Birthdays
Monthly birthday sends for every 2026 calendar month to date, plus a Birthday Manager Reminder and a Birthday Direct Message.
See communications →TFCU × ChangeEngine · Quarterly Business Review
Transportation Federal Credit Union Quarterly Business Review.
A review of TFCU's communications strategy focused on turning a reliable cadence into real engagement. We'll look at what's currently live in ChangeEngine, what the analytics show, and the opportunities to activate existing features, close out pending proposals, and bring everything together in one place employees actually return to.
Q1–Q3 2026 · Work Email
1,952
Work emails delivered
34%
Overall open rate
4%
Clickthrough rate
13
Active communications
6
Total programs
50 communications published
Executive Summary
A shift from broadcast to real engagement.
TFCU is a live, credit-union account with an uninterrupted monthly-sync cadence dating back to May 2025 and no dissatisfaction on record across eight months of calls. That stability is real, but the platform analytics tell a second story: a 34% open rate, a 4% click-to-open rate, and more than a quarter of the named employee roster who have never opened a single communication.
That combination changes the right recommendation. Rather than adding more one-off announcements to an already-full calendar, this QBR shifts the conversation toward feature adoption, calls-to-action, and consolidating everything TFCU already has - and has already asked for, into one place employees come back to.
Current State in ChangeEngine
What's live today, and what isn't yet.
TFCU's active programs are concentrated almost entirely in the milestone and calendar-awareness space.
Anniversaries
Monthly anniversary sends for every 2026 calendar month to date, plus milestone-specific sends (Years 1–9) and a Work Anniversary Shoutout.
See communications →Health and Benefits
A monthly sequence observing important health awareness topics: Mental Health Awareness Month (4-part series), Men's Health Month, American Heart Month, National Nutrition Month, UV Safety, Stress Awareness, National Volunteer Month.
See communications →Holidays
TFCU observes only federal holidays, like Presidents Day, Juneteenth, Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
See communications →Engagement Insights
Reliable delivery, shallow engagement.
Pulling the specific top-performing work email communications with high engagement.
Top performing work email communications by open rate
Opens · Delivered
Work Anniversaries
Work Anniversary Shoutout
100.0%
81 opens · 81 delivered
Birthdays
April Birthdays 2026
38.5%
20 opens · 52 delivered
DEIB / Observances
Presidents Day Holiday
37.7%
20 opens · 53 delivered
Wellness
National Wellness Month
37.0%
20 opens · 54 delivered
The root cause
41 of 45 communications published this year contain no clickable link at all. That's the ceiling on the 4% clickthrough rate before content or timing even enter the picture: the sends above outperform because they're milestone moments people already care about, not because they ask anyone to do anything. Every roadmap item that follows starts from the same fix: give people something to click.
Who's engaging, and who isn't
Managers and employees, two different patterns.
Comparing the manager and employee audiences side by side: managers receive fewer communications but open more of them, while the larger employee audience opens at a lower rate, the clearest split in the account's engagement data.
Managers vs. employees
35.5%Overall open rate
Managers
17 people · 38.4% avg. open rate
27.9%Overall open rate
Employees
36 people · 31.2% avg. open rate
| Audience | Avg. open rate | Overall open rate* |
|---|---|---|
| Managers | 38.4% | 35.5% |
| Employees | 31.2% | 27.9% |
*Overall open rate = total emails opened ÷ total communications delivered, which accounts for differences in how many communications each person received.
Within that employee group, 15 people, about a quarter of the full roster, haven't opened a single communication all year, despite receiving 30-plus sends. That's a sharper signal than a low average: it's more likely a deliverability problem (spam filtering, a dead address) than genuine disinterest, and it's worth checking before writing anyone off.
The Strategic Shift
From broadcast cadence to feature adoption.
TFCU's comms machine is dependable, 14-plus months without a missed cycle or a complaint, but dependability alone hasn't translated into engagement. These are the ideas to bring to the table, beyond fixing what's already running.
01
The TFCU Hub
One branded microsite consolidating Recognition, Benefits + e-gifting, an L&D library, and a Volunteer Hours tracker, a destination employees return to instead of another one-off email.
See Pages module examples02
Yearly Accomplishment Flipbook
A visual annual recap of milestones, achievements, and department highlights, approved internally for year-end delivery.
Ideas for what to include+
- How much TFCU has grown since the beginning of the year, members served and the branch and digital milestones hit along the way.
- Department highlights: one page per team on what they shipped this year.
- Recognition wall: shoutouts, peer nominations, and standout member-service stories.
- Service anniversaries and new hires: who joined, who hit a milestone year.
- Community impact: volunteer hours, sponsorships, financial-literacy events, donations.
- Learning and growth: certifications earned, promotions, training completed.
- Photo gallery: team events, holiday celebrations, branch moments.
- A short letter from leadership plus a look ahead at next year's priorities.
03
Volunteer Program
Two ways to bring TFCU's volunteering to life, a visual flipbook resource, or an ongoing communication sequence that keeps hours top of mind.
Two ways to run it+
- Option 1, Volunteer flipbook: a story-led recap showcasing employees volunteering and the causes TFCU supports, employee spotlights and quotes, photo pages from past and ongoing team volunteer days, partner organization profiles, hours logged to date, and VTO policy at a glance.
- Option 2, Communication sequence: recurring reminders to use and log VTO hours, seasonal nudges around local opportunities, and a simple prompt for employees to send in any volunteering story or photo so it can be featured in the next volunteer program newsletter.
04
Learning & Development Campaign
Weekly professional-development topics (difficult conversations, goal-setting, workplace wellness), positioned as distinct from TFCU's existing compliance LMS.
What it can include+
- Weekly learning topic.
- Educational articles and insights.
- Best practices and practical tips.
- Short videos or podcasts.
- Additional resources and tools.
- Reflection questions or action items.
- Links to internal or external training.
Topics+
- Navigating Difficult Conversations
- Conflict Resolution and Collaboration
- Setting High Impact Goals
- Understanding Implicit Bias
- Workplace Wellness
- Finding Your Inner Leader
- Toolkit for Success
- Gratitude & Appreciation
05
Performance Reviews campaign
Structured manager guides supplementing Paylocity, a real fix for the underperforming “Reminder to Manager” send.
06
E-gifting
TFCU already has e-gifting in ChangeEngine and isn't using it. Put it to work for end-of-year holiday gift cards, and attach a redeemable card directly to birthday and anniversary sends, TFCU's strongest-performing content, for the first real test of click-through.
Where it could work+
- Learning & Development completion: send an eGift when an employee completes a designated L&D training, course, or learning milestone. Encourages training participation and celebrates professional growth.
- Holiday & year-end appreciation: send an eGift at the end of the year alongside a personalized appreciation message thanking employees for their contributions. Creates a meaningful recognition moment.
- Living the company's core values: managers or peers nominate employees who demonstrate company values in their everyday work; selected employees receive an eGift and a recognition shoutout.
The Roadmap
From stalled proposals to shipped programs.
A phased plan that turns the strategy shift into shipped work, sequenced so each phase compounds on the last.
01Next Step 1
Fix the calendar's plumbing
Before anything new ships, close the gaps in what's already going out.
- Add clickable CTAs more consistently across the communications.
- Re-pace the wellness/awareness series to reduce fatigue.
- Review the 15 always-silent employees flagged in the Audiences section above for a deliverability issue before assuming disinterest.
02Next Step 2
Ship what's already pending
Close out the proposals sitting in “under consideration” since July.
- Finalize and deliver the Yearly Accomplishment Flipbook.
- Launch e-gifting tied to birthday/anniversary sends, Learning & Development completion, holiday and year-end appreciation, and living the company's core values.
- Get a yes/no on the L&D campaign and manager guides.
- Decide on the Volunteer Program direction.
03Next Step 3
Build the TFCU Hub
Bring Recognition, Benefits, L&D, and Volunteer Hours together into one destination.
- Stand up the Hub microsite with sections for each pending program.
- Migrate flipbook, e-gifting, and L&D content into the Hub as its first content.
- Track open rate, click-through, and Hub visits as the new success metrics for the next QBR.