City of Olympia will add more staff to revamp communication strategy

The Olympia City Council has approved hiring more communications staff to implement a citywide communications strategy.

The council approved the hires after an analysis showed the communications department is understaffed.

In the spring, the city had Communications Resources Northwest (CRNW) conduct a study on the needs of Olympia. The consultants interviewed city officials, local business owners, city workers and citizens about city communications strategies.

Kellie Purce Braseth, the city’s strategic communications director, said, “The researchers found … our staffing and our current organization was falling short of the level of service need before us.”

Communication has been a challenge for the city’s four-person communications team. Braseth said the consultant’s analysis found that “we need to more than double our staff” to meet the demands of both city employees and citizens.

CRNW compared Olympia’s communications resources to other cities similar in size. They found that Boise, Idaho and Eugene, Oregon had about 8,000 citizens for every communications team member. In Olympia, it’s about 13,000 citizens per communications member.

The three full-time communications positions the city will create are: a deputy public information officer (PIO) to handle media calls and improve internal communications; a social media/content strategist to bolster the city’s online presence and information distribution capabilities; and a graphic designer.

Braseth said these positions are needed to improve internal communications between city departments and employees. “We do virtually no internal communications” she said.

The new deputy PIO will come up with a way to share the city’s messages with citizens and city employees, “and our employees can then become better ambassadors for the city,” Braseth said.

Along with the new positions, the city also approved spending roughly $100,000 to have a crisis communication firm on retainer. Another $200,000 will be spent on contracting with photographers, videographers and writers to create content for the city.

The analysis showed people want to get news from the city either through its website or on social media, so the social media strategist position was added to meet that need, Braseth said. The graphic designer will help with the city’s website and create infographics for city media.

The city will spend $150,000 over five months for the three positions, with funding coming from the 2020 general fund. The council committed to finding a permanent fund source for the positions in the next budget process. In total, the staffing expansion and hiring of a crisis communication firm would cost the city roughly $600,000 annually.

The city council voted unanimously to approve the new hires and spending plan. Councilman Jim Cooper said, “It’s a necessary bow wave that we need to put in the city right away.”

Olympia’s communications team will begin interviewing candidates for the new roles on Aug. 16 and hopes to bring new hires on board by Sept. 1.

This story was originally published July 14, 2021 at 5:45 AM.