Johnson County Wastewater created a video campaign to raise its public profile and boost awareness of its workplace environment.

The three-video series highlights team members and their roles in sustaining quality water infrastructure and water resources. The tagline for the videos is: “Here for the Work, Here for the Water, Here for the World.”

The utility treats water for more than 500,000 residents. Its six wastewater treatment plants process 79 mgd for a total of 18 billion gallons per year.

Good humor

Johnson County Wastewater supervisor team meetings start with a quick icebreaker. In one meeting, team members were challenged to identify the meaning of various social media abbreviations and Generation Z slang.

When the term ‘W’ came up (it stands for win), one staff member guessed it stood for wastewater. The answer created laughs, and so Melissa Reeves, community relations manager, went back to her office and created the campaign #ForTheW.

“Johnson County has humor as one of our values, and it truly is a valuable resource,” Reeves says. “That one offhand joke made in a meeting has spawned many cool things.” 

After the meeting, Reeves also began writing scripts for videos and engaged staff members to star in them. The three one-minute videos are entitled:

• #ForTheW – Who We Are showcases the roles, shifts and people at the utility who are united in commitment to the work, water and world.
• #ForTheW – What We Do describes the team members who set the standard for high performance and dedication to creating a more sustainable environment.
• #ForTheW – Why We Do It features team members talking about working at the utility for flexibility, work/life balance, protecting the environment and helping the community.

Across the three videos, workers demonstrate what they do and why they like working for the organization. The videos were created entirely with in-house staff and resources. Reeves made the videos, wrote the scripts and created the titles.

The #ForTheW phrase is attached to much of the communications media so that people can learn more about the utility and spread the word. Team members have T-shirts with the phrase on it. “It’s important that the community we serve sees the people who are working to maintain the high quality of life we have in Johnson County,” Reeves says.

Shoestring budget

The program is funded internally. Reeves films the videos and produces them. Besides starring in the videos, team members help out at career days and about 20 job fairs per year, often wearing #ForTheW shirts and passing out stickers. They put the stickers on their laptops and water bottles and #ForTheW to their LinkedIn pages.

“Our recruitment at these fairs and this campaign are only successful because we have an engaged team,” Reeves says. “This is a joint effort, and the enthusiasm I see from team members has been the best.”

The phrase is also on the utility’s website and on its social media posts, in graphics used for recruitment, on awards, and in other news from the organization. It is also on banners for YouTube, on the utility’s LinkedIn pages and on Facebook pages.

Adding to the team

One reason for creating the campaign was to address the public sector’s workforce shortage. Reeves sees a cultural shift in that more people perceive blue-collar, frontline and public sector jobs for the great career paths they have always offered. The campaign highlights that trend.

The campaign has paid off. It has helped reduce the utility’s job vacancies by half. In addition, many team members have worked to revitalize hiring and retention. That includes building a career progression program, increasing training, and offering referral bonuses.

“Our advertising helps to get eyes on open positions within the organization, but it takes a real team effort to convert interested job seekers into long-term employees,” Reeves says.

Rewarding campaign

The first two videos were viewed more than 118,000 times on social media, and the third, ‘Why We Do It,’ initially pulled ahead of the other two. Viewers click on the link that sends them to the utility’s career page.

The video campaign received an Environmental Achievement Award for Public Information and Education from the National Association of Clean Water Agencies. “I am always looking for new ways to tell our story and inspire the next generation of wastewater professionals,” Reeves says.

“My colleagues frequently come to me with ideas on how we can engage the community.”

Other ideas on the horizon are a job shadowing and internship program, an activity book and a mascot for children.