A newsletter by, for and about the workers

John Deere launches an “old-fashioned” print newsletter for manufacturing employees; and it doesn’t cost a dime

John Deere has a couple of excellent, modern-style communication vehicles: an intranet that serves as a timely news source; and a monthly, televised, all-employee meeting where employees can hear directly from top executives.

But as state-of-the-art as these vehicles are, there’s a problem with them. Namely, the folks on the manufacturing floor don’t have access to them. They don’t get to the intranet because they don’t sit at a computer all day; and not everyone on the assembly lines can go to the employee meeting—or watch it—because they can’t shut the lines down. The work must go on.

All of which means one huge chunk of the employee work force was missing out on important information. And that didn’t sit right with employee communications manager Kim Lott.

“It’s bothered me for some time that this group doesn’t have real access to two of our primary communication vehicles—the intranet and the monthly employee meeting,” says Lott.