800 employees between our Central Office, and 12 other offices across the state of Indiana and auditors stationed across the United States. With so many teams across so many locations it can be difficult to disseminate information. It’s important for everyone to know what’s happening in the organization, agency initiatives, projects that other teams are working on and to have a sense of community. InsideDOR plays an important role in both educating team members and building affinity with their peers. The newsletter has regular columns that tackle a variety of topics of relevance to our workforce, but it is balanced with articles that acquaint employees with others at the organization.
The newsletter is published monthly requiring a tight deadline. Each of the articles is written over the period of two weeks, edited and given to the graphic designer. The graphic designer brainstorms a few ideas for each article and how to best complement the article with imagery. The goal is to create something that entices readers to engage with the articles and to add visual diversity for ease of reading.
Some content is consistent from issue to issue such as “DOR Praise”, “Employee of the Month”, “WeAreDOR” and “Celebrate”. These are designed early in the issue, only changing the layout to accommodate the content specific to these issues or to better fit the season of the issue’s publication.
Each issue starts with a table of contents and a message from our Chief Editor. Additionally, each contributor is highlighted below.
The feature article in the February issue aimed to introduce the agency’s new legislative director. He was featured on the cover and his article is found early in the issue. The designer tried to give a fairly classy, straight-laced layout for this article with colors that complemented the interior of the statehouse and photos of the subject. The headline typography is meant to evoke the roundness and elegance of the Italian Renaissance style of the statehouse itself whilst also retaining a degree of elegance. The lines emanating from the text give the sense of a spotlight. Illustrations were crafted to draw attention to each fun question in a side bar. Custom illustrations where also used for the “Transformational Ideas Portal” and a snippet about the steps of a bill becoming law.
Each article is meant to have a distinct look and feel. “Generally Speaking” in this case has a fair bit of color that all have a similar degree of saturation. “Wellness Matters” uses a color and layout that will coincide with the app layout featured in the article. The design needed to draw attention to important information while retaining a sense of flow and order.
“DOR Praise” is a monthly feature with a consistent look and is meant to evoke the aesthetic of a text conversation. This feature provides an opportunity for employees to see customer’s positive feedback. “Employee of the Month” has a geometric layout that uses the agency’s colors. “#WeAreDOR” aims to showcase employee engagement across our organization's many offices and teams.
As part of our organization’s desire to improve employee morale and education, we are often encouraging our employees to take courses with LinkedIn Learning. This layout was intended to have a grounded aesthetic with a branded notepad and pen.
“Walking Paths” seeks to remind workers about ways they can get around the city without going outside during the colder months. London subway maps were the inspiration for this layout. Movement and advancement has always been a theme in our layouts centering on our agency initiative “Project NextDOR”. Finally, “Celebrate” uses fireworks and a subdued color layout to remain fun, yet professional.
The primary focus of the publication is to educate employees about agency initiatives, engender community between co-workers and celebrate each other. This particular issue covers a variety of topics from introducing a new employee in an important role to the new employee benefits/health program. The design seeks to make these articles easy-to-read, draw a focus on the agency’s workers and capture the fun spirit we aspire to foster. With so many people who work across the state and nation, disseminating information and placing a face to each person can be quite difficult. Each issue of InsideDOR seeks to bridge this gap: giving employees the information that they need, that helps them serve their state better and enriches their lives.
This issue of InsideDOR communicated a lot of vital information to our employees. The article on our recently changed employee health plan was much needed and helped to make an admittedly confusing program approachable to a large pool of employees. But it also served to connect our many employees and pull us together as a team. Readership for the issue was at 68%.
Our agency is always searching for ways to increase employee engagement and InsideDOR is a vital component of that. Every issue we track how many people read the newsletter online. While our numbers have grown some with every publication, this particular issue was no exception seeing an 8% increase in readership. Our many articles are invaluable for the information they communicate and the comrade they instill. It enables employees to better serve their state by becoming more knowledgeable, efficient and healthier.
This particular issue introduces a new employee in an important role, how to report an ethics issue, how our new employee health program/benefits works, features praise from organization customers, features the latest employees of the month, highlights an opportunity to learn more about writing effectively, how to keep moving during the winter months and more information about a major agency project.
