How Crawford & Company Scales Employee Communications with a Small, Nimble Team

Creating a modern internal communications structure for a dynamic global business

Crawford & Company is a leading provider of claims management and outsourcing solutions, serving clients in more than 70 countries. Partnering with carriers, brokers, and corporates, the company helps individuals, businesses, and communities recover from loss through a combination of people, expertise, and technology.

As Crawford expanded globally and diversified its business through innovation and acquisitions, it became clear that its internal communications infrastructure needed to evolve as well.

The Challenge: High-Volume, Low-Signal Communications

When Claire Barth joined Crawford, employee communications were powered by a patchwork of legacy tools that lacked modern functionality. The system offered no meaningful segmentation, limited design capabilities, no embedded calls to action, and virtually no analytics. Communications were U.S.-centric and difficult to scale globally.

"We were deluging employees with constant emails,” Barth recalls. “Our newsletter had long articles, very few people read it, and we couldn’t communicate with employees outside the U.S. easily. In a dynamic, highly regulated industry, that approach simply wasn’t sustainable."

Employees were overwhelmed. Leaders lacked visibility into what was working. And the communications team spent more time trying to overcome the limitations of our outdated system than shaping strategy.

Selecting an Email Employee Communications Platform Built for Scale

Marketing and communications team leaders evaluated multiple options and selected EmailOpen for its combination of usability, design flexibility, robust segmentation, and seamless data sync capabilities.

In particular, EmailOpen’s ability to integrate employee data — previously scattered across regional systems — and support granular audience segmentation stood out. The platform offered the foundation Crawford needed to move from one-size-fits-all messaging to a more intentional, audience-first approach.

Barth, who had transitioned into the communications function, led the onboarding process and worked closely with EmailOpen to establish new standards and templates.

Implementing a New Communications Model

At the center of Crawford’s internal communications strategy is Crawford Weekly, a U.S.-focused newsletter sent to approximately 5,000 employees. Designed for easy readability and engagement, the design-rich newsletter features curated updates across HR, employee resource groups, events, media coverage, and social activity.

Graphics are used strategically — particularly for time-sensitive topics such as security alerts — to reinforce importance and increase visibility.

Rather than overloading emails with long-form content, Crawford Weekly previews stories and links employees to Crawford’s internal communications platform, which Barth describes as a hybrid between an intranet and a social network.

Beyond the U.S. newsletter, the team uses EmailOpen to support global targeted communications from executive leadership, HR, ethics and compliance, IT, and other functional leaders. Depending on urgency and audience, these messages may include full content or serve as entry points to deeper resources.

What was once a manual, error-prone process — such as emailing all directors globally or IT staff in a specific region — is now seamless. Crawford maintains more than 70 active sub-segments, with EmailOpen’s sync capability ensuring lists remain accurate and current.

Driving Consistency and Quality

Modernizing tools also required modernizing behaviors.

"We had to teach leaders a new way of communicating,” says Barth. “Instead of sending multiple emails a week, we now work together to determine what truly needs an individual message — and what belongs in Crawford Weekly."

EmailOpen supports this shift operationally. Submission guidelines help leaders and teams provide complete, high-quality content upfront, eliminating time-consuming back-and-forth. Built-in preview and markup features streamline executive review and approval, replacing outdated, manual workflows.

For Barth and Communications Specialist Katie Cline — the platform’s principal users — these changes have freed up time to focus on strategy rather than administration.

Supporting Growth Through Change

Crawford’s communications transformation has been especially critical as the business has grown through innovation and acquisitions. In recent years, the company has expanded its global footprint through acquisitions.

EmailOpen has played a crucial role in keeping teams aligned during periods of change. It also enables the communications team to deliver essential company information with clarity and consistency while bringing employees together across geographies to strengthen a unified, one-company culture.

"The insurance industry is historically very traditional,” Barth notes. “We want to use modern tools and communication best practices to engage our diverse workforce so they can stay current on key developments and feel connected to the company."

Achieving Best-in-Class Engagement

With EmailOpen in place, Crawford has achieved consistently strong engagement metrics across its internal communications program:

• Open rates typically between 70-75%
• Read rates in the mid-60% range
• Clickthrough rates of approximately 5%

Barth attributes these results to several EmailOpen-enabled best practices her team has implemented:

• Audience-level segmentation to reduce overload and increase relevance.
• Clear, scannable headlines and subheads that convey the core message upfront. "You can get 90% of the message just by reading the headlines and subheads," Barth says. "That’s intentional."
• Benchmarking insights to set and exceed performance expectations.
• Trusted sender configuration (SPF), enabling trusted senders to bypass spam filters, improving deliverability and confidence.
• Streamlined executive reviews that accelerate time to send.
• Actionable analytics shared monthly with senior leadership.

Sustaining High Engagement at Global Scale

Today, EmailOpen underpins Crawford’s modern employee communications strategy — enabling a small, expert team to deliver clear, consistent messaging across a complex, global organization.

With strong governance, reliable delivery, and data-driven insight, the platform allows Crawford’s communications leaders to focus less on mechanics and more on meaning. This supports leadership visibility, reinforces culture, and keeps employees informed without overwhelming them.

As Crawford continues to evolve, EmailOpen provides a flexible foundation that scales with the business — ensuring every message reaches the right audience, at the right time, with the right impact.

Meet Claire Rauschenberg Barth
Claire Rauschenberg Barth is Director of Corporate Communications at Crawford & Company. She leads public relations, employee communications, thought leadership, and executive communications, supporting the company’s global growth and transformation.