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Two ITD products win
2020 APEX Awards of Excellence

A pair of communication products from ITD recently earned Awards of Excellence from APEX, an annual competition that this year gathered nearly 1,200 entries. This year's competition was the 32nd annual competition "recognizing excellence among professional communicators."

For Drive Idaho, the path to success was a direct route on I-84.

On Jan. 23, 2019, after months of preparations, the Idaho Transportation Department unveiled the latest in an ever-expanding list of communication venues meant to facilitate a conversation with drivers regarding the work of ITD, detail how it impacts the public, and provide another opportunity for them to participate in the path forward.

We started with these words: “Over the next several years, ITD will invest more than $300 million into the I-84 corridor in Canyon County. On this episode, host Vincent Trimboli speaks with ITD Program Manager Amy Schroeder about the vision for this corridor. We'll also talk about what you can expect on future episodes of the Drive Idaho podcast.”

During the course of the year, we made 11 podcasts – all focused on the burgeoning growth within the Treasure Valley and what that meant for motorists.

Here’s the link to the webpage: https://idahoitd.libsyn.com/

Although the award is for the website where it is all housed, the designation for "excellence" undoubtedly is also reflective of the materials on the site -- the podcasts themselves.

The Idaho Transportation Department held its annual Safety Stand Down for employees on Dec. 19, 2019. ITD Leadership chose to focus the event on the importance of Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM), specifically geared toward the 1,100 employees we have in our Division of Highways who operate along the roadsides daily. The importance of CISM to them was self-evident.

The challenge was to find the connection to the safety event for the remaining 500 employees who live in an office/cubicle world. Why would or should they care?

The following articles were produced and distributed to employees across the organization in the weeks leading up to the event in order to bridge that gap and establish relevance for them.

In order to bridge that gap, the Office of Communication ended up publishing four CISM articles in the weeks leading up to the event to establish relevance for all employees. The articles detailed warning signs, symptoms, tips and tactics associated with the program and the employee distress it was designed to treat.

"It's gratifying to know that our efforts to improve the well being of our employees are recognized by those outside our department," said HR's Jim Phillips, who along with ITD Safety Manager Randall Danner spearheaded the CISM program for the department.

The concept of CISM is a great one, and especially valuable in the current climate:

"Especially during the challenges of the last few months, having a program that assists employees mired in stressful situations really resonates," ITD Public Information Officer Reed Hollinshead commented.