Jennifer Kirscher Email & Phone Number

Leads a team in the planning and delivery of world-class internal and external communications across the organization. Responsible for communication strategy development, management, and execution across a variety of channels with the goal to maximize the scale and impact of our employee connection through executive communications, internal & external events, social, web, and other creative engagement strategies.• Built and now leads the company’s first official Internal Communications function with a mission to inform, connect, and motivate global employees through consistency and clarity of messages in support of the company’s strategic and business goals.• Partners closely with a wide range of global, cross-functional internal stakeholders, including strategy and operations, marketing, client success, and human resources.• Coordinates the PR/media relations activities, collaborating with our external agencies, to identify newsworthy stories, press releases, thought leadership opportunities and media interviews.• Co-founded and now leads the IDeaS Women’s Initiative Network (WIN), a company-sponsored, voluntary, employee-led and employee-driven group to provide support in personal and/or career development to members.• Co-created and now co-leads the IDeaS Innovation Workshop, a company-endorsed program that allows employees to collaborate with one another on a project of their choosing for up to 8 hours of paid time a month to solve a problem or pursue and idea.• Co-leads the IDeaS Global Inclusion Taskforce, a cross-functional group of volunteers whose mission is to provide the framework and resources to recognize, understand, and support employee’s differences in order to build a stronger, more welcoming workplace.

Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Led, managed, and measured the development of global internal and external communicationsstrategies and tactics to support company goals. Transformed the internal communications function by building out world-class strategy and communication practices, developed a strategic executive communications approach, and accelerated existing external communications efforts.• Oversaw strategic planning, development, coordination, and implementation of communications programs to help achieve the company’s branding, employee engagement, revenue, customer engagement/retention, reputation management, and other objectives.• Consulted with, and counseled, other areas of management or business units across the company on communications strategy.• Identified current communications practices and emerging trends, channels, and media. Assuredteam members learned and adopted current communications best practices.• Managed global relationships with vendors and agencies to support communications objectives.• Responsible, directly and through team, for building and maintaining relationships with keyinternal and external influencers.

Blaine, Mn

I played an instrumental role in running the day-to-day operations of the department, managing workload and team assignments, as well as delivering on global communications initiatives that inform, educate, and engage our 6,500+ employees.• Led efforts through partnerships with cross-functional colleagues and working across multiple departments to bring communications expertise to high-profile projects, including the push for all employee data to the Cloud by 2018.• Supported the execution of the company’s cultural transformation strategy by 2020 (began 2016) helping coordinate PTC’s internal communications goals and provide communications guidance to managers regarding their changing roles.• Introduced approaches to standardize and simplify communication across the company, including a weekly e-newsletter in Apr. 2016 to eliminate all corporate emails with an open rate of more than 94%.• Supported and developed an innovative suite of internal communication vehicles, including e-newsletters, leadership podcasts, town hall meetings, videos (including overseeing production), intranet posts, digital signage, and other informative and engaging communication vehicles.• Delivered strong project management skills in addition to communications expertise in a consultant-like role when working with business unit/functional leaders, including the ability to deliver results and meet deadlines.• Worked as a Change Champion at the company, which means I have been recognized by the HR leadership as someone who leads by influencing change through peer-to-peer relationships, providing upward feedback, and identifying barriers that are blocking innovations.

Blaine, Mn

Partnered with the Information Technology organization to re-imagine the company’s online intranet turning it from a static repository of outdated news and information into a dynamic, mobile-friendly, decentralized communications vehicle by launching a new global intranet platform with flexible pre-built features for SharePoint and Office 365.• Gathered a team of nine cross-functional leaders to act as spokespeople for their business units/functions, asking them to gather feedback & requirements across the company for what employees wanted to see in a new intranet solution.• Used in-person and online engagement strategies to socialize the project and gain real-time employee feedback to drive decisions, including weekly project blogs, card sorting, online tree testing, focus group interviews, and a platform naming contest.• Trained more than 120+ global employees embedded within multiple business units/functions to act as Content Editors and Authors in 3 months allowing for faster, more efficient news and information delivery in real-time to our global employees.• Used an Augmented Reality scavenger hunt to teach users how to use the platform and drive user adoption after the platform launches with nearly 100% user adoption (every employee logged in at least once) within the first 3 months following launch.• Launched Yammer as the company’s official enterprise-wide social platform embedded within the new intranet in March 2016, which has grown to more than 4,700 active members (out of 6,500 employees) in less than four months.• Invited to share PTC’s intranet success story at an Employee Engagement & Culture Strategy conference in Los Angeles, CA in August 2017.

Responsible for defining, creating and executing strategic employee communication initiatives that engage, educate and inform employees. Additionally, responsible for managing the Employee Communications team including overseeing planning and execution of communications programs.• Coach/mentor employees and collaborate with team members to manage goals, professional development and satisfaction toward high performance and retention targets.• Assess project needs, assign staff and balance workload as necessary to achieve department goals and create effective, successful teams.• Establish and oversee employee communication calendar while managing all large email distribution lists with IT and internal groups, as needed.• Create and/or oversee communication plans for all internal communication programs and initiatives incorporating written, video, audio and social media as appropriate.• Assist in defining and managing opportunities for executives including regular quarterly commmunication utilizing email, conference calls, meetings, podcasts, video, etc.• Determine content and layout for the intranet coordinating with the employee communications team, content owners and IT, as needed.

St. Paul, Minn

Led integration-related communication strategies to combine incentive and recognition programs for the newly combined sales organization and functional employee groups following Ecolab’s merger with Nalco in Dec. 2011. • Launched an online sales incentive program to 6,500 U.S.-based sales employees using a Salesforce.com platform, including online social media tool Chatter• Rebranded, re-launched and reenergized a global corporate accounts sales incentive program for 7,000 employees• Led an HR-based task force through a request for proposal process to identify a global vendor to build an online recognition program for 14,000 non-sales employees• Developed training materials for global HR teams and company-wide communications to launch a new service anniversary program and online merchandise catalog to employees

St. Paul, Minn

Created, managed and implemented an internal communications strategy designed to engage employees globally and align them with the company’s vision. Secondarily, provided consultative support to various teams to help guide their internal and external initiatives to build and protect the organization’s reputation, goals and objectives.• Provided strategic communications consulting to 10 business units and key function areas (HR, IT, executive) regarding internal and external communications options• Lead and evaluated key message development of companywide initiatives and executed delivery through global newsletters, internal memos, web copy and press releases• Developed and launched new communications tools and processes to 39,000 global employees to increase announcement awareness, build relationships and promote growth• Managed theme development, budget and wrote copy for high priority external relations projects including several annual reports, sustainability reports and a company fact book • Planned and coordinated all communications for a national Community Giving campaign increasing employee contributions 60% over the past 2 years and raising $2 million• Created and posted content on two new websites (one internal, one external) using SiteCore content management software

St. Paul, Minn

Managed agencies and partnered with business and functional leaders to focus resources and drive projects aligned with high profile internal and external corporate objectives.• Developed and led all communications for an annual global recognition program, including creating a website and all marketing materials for eight separate functional award events• Wrote company press releases, managed all media inquiries and acted as liaison between business units and company’s public relations agency for employee media training• Created and implemented a daily media monitoring report for executives that captures all mentions of Ecolab and other industry-related topics in the news media• Oversaw the strategic direction and creation of all content for the company’s intranet site, including training, supervising and assigning stories to other internal writers and contractors

St. Paul, Minn

Contributed to the overall goals of enhancing Ecolab’s brand, engaging employees via numerous communication channels, supporting executive communications and helping drive the company's strategic objectives.• Collaborated with staff editors and writers to determine strategic direction for global newsletter and intranet; wrote and edited content for both communications vehicles• Acted as ghost writer for CEO blog and online Q&A link allowing global employees to submit questions to the CEO on any topic of interest; averaged 20 replies per month• Assisted with planning and execution of global management meetings including theme development, speech writing, creation of presentations and onsite event coordination

North St. Paul, Minn

Led news coverage in four communities including Roseville, Little Canada, Lauderdale and Falcon Heights.• Supervised and assigned articles to a part-time writer and photographer weekly, as well as trained multiple summer interns• Wrote three to five government, school board and feature stories each week in support of four Twin Cities suburban communities• Edited news stories and press releases, coordinated photos and layout of a 16- to 20-page weekly newspaper

North St. Paul, Minn

Designed and wrote articles for annual special sections, including back-to-school, home and garden, technology and auto-related supplements.• Created tabloid inserts covering the annual summer festivals in six Twin Cities communities• Wrote police beat briefs, breaking news stories and feature articles for 10 weekly newspapers within the newspaper chain

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.), Journalism & Liberal Arts (Graphics)

Mini-Masters In Business Communication