Shaping the Employee Experience Through Better Conversations: An Interview With Michelle Dunst

For the past five years, Michelle Dunst has been one of the quiet forces behind how Nua Group helps companies communicate change in ways that land with people. What began as benefits and open-enrollment work has grown into something much bigger: helping organizations navigate compensation changes, total rewards messaging, performance cycles, job architecture implementation, and the increasingly complex emotional landscape of the employee experience.

Michelle’s perspective is grounded in something simple but often overlooked: people don’t separate “compensation,” “benefits,” and “performance.” They simply experience work as a whole. And when communication doesn’t connect those dots, clarity is lost. Her work sits right in that gap, translating strategy into messages that feel honest, human, and understood.

This conversation explores what she’s learned over the years, why internal communication can’t be treated as an afterthought, and how technology (including AI) is reshaping what’s possible for teams under pressure. It’s also a glimpse into the thoughtful, calm presence she brings to every project, especially in moments where employees are paying the closest attention.

Since you joined Nua Group five years ago, your work has evolved from benefits and OE communication to shaping the broader employee experience across total rewards, compensation, and performance cycles. What has that shift taught you?

It’s taught me that the employee experience is so interconnected. Employees don’t think in terms of compensation or benefits or compliance or the silos of teams we partner with. Employees are looking at the whole picture. Benefits and open enrollment communications can be very tactical, deadline-driven work, and as my role has expanded into total rewards, compensation, and performance cycles, it has helped me broaden my view of the employee experience. 

This shift strengthened my ability to zoom out and build narratives that connect dots across the entire employee lifecycle. I learned to think beyond “What do we need people to know now?” and toward “What do we want people to feel, understand, and ultimately do?” That mindset change has made me a stronger strategic partner and has helped me design communications that actually move behavior and not just deliver information.

Internal communication is often treated as the “last step” in a project. What do you wish more leaders understood about why it needs to be part of the strategy from the start?

Employee communication is rarely successful when brought in at the end of a project. As communicators, we will then be stuck retrofitting objectives, squeezed on timing, and lacking a clear viewpoint. In this instance, it will lead to the need for additional supplemental communication. In the end, the project will take longer, lead to more employee questions, and cause unnecessary confusion, so you might as well pull comms in earlier anyway! 

You’ve helped companies explain some of the toughest topics: compensation changes, performance reviews, and total rewards updates. What makes these areas particularly challenging for employees to understand?

Companies can deliver and communicate all sorts of legal and complicated information in professional jargon, but at the end of the day, these are the topics people really care about, so they pay close attention. I’ve found that people don’t need perfection; they need transparency, fairness, and consistency. 

Oftentimes, pay and performance conversations can create a lot of anxiety and uncertainty. That’s why I always try to deliver clear communication that explains the logic and expectations, and is easy to understand. It’s important to craft not only clear employee communications but also to build supporting materials for managers and leaders. That way, leaders are confident in the why behind the decision and have the support they need to answer employees' questions.  

When you think about organizations that communicate well across the entire employee experience, what are the common threads?

These common threads stand out to me: 

• Clarity – The one key message employees need to walk away with, rather than several subjects buried in the same message 

• Leadership alignment – Early and consistent buy-in from leadership to reinforce messaging 

• Cadence – Communication channels that allow for consistent engagement rather than bombardment all at once. 

• Feedback - Employees are empowered to ask questions and submit feedback to the HR team and see their input reflected. 

The employee experience today is fast-moving, with shifting expectations around transparency, feedback, and work-life boundaries. How do you approach communication when the ground keeps moving?

We rarely execute on a complete strategy built months in advance, especially when dealing with organizational change. Keeping this in mind, I develop communication strategies that take into account what we do know. 

• What are the guiding principles? 

• Who needs to know what and when? 

• What context or constraints will shape how employees interpret the message?

• What follow-up or leadership messaging will be needed so the message sticks?

I also try to avoid over-promising. In fast-moving environments, credibility comes from staying honest, even if the answer is, “We’re still finalizing this; here’s what we can share now.”

You work at the intersection of messaging, behavior, and emotion. What have you learned about how people actually take in information during moments that feel personal or sensitive?

People don’t read, they feel first. Especially in times of uncertainty or change, people lead with emotion. It sounds simple, but for me, the best way to approach those situations is to take a step back and ask, “If I were in this situation, what would I want to know right now?” 

Using that lens, when developing both the communications timeline and individual deliverables, I try to answer these questions: 

• What does this change mean to my family or me?

• Is this good, bad, or something I need to worry about?

• Are they being transparent with me?

• Do I have time to process, or do I need to take action now?

Working at the intersection of messaging, behavior, and emotion has taught me that communication isn’t just about clarity, but also about emotional orientation. Before employees absorb details, they need to feel grounded and prepared to take in the information.

That means: 

• Keep the message simple so it’s easy to understand.

• Start with empathy; people need acknowledgement before instruction.

• Anticipate reactions and proactively answer hard questions instead of avoiding them.

• Give concrete next steps so people feel less overwhelmed and more in control.

I’ve learned that tone matters as much as accuracy. In sensitive moments, clarity without care will feel cold, and care without clarity feels vague. It’s a balancing act. You need both to truly support people in the moments that matter.

What’s one communication habit you wish companies would let go of and one they should absolutely adopt next year?

Drop: Overloading employees with every detail. More information doesn’t equal more understanding.

Adopt: Using AI tools to support communication initiatives, but executing with intention. AI should help teams move faster, not replace good judgment. A human still needs to review, refine, and ensure the message is empathetic, accurate, and aligned with the company’s mission and values. It’s an exciting time for new communication capabilities, and I think teams should definitely adopt these tools where they can. The real opportunity comes from utilizing new, smart tools with thoughtful oversight.

Over the past year, what’s one moment in your work where you felt technology helped you move faster or go deeper than you expected, and what impact did it have on the project?

This year, we’ve experimented with various AI tools; some are great, others are a work in progress. One of the most fun use cases was utilizing AI to run a focus group. Our client didn’t have the time to run a focus group, so we used personas we previously developed to run a ‘mock’ focus group. We asked questions we would typically ask in a focus group and then shared the key takeaways. The results were very interesting and brought up several good points. Of course, we pressure tested the results with the client as well, but this helped us refine our communication strategy and push our client conversations a lot further in a much faster timeline. We were able to elevate the project in ways that wouldn’t have been possible with typical time limitations.

You’re someone who brings a lot of calm and thoughtfulness to your work. Outside of consulting, what helps you recharge or reset so you can keep showing up that way?

I value the time I can spend away from screens. It helps me to reset and often see things from a different perspective. I’m a big reader, so you’ll always find me with my nose in a book. 

Favourite books of 2025:

• Fiction: Indian Country by Shobha Rao, a Bay Area author I met at a local book reading 

• Non-fiction: Careless People by Sarah Wynn-Williams 

One of my goals this year was to run a half-marathon! Admittedly, I am not a runner, but I enjoyed stepping away and dedicating time to something that can only be achieved through consistent effort. 

I always find myself questioning why I’m running during the first 10 minutes. Then, I start to settle into a rhythm with my music, and I’m able to zone out a bit. I usually find myself at the new park on the Great Highway, and you really can’t beat that view. It has been a great challenge for 2025, and I hope to keep this new habit into the New Year. 

Michelle’s approach is a reminder that meaningful communication isn’t about perfect wording or polished slides, but about understanding what people need in the moments that matter. After five years at Nua, she’s helped reshape how organisations think about employee communication by blending empathy, clarity, and a strategic view of the full employee journey. As expectations continue to shift and the pace of change accelerates, her work shows that when we communicate with intention, we make it easier for people to feel informed, included, and supported — and that’s ultimately what drives real change.

Want to work with Michelle and the Nua team? Get in touch!