Cindy Hoots

Our work makes up a large portion of our lives. It's important to "love what you do, and do what you love." I'm a dedicated leader eager to create and implement successful strategies to improve organizational efficiency through the employee experience. Adept at utilizing data and anecdotal analysis to provide insights into Diversity, Equity & Inclusion, employee lifecycle, and internal communications initiatives. Strong communication and interpersonal skills and committed to providing an inspiring and supportive workplace culture.

• Over 16 years of experience working in people organizations or communications functions, building employee experience, engagement, and communications processes and strategies.
• Passionate about elevating the employee voice and creating action plans for the employee lifecycle.
• Experience leading internal change management, reduction of workforce, and crisis communications.
• Understands the unique needs of a distributed workforce and providing employees with moments of connection.
• Strong planning, project management, people management, team building, presentation, writing, and communication skills.
• Experience working in different company cultures from technology startups with remote-first environments to large, established multinationals with onsite and remote employees.

Employee Engagement & Experience

• Managed small- and large-scale, virtual and in-person employee events such as Town Halls, All Hands Meetings, speaker series, team offsites, hackathons, and virtual escape rooms, working with event budgets up to $1.5 million.
• Implemented employee engagement surveys, focus groups, and sentiment tracking to create action plans and inform our strategic objectives regarding the Employee Value Proposition, DEI programming, employee recognition, and communications.
• Drove Unilever's employee volunteer and employee giving match programs increasing volunteerism by 150%, including implementation of Employee Resource Groups, Employee DEI Council, and DEI programs.

Employee Communications

• Defined executive tone of voice and corporate narrative, crafting leadership presentations, content, and employee messaging to promote a clear understanding of the company’s vision, mission, business goals, and culture.
• Developed and led Unilever's internal change management strategy and communications during organizational restructuring, reduction in the workforce, and a complete office renovation.
• Established and managed integrated internal communications channels, including company intranet, executive email communications, speakers series, digital platforms, newsletters, internal videos, podcasts, and employee social media channels.

People & Project Management

• Built a cross-functional team and launched Amazon’s current employee communications and engagement software platform (Inside Amazon), serving 1.5 million employee globally. Established channels for targeted communications, which increased viewership from 40,000 per month to 12 million views per month.
• Drove KPMG “You’re Here for a Purpose” and “100 Reasons We’re the Best” employee campaigns to increase employee engagement and improved employee satisfaction scores from 82% to 90%, resulting in KPMG surging 17 spots on FORTUNE magazine’s annual 100 Best Companies to Work For list.
• Managed people and team development at Netlify, Amazon, Unilever, and Cone Communications.