Explore how employee communications has evolved from memos to AI-enabled platforms, and discover how strategic communication drives engagement, culture, and operational excellence in modern organizations.
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I committed to never stop learning, no matter how busy life got. Every challenge since has opened doors I never could have imagined.
Brandy Dove · In Her Own Words
Her Story
About Brandy
Brandy Dove is an enterprise brand and corporate communications leader with a proven track record of guiding organizations through transformation, growth, and change. She currently leads corporate brand, communications, change management, and creative services for MasterBrand following its merger with American Woodmark, where she serves as a strategic advisor to executive leadership. Known for translating complex business priorities into clear, compelling narratives, she oversees enterprise-wide brand strategy, executive communications, and creative initiatives that engage employees, strengthen culture, and support business objectives across a large, evolving organization. Brandy's career reflects a remarkable journey of growth and adaptability. After earning a bachelor's degree in chemistry, she chose not to pursue a Ph.D. and instead launched her career in the call center at American Woodmark. Through dedication and strong leadership, she steadily advanced into increasingly strategic roles before joining Trex Company, where she successfully developed the organization's customer experience center and helped build its employer brand. She later returned to American Woodmark to establish and expand its corporate brand and communications function, leading a transformative enterprise rebrand that unified the organization and strengthened its market presence. Most recently, she has played a pivotal role in navigating the integration of the American Woodmark and MasterBrand merger, helping guide a company that has effectively doubled in size. Throughout her career, Brandy has built a reputation for connecting people, strategy, and storytelling to drive meaningful organizational change. She is passionate about developing high-performing teams, fostering employee engagement, and creating communication strategies that inspire confidence during periods of transformation. Combining business acumen with creative leadership, she continues to shape enterprise brands that not only support organizational growth but also build trust, strengthen culture, and position companies for long-term success.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Brandy
01What do you attribute your success to?
I attribute my success to the incredible female leaders who invested in me throughout my career. They modeled excellence, professionalism, resilience, and the confidence to lead with both empathy and accountability. By observing how they navigated challenges, built relationships, and inspired others in a traditionally male-dominated industry, I learned that leadership isn't about having all the answers; it's about earning trust, empowering people, and staying true to your values. Those mentors not only helped shape my career but also inspired the type of leader I strive to be. Today, I make it a priority to mentor others, create opportunities for my team to grow, and foster an environment where people feel valued and empowered to do their best work. I believe success is rarely achieved alone, and I'm grateful for the leaders who opened doors for me and challenged me to reach beyond what I thought was possible.
02What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
Your “say-do ratio” matters. If you commit to something, follow through. Early in my career, I realized that people may forget a presentation or a meeting, but they remember whether they can count on you. Reliability and accountability are the foundation of trust, and trust is what creates credibility with colleagues, customers, and senior leaders. That advice has shaped the way I lead teams and manage complex initiatives. In periods of organizational change, people look for consistency. I’ve learned that communicating clearly, setting realistic expectations, and delivering on commitments builds confidence far more than making ambitious promises. A strong say-do ratio is one of the simplest and most powerful ways to establish a reputation that lasts.
03What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Stay true to yourself and define success on your own terms. Don’t compare your journey to others or feel pressured to chase titles that don’t align with your goals. Protect your work-life balance and prioritize family, friends, and personal well-being.
04What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the biggest challenges, and opportunities, in my field right now is navigating growth in a rapidly changing market. Following the merger between America Woodmark and MasterBrand, we're focused on successfully integrating teams, strengthening our recruitment efforts, and aligning our market strategy to support a much larger organization. At the same time, we're adapting to industry factors like tariffs, shifting customer preferences, and fluctuating demand while positioning the business for long-term success as the housing and remodeling market continues to recover and grow.
05What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
The values that guide both my career and my personal life are teamwork, integrity, respect, and continuous learning. I believe the best results come from bringing together people with different strengths, perspectives, and experiences to solve problems collaboratively. No one succeeds alone, and I've found that the strongest teams are built on trust, open communication, and a shared commitment to helping one another succeed. Integrity and respect are equally important to me. I strive to treat everyone with honesty, empathy, and professionalism, regardless of their role or title. Doing the right thing, even when it's difficult or when no one is watching, builds the trust that every successful relationship and organization depends on. Finally, I believe growth comes from staying curious. Every challenge is an opportunity to learn something new, and that mindset has allowed me to navigate career changes, lead organizations through transformation, and continue evolving as both a leader and a person.
Her Content Hub
Articles by Brandy
From Memos to Meaning: The Evolution of Employee Communications in the Age of AI
How Employee Communications Evolved From Memos to AI-Powered Personalization
Introduction: Why Employee Communications Matters More Than Ever
Today's workforce is more distributed, diverse, and digitally fluent than at any point in history. Employees now expect transparency, relevance, and two-way dialogue, and not simple information delivery. At the same time, organizations face mounting pressure to move faster, do more with less, and maintain culture across geographic and generational boundaries.
In this environment, less is more. Employee communications are no longer about volume; it is about quality and value. The most effective organizations understand that how, when, and where messages are delivered matter just as much as what is said. To understand where we are headed, it is essential to understand how we got here.
The Memo: Consistency Without Connection
What It Was
The memo era relied on printed documents distributed to employees as the primary channel of internal communication. These memos ensured message consistency and allowed senior leadership to share updates at scale.
What Worked
- Clear, uniform messaging
- Formal documentation of decisions and policies
- Leadership visibility through written communication
Where It Fell Short
- One-way communication with no feedback loop
- Information quickly became outdated
- High administrative effort with low to no engagement
Key Takeaway
The memo prioritized control over connection. While it established the importance of consistency, it lacked the human interaction necessary for true engagement.
The Roadshow, Poster, and Banner: Engagement Through Presence
What It Was
This method of communication emphasized physical presence and visual reinforcement. Leaders traveled to locations to share the prepared messaging, supported by posters, banners, and branded materials.
What Worked
- Face-to-face interaction with leadership
- Strong visual reinforcement of priorities
- Emotional connection through shared experiences
Where It Fell Short
- Not timely or scalable
- Resource-intensive
- Focused heavily on the prepared message without ongoing dialogue
Key Takeaway
This period demonstrated the power of human connection, but struggled with reach, consistency, and sustainability.
The Email: Speed Without Insight
What It Was
With the introduction of email into the business space, it became the dominant channel for employee communications, offering speed and ease of distribution. This communication channel typically included a request that the email recipient share the message with other employees who were not on the distribution list by printing it out and posting it in a high-traffic location.
What Worked
- Rapid dissemination of information
- Low cost and high accessibility for desk-based workers
- Easy to implement
Where It Fell Short
- Distribution lists quickly became outdated
- No meaningful interaction or dialogue
- Limited access for frontline and non-desk employees
- Minimal insight into engagement or effectiveness
Key Takeaway
Email solved for speed and was easier to distribute compared to prior communication methods. The low barrier to entry increased volume and noise across the organization. Without insight or targeting, messages often went unread or ignored, even when they were shared.
The Newsletter: Storytelling Without Timeliness
What It Was
Printed internal newsletters were used to share stories, celebrate employees, and highlight activity across locations. This evolution in communications highlighted the importance of storytelling beyond business-critical updates.
What Worked
- Strong storytelling and cultural reinforcement
- Shared sense of community
- Consistent branding and messaging
Where It Fell Short
- Long production timelines
- No real-time interaction
- High cost and operational burden
Key Takeaway
This communication method reinforced culture but lacked agility and dialogue, limiting its effectiveness in fast-moving organizations.
The Internal Communications Platform: Data Meets Dialogue
What It Is
Modern internal communications platforms integrate email, mobile apps, intranet features, and analytics into a single ecosystem. These platforms meet employees where they are, delivering information that is relevant, timely, and actionable.
What Works
- Broad reach across desk and frontline workers
- Two-way engagement through comments, reactions, and sharing
- Targeted, role-based, and/or location-based messaging
- Actionable data on reach and engagement
Where It Can Improve
- Enrollment does not always equal engagement
- Content relevance remains critical
- Platforms alone do not create strategy
Key Takeaway
Technology enables engagement, but strategy determines success. The data available from the platform provides insight, but only if it informs action.
AI-Enabled Communication: Personalization at Scale
What Is Emerging
Artificial intelligence is transforming employee communications from broadcast to bespoke. AI enables organizations to deliver the right message to the right person at the right time through the right channel.
How AI Enhances Engagement
- Intelligent targeting and retargeting based on behavior
- Channel optimization to reach employees where they are most responsive
- Content recommendations tailored to individual needs
- Predictive insights to improve future communications
The Human Imperative
AI should not replace human connections, but it should amplify them. The goal is not automation for its own sake, but relevance, empathy, and clarity at scale.
Key Takeaway
AI represents the next frontier of employee communications, enabling personalization without sacrificing consistency. As AI becomes embedded in communications, teams must ensure they add strategic value and preserve a human, trusted voice.
Implications for Communications Leaders
For communications leaders, modern employee communications is a strategic responsibility that intersects with:
- Culture and belonging
- Change management
- Talent retention
- Employer brand
- Trust and transparency
Communications leaders must move beyond channel selection and focus on experience design. Each individual should think through how communications feel and not just how they function.
Conclusion: From Information to Impact
The evolution of employee communications reflects a broader shift in the workplace. Internal communications have shifted from hierarchy to humanity, from broadcast to dialogue, and from intuition to insight. The most effective organizations are those that recognize communications as a living system and not a static function.
As AI continues to reshape how we work, the opportunity for communications leaders is clear: harness technology to create communications that are not only efficient but meaningful. The future of employee engagement will belong to organizations that combine data, empathy, and strategy to truly connect with their employees.
Case Study: American Woodmark Connects a Frontline Manufacturing Workforce at Scale
Overview
American Woodmark's evolution from a regional cabinet manufacturer into a global, multi-brand enterprise created both opportunity and strain, particularly in how the organization communicated with its team members. With more than 8,000 frontline manufacturing employees, most frontline employees did not have corporate email access, and the company faced a widening communication gap between the corporate office and factory floors. This case study examines how American Woodmark transformed employee communications into a strategic asset, delivering measurable cultural and operational impact.
Organizational Context
American Woodmark operates 18 manufacturing facilities across North America, supporting a complex supply chain and a highly distributed workforce. Historically, communications mirrored many legacy manufacturing organizations: corporate teams relied on email for office-based employees, while frontline workers received information indirectly, often days or weeks later, via printed emails, bulletin boards, posters, or word of mouth.
This fragmented model became increasingly unsustainable as the organization scaled. Major acquisitions introduced new cultures and norms. Geographic dispersion created inconsistencies in how messages were interpreted and prioritized. And frontline employees were often the last to receive critical updates.
The COVID-19 pandemic exposed these vulnerabilities in stark terms. Employees increasingly looked to their employer as a trusted source for safety, health, and operational guidance. Leadership needed a way to reach all employees quickly, clearly, and equitably. What had once been an inconvenience became an operational risk.
The Core Challenge: Frontline Exclusion at Scale
At the heart of American Woodmark's communication challenge was a simple but consequential reality: most frontline employees did not have corporate email addresses and could not be reached using the main communication channel. Existing workarounds were manual, inefficient, and unreliable. Corporate teams sent emails in batches, asking managers to print and post attachments on bulletin boards or in break rooms. This approach provided no confirmation that messages were ever seen or understood by the entire workforce.
This approach introduced several risks:
- Speed: critical updates could take weeks to reach all locations
- Messages were further delayed when translations were needed for employees
- Consistency: messages were often interpreted or shared differently across manufacturing locations
- Equity: frontline workers lacked the same access to information as their corporate peers
- Insight: there was no data to measure reach, engagement, or comprehension
- Lack of dialogue: hourly manufacturing workers did not have an easy path to ask questions or to request additional information
Leadership recognized that without a unified communication infrastructure, the organization would struggle to maintain safety, alignment, and culture as it continued to operate during a global pandemic and, in the longer term, continued to grow.
The Strategic Solution: An Internal Communications Platform
American Woodmark selected a branded, centralized employee communication platform designed to reach every employee regardless of role, primary language, or location.
A defining innovation was the internal communications platform's ability to securely onboard frontline workers without corporate email addresses. By using employee IDs as unique identifiers, the platform enabled universal access while meeting rigorous cybersecurity standards. This single decision fundamentally changed who could be included in company-wide communication.
The internal communications platform was also intentionally integrated into the existing digital ecosystem. Rather than replacing tools like Outlook or SharePoint, it unified them by creating a single front door for communications while preserving prior investments.
Key capabilities included:
- Multi-channel delivery (email, mobile app, intranet, digital signage)
- Audience targeting and segmentation
- Two-way engagement (comments, reactions, user-generated content)
- In platform translations
- Analytics to measure adoption, reach, and engagement
Implementation: From Broadcast to Community
The launch of the internal communications platform marked a shift not just in technology but also in the organization's mindset. Communications moved from broadcast to dialogue, and from assumption to insight.
Driving Adoption
Initial adoption was modest, reflecting the reality of introducing new tools to a majority frontline workforce. Through intentional onboarding, local champions, and clear value messaging, adoption grew from 32% in the first year to 81% today. That is a 153% improvement!
Building Culture Through Participation
The internal communications platform quickly became more than a business news channel. Employees shared photos of pets and decorated workspaces, participated in polls and showdowns, and celebrated peers through centralized recognition programs. Through company-wide initiatives like Woodmark Week, which blended incentives, storytelling, and interaction, turning communication into a shared cultural experience across all locations and in multiple languages, engagement on the platform grew from 8% in the first year to 25% today.
Supporting Operations in Real Time
Beyond engagement, the internal communications platform proved critical during operational moments that demanded speed and clarity. During major ERP rollouts in Mexico and California, the platform delivered targeted, real-time updates that explained process changes and provided visual cues, reducing confusion and disruption on the floor. All employees in these locations had a single source of truth at their fingertips and could easily comment within the platform to ask a question or suggest future improvements to the system.
Results: Measurable Impact
The impact of the internal communications platform was observed culturally and financially.
Speed and Risk Reduction
Communications that once took weeks, or longer, to reach the full workforce could now be delivered the same day. The platform also ensured all employees could access information in their primary language without having to request help and wait for a translation. This increase in speed and understanding reduced the likelihood of preventable errors caused by outdated information, helped decrease safety incidents, and led to a direct correlation with reduced employee turnover, resulting in an estimated annual savings of $1 million.
Engagement and Equity
Frontline employees gained equal access to information, recognition, and leadership visibility. Two-way interaction strengthened trust and reinforced a sense of belonging across locations and roles.
Operational Alignment
Integrated data connections with our Human Resource Information System enabled automatic audience segmentation, allowing communications to be precisely targeted. Digital signage amplified messages on-site, ensuring manufacturing teams stayed informed without leaving the floor or having to use their cell phones.
Leadership Perspective
"Our internal communications platform is the backbone of a connected, informed and engaged workforce. It streamlines communication, fosters transparency, and unifies employees across all of our departments and locations, ultimately driving alignment and a stronger company culture."
- Teresa May, SVP & CMO
"We've been able to create and foster relationships with people all across the company. The quarterly calls we hold with them to offer support and share ideas have been incredibly meaningful."
- Christina Must, HR Business Partner
Looking Ahead: Personalization and Scale
American Woodmark's roadmap focuses on expanding mobile adoption among frontline workers and leveraging AI-driven journeys to deliver role-based, personalized communication experiences. These next steps aim to further embed communications into daily work, reinforcing relevance while maintaining consistency.
Why This Matters for Communication Leaders
This case illustrates a core truth for communications leaders: communication infrastructure is people infrastructure. When organizations design communications that are inclusive, data-informed, and human-centered, they unlock both cultural cohesion and operational excellence.
For leaders navigating growth, transformation, or workforce fragmentation, American Woodmark offers a replicable blueprint where communication is not a cost center but a strategic advantage.
About the Author
Brandy Dove is a senior communications and corporate brand leader with deep experience building modern internal communications strategies that drive engagement, trust, and culture. She partners with executive leaders to translate strategy into clear, compelling narratives that resonate across organizations.
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