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This week, I caught up with a good friend of mine, Kayla, who works for a hospital in Orlando, Florida. Kayla is a marketing specialist for the hospital’s communications department.
Kayla updated me on a new wellness program that recently kicked off at her hospital for its employees. I was really interested to learn more about the program overall, because my company also recently began a wellness initiative. Having a friend who works in the same area of communications can be extremely helpful for idea sharing and brainstorming about how to resolve challenges!
For the focus of this week’s blog post, I held a phone call with Kayla to ask her about the use of social media for internal use at the hospital. As luck would have it, she has led the charge in the wellness program to launch an internal blog. Based on our conversation, it sounds like the program and blog have been well received and there are more developments to come.
Here is a brief overview of our conversation about the employee wellness blog at Kayla’s hospital:
Q: What type of social media tool are you using for internal communication (e.g., employee to employee, not external-facing such as to customers) at the hospital right now?
A: We have a new blog on our internal website to communicate with our employees about the new wellness program.
Q: How will the blog be used and what is its purpose in the wellness program?
A: Each hospital campus has a wellness manager who will focus on coordinating on-site activities through the blog. Additionally, they are responsible for developing short blog posts about health and wellness. The website also includes videos and podcasts written and recorded by our employees.
Q: That sounds like a really exciting initiative. How do you think employees feel about this, and what are you seeing in terms of participation so far?
A: The feedback from employees has been amazing. We gauge our success based on the number of page views and comments. Our employees regularly comment on the blogs and videos to share ideas on how the content motivated them or to share their own healthy tips.
Q: That’s great! It sounds like this internal blog has proven to be extremely useful as a communication tool for your wellness campaign. What do you find is most helpful about it?
A: It’s a quick and inexpensive way to promote on-campus events. One of the benefits is that when there are changes to locations, dates, times, etc., we can quickly modify the postings.
Q: Is this blog better than other tactics you've used in the past to communicate with employees?
A: I wouldn't necessarily say it’s “better” but I would say it’s a welcome addition to our internal communications program. Our other methods are considered by many to be outdated (ex: daily memos with key announcements sent to department leads, a monthly magazine). We have very little email communication. Our wellness blog provides an instant way to get information distributed.
Q: What are some of the challenges of incorporating this blog into your wellness campaign?
A: The biggest challenge is that some of our employees do not have access to the Internet at work; however, we’ve been working to change that since this program has been implemented. By the end of next year, all departments will have at least one computer that has limited Internet access, which will include permission to view the wellness blog.
The other challenge is that some employees do not engage with the wellness program (for whatever reason that may be) and therefore do not have access to the great information that is being provided. Learning why these employees do not participate and making the necessary changes is important in the next year.
Q: Well, it sounds like your team is aware of the key challenges and some ways to overcome these in the future. When it came to getting the sign-off for this project, did you get pushback or support from senior leadership on creating an internal blog?
A: Senior leadership has been on board since day one! The wellness program is the brainchild of our executive team and they support it 100%. In fact, many of our videos and podcasts are written and voiced by our executive leadership.
Q: That’s excellent! Happy to hear the program is going well and that the blog is a hit. Is there anything else you want to share?
A: In addition to the website, we are currently investigating the use of an iPhone/Droid app. This app would sync with the employee's wellness action plan so they could track their nutrition and activity throughout the day.
This is great Tara! It's a fun read and so relevant! Good get with your friend in the hospital. It's makes so much sense that blogging could be good for your health, especially those in health. I like your blog style! How did you get the wider margins for your posts? Mine are skinny and I keep trying to make it wider. I removed all the widgets from the left... but still too skinny! (That's the only thing about me that's too skinny!)
ReplyDeleteGreat post Tara! It's interesting to hear about the hospital's wellness initiative and the employees' participation. Hospitals are crazy busy, so it's good to hear that employees are taking the time to participate and engage! I find it refreshing that senior leadership has been on board since the beginning, as well. This demonstrates their willingness to use social media as a way of engaging employees (as most are somewhat hesitant). Very informative interview!
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