Tonya Seavers Evans

▶0:00IntroWelcome to the Built by People Podcast, where we share the stories and insights of the world's top executive leaders. Join us as we dive deep into the minds of executives, uncovering their strategies, challenges, and triumphs in shaping today's workforce. That's Crebi. Now let's jump in and get started with our next guest.

▶0:41HostWell, I'm excited to welcome Tanya to the Built by People podcast. Tanya, thank you so much for joining us today.

▶0:48GuestWell, thank you so much for having me. Absolutely.

▶0:49HostWell, I love to always ask the starting question to give us a little bit more about your background and your career journey to this point.

▶0:56GuestOkay, great. Let's see. Well, right now I work as a Director of Communications and Community Engagement at Cinch Home Services. We're a home warranty service company based in here in Boca Raton, Florida. But I have been in internal comms and communications, gosh, for going a little over 25 years now. I'm one of those few people that actually graduated with a public relations and comms degree and uses it. So I'm one of those people that actually uses their degree that they graduated with. And I started out in PR firms first and then moved over to I worked for universities and then I moved over to corporate. That's amazing. Had a little nonprofit experience too. So yeah, I've kind of been in a lot of different industries, which I think is really useful as I engage for my job now. Yeah.

▶1:39HostWell, okay, so I'm curious to hear like from your perspective, right? Because I know it has to align with so many different, you know, pieces of the organization. What are the top priorities for you this quarter within the company?

▶1:50GuestYou know, I think, and I'll certainly speak to our organization, but I think for overall, for all of us in internal comms and communications, a big part of it is just like trust and transparency. I think being partners with our leaders to make sure that the employees understand not only the priorities, but things are changing so quickly with AI and there's so much, you know, fear and anticipation and, you know, kind of trepidation about what's going to happen to jobs and jobs change. That I think really on the internal comms side, we can really be partners to help our leaders better communicate and regularly communicate what our plans are when they have them, right? So when they're available, kind of really being the folks that share that. So that's a huge priority for me. The other part is then just cascading what those priorities are. And again, I think it's so hard right now because it's a fast-moving train, right? So it used to be like, these are our goals for the whole year, kind of. Now it's like, yeah, these are the ones for this quarter, but we kind of have to to see how the year goes, like with the economy and international relations, which affects so many things that we do here now. I think we just got to be really able to pivot and help our leaders pivot and have different channels that allow us to do that. And then the other challenge I think that's ongoing is being able to communicate with different audiences. You can't communicate to folks that are remote and folks that are like maybe in a— maybe they're on a plant floor. So really having different tools at our disposal to communicate to different audiences, I think is another huge challenge that I think all of us are grappling with. Yeah, yeah.

▶3:31HostListen, you're not wrong. We're hearing this a lot. And so my next question kind of becomes a little bit more of like a personal thing for you. It's, you know, if I were to sit down and shadow you for a week, where would I see you spending time on things that maybe don't feel as strategic for you?

▶3:45GuestI think, you know, I think none of us like a lot of meetings. I think none of us like a lot of meetings. So I spend, you know, all of us, I think we spend a lot of times in meetings. Our organization has gotten a lot better about, you know, really having meetings that are really required and, you know, can it be said in an email? Do we need a, you know, do we really need a meeting for that? So I think all of us would say spending more time with meetings. I think the other part is, you know, we're really trying to find a balance of how to utilize AI, getting to speed, right? So how can we utilize and incorporate AI into our internal comms process while also keeping humans in the loop so that we don't all sound like AI? I'm sure all of us in communications, like, I can now see when something's directly written from AI. And I think that's the balance now of having us get communications out faster, accurately, but making sure it's got the brand voice, it's got the leader's voice, it's got your organization's culture and voice incorporated while also utilizing it for speed and allowing us to do more with less, right? Because we've all, you know, budgets and all those things have, have been a challenge for everyone as well. So I think I'm trying to, that's one of the things I'm working on is how to incorporate it where needed, but also make sure that we keep our brand voice and, and our leaders' voices intact as well. I like that.

▶5:01HostI'm curious, right, from everything you have going on, right, you have all the multiple different touchpoints you're trying to create, all the different channels you're trying to create or access the employees from, right? Is there, is there a certain internal process that you consistently find, you know, creates friction or maybe slows you and your team down that you're like, that's something I would change right Something that I would change right now.

▶5:23GuestI think that we've got to get better at— I think it's just always the approval process. You know, there's always so many layers to that. And that would be one thing that I think if I can improve anything, that I would be trying to shorten that process. Sometimes I think we've got to— I had a manager that used to always say, only make changes when it's material, right? So when it's really going to impact that, which is a nuance, but it's a big one. So if it's just, you know, like run and I like jog, is it really material to the change? So I think just getting fa— the faster we can get at approvals, I think that's, I think any communications place would, would say that's something that's always a rub of you wanna get it out fast, but then there's this approval and layers of approval process that I think I would try to, try to streamline a little bit and make that process a little bit flatter for sure.

▶6:14HostYeah, that makes, I mean, it makes perfect sense. This is more of a kudos to you, right? And the team, what's one initiative you guys have rolled out recently that you're, that you're like, man, I'm proud of what we did on that?

▶6:23GuestLet's see. Right before the holidays, we signed some, because I'm also in charge of community engagement and we signed some agreements to sponsor Project Literacy in, it's Project Literacy Palm Beach. So we're going to be providing books and mentorship and reading help for kids. I think it's 8 to 16. So we're really excited about rolling that out and allowing our employees to be able to engage with the students as part of that project. Project. And then, gosh, I think in a couple weeks we're going to be unveiling— we want to make sure that we're supporting— yes, there's office employees, but we also want to make sure we're supporting frontline employees. So we're giving away 3 scholarships to HVAC employees, which of course is near and dear to us because we have certain people in that service. So we're going to be giving away 3 scholarships to those folks in the next couple of weeks, which we're selecting the folks that will get those scholarships, receiving those scholarships now. So I'm really excited about that. We were able to finalize those at the end of 2025. Those are two initiatives I'm really excited about, getting our employees engaged with those communities and seeing where those partnerships take us. So those two are two initiatives I'm very excited about.

▶7:32HostThat's awesome and super fulfilling, I'm sure. Absolutely.

▶7:35GuestYeah. Yeah. Well, awesome.

▶7:38HostWell, okay, so now, you know, looking at— you kind of brought up some of this earlier, right? Being able to communicate with employees, always the initiative of how do I communicate and probably meet them where they are. Absolutely. When I guess, you know, with the conversations we've had, employee communication obviously is becoming harder in a lot of organizations. And I'm curious, what's, what's one area where you're trying to improve engagement through better communication now?

▶8:02GuestI think we're testing using different channels with different audiences and just see, see how they stick. So, you know, doing some A/B testing, like, okay, we're gonna communicate via We're launching, you know, doing some SMS. You know, a lot of people don't like text, but sometimes it's faster to get it out in an abbreviated form and then tell them, go to your email to read the longer version. So that's something we're testing. We've tried different formats of our newsletter where there's a long newsletter that we send out and again, a shorter kind of week in review with highlights so that folks can kind of pick and choose what they want to, want to see. So that's some of the things we're testing. I think it's always, it's always a challenge to figure out where the, the communications and the types of communications that everybody has to see and those that are like nice to see. And of course, every stakeholder says everything that I send out is, you know, the entire organization has to send it. So that's always a rub. But I think the more we can mix those up, you know, using the intranet, like, okay, we're going to communicate it here, but we're going to have multiple touchpoints. Yes, they may not be subscribed to SMS. You know, this person may really like email, but they're also going to be able to see it online, you know, on our intranet. I think the more multiple channels we have and everybody kind of, kind of we all, you know, like people like Facebook versus Instagram or LinkedIn versus— I think we've just got to give them choices and, you know, put information in multiple choices so that employees can get information, as you said at the top, you know, where they were. We got to, we got to meet them where they are for sure.

▶9:38HostWhat, which, and this I'm curious, you know, a lot of organizations I've talked to and worked with haven't really had a great way to maybe track that engagement. How do you, how do you kind of ensure like, oh, we know this is actually resonating or this is landing, they're opening it, they're engaging with the material. How do you guys track that now? Or do you have an ability to track that now?

▶9:58GuestWe do use, we really use Constant Contact as our, a lot. And we look at both, which allows us to see open rates, but it also allows us to see what folks are tracking on, what folks are clicking on, which is great because that way when someone tells me, no, my email is really important that it goes out every week, then I have the data to say, well, I, you know, this is what the— yeah, you say that, but here, this is what the data shows. And then we can help them, help guide them and coach them. Okay. Maybe it was a headline. Maybe we need to change the content to make it a little bit more engaging for that audience. And over here, you know what, all these folks over here seem to be opening it, but maybe that's not your key audience. So it allows us that kind of data and information and insight allows us to be better partner business partners too, because we can help coach them on how we can tweak and be, you know, and help them get their stuff read and reviewed and opened. Yeah. Yeah.

▶10:54HostThat, I mean, that makes perfect sense. Okay, well, and you kind of answered it here, but one of the questions that, you know, we always like to ask because I think it helps guide people to things they should maybe look at— what tools or platforms have you found to be most essential for your operations today? I know you just mentioned Constant Contact. Are there any others?

▶11:10GuestI have used HubSpot in the past. I have— I'm not using it right now, but it is something that I think they're really good. And that's something we're looking at maybe incorporating mid-year. I started with Cinch in June of last year, July of last year. So some things, you know, I'm still testing. I want to make sure I'm not a person that just comes in and make major changes. I want to really look and see the data, but I do think they do a really good job of giving you even more data and insights. And again, all of that, I think we're all going to be tasked even more in 2026, in my opinion, to kind of prove how communications are driving or moving the needle, right? So the more data we can have through things like HubSpot and Constant Contact is going to be great. We don't do things like— so those are probably the two. I would say those are probably the two primary tools that we're using right now. Okay, awesome.

▶11:57HostWell, all right, now, now the, uh, the always added question that comes in is if you can wave a magic wand, right, and improve one part of the tech stack or workflow, what would that be?

▶12:07GuestOne part of the workflow, I think I would map out communications for the next year so we would know what's coming, right? I think that would be, you know, we try to make a calendar as much as we can, as I'm sure everyone knows, but I think just if you said magic wand, I would just be able to count— I would know all my communications coming up because But really from our end too, it's not just from a, you know, we don't always want to be in fire, fire, fire, you know, fighting a fire mode. But the other part of that is we can be better counselors. Like the more time we have, or maybe that's it, the more time I would give us more time to really be thoughtful of not just the content, but how we're going to introduce those communications, what channels we're going to use, and really be a little more thoughtful with that. So I think giving us a little bit more time in figuring out what's the best form of communications and way to communicate so that we can make— we want it to land too. We want open rates to be great. You know, we want everybody to open everything. We want it to be useful. So the more time we have, that's probably a better answer is just a little bit more time to map out how our communications would flow on a calendar. So that would be— that would probably be my magic wand request.

▶13:18HostI like it. Well, okay. So then going into that, I'd almost say this probably translates into this if If I were to sit down again with you in 12 months from now, what would you hope has changed most in the org? It sounds like that might be a piece of it. Is there anything else that you'd try to hope for in the next 12 months?

▶13:34GuestYeah, I really hope we've embedded AI successfully. I think that if we use it effectively, it's not only going to help us work faster, but I think we can get it to a place where it's going to give us more data and insights the more we use it and the more it learns how we talk, how our employees are responding, how the nuances of our brand are changing, it's gonna almost be, I try to, I'm trying to look at AI as another partner for our team, you know, and again, keeping humans in the loop, but making another partner. So in 12 months, I would love to see like, hey James, I've really incorporated AI effectively. It's like another member of our team. It sometimes can give us recommendations or, you know, you know how we come up with Q&As, you know, after communications, like, He came up with some questions that we didn't even— we had forgotten about for a specific audience. So I hope it's like a real team member by the end of the year would be my— would be.

▶14:31HostYeah, I love it. I think everyone's all in the same boat of trying to figure out like, how do we, how do we make this work for us? Yes.

▶14:37GuestYes. Right. In the right way.

▶14:40HostBut tell us how to actually engage better or capture something that we maybe missed in conversation. Yes.

▶14:45GuestYep. Yep. Yeah.

▶14:47HostWell, as the parting advice that you'd like to give to all the other leaders that are trying to navigate, you know, the rapid change, obviously, with the organizations, with employees, with AI. What advice would you love to give to our community on this?

▶15:00GuestI think the first one is like really hold true to— I think we can be primary keepers of trust and transparency. And I think especially in the age of AI, we are really going to be the— going to be on the forefront of pushing our leaders to be as transparent as possible about how we're using AI. I think that would be the first part. Then secondly, with AI, like, I think we can really play a lot more than other organizations, a lot more than maybe other teams can. I think there's so many things that we can test and without breaking anything. I think we can really use that to not only educate those within our organization, but other internal comms people, like, don't be gatekeepers, but really share with each other how we're using it effectively. So those would be two pieces of advice that I think we could all use.

▶15:46HostI love it.

▶15:47GuestI love it.

▶15:47HostWell, well, Tanya, thank you so much for joining us today on the Built by People podcast. It's been a pleasure having you.

▶15:52GuestThank you so much for having me. Have a great day.