Best Practices in Internal Communication Using Your Hospital Intranet

Copyrights HospitalPortal.net 2016. All rights reserved.
BEST PRACTICES in
Internal Communication
Using your Hospital Intranet
Anne La Francis
Director of Sales and Marketing
HospitalPortal.net
Angela Novak
Client Services Director
H2M

Agenda
• Key tips for publishing relevant content on your Intranet
• How to better distribute and present vital information to our staff
• Ways to engage your employees with your content
• How to encourage collaboration amongst staff
• Tools for providing leadership with valuable staff feedback
• How to incorporate the above ideas and concepts into your Intranet

HospitalPortal.net & H2M share a mutual client…
“We have relied on HospitalPortal.net to manage our intranet for many years. The “Central Line” as it is called is a
vital tool used for internal communications with our 900 employees and 80+ medical staff at Lake Region
Healthcare. Their easy-to-use interface helps us to keep intranet content fresh and relevant.”
______________________________________________________________________________________________
“Lake Region Healthcare has been a client of H2M since the fall of 2012 and have become an extension of our
marketing department. They treat our business as if it were their own, seeking to learn and understand our industry
and marketplace through in-person visits, extensive research and collaboration with our internal staff on projects
from media production to graphic design and PR to content development.”
Katie N. Johnson
VP, Marketing & Communications
and LRH Foundation
Lake Region HEALTHCARE

Creating an Internal
Communication
Program

Why internal communication?
• Employee engagement
• Brand ambassadorship
• Work smarter, not harder
For every 2% increase in employee satisfaction,
there is a 1% increase in retention…
Your Employees Power Your Long-term ROI.

Employee engagement
• Proactive transparency builds trust and
respect between the health system
and its employees.
• Regular internal communication unites
employees by breaking down the silos
and/or barriers between service lines,
departments and locations.

Brand ambassadors
• Your employees are your best brand
ambassadors.
• Because your patients spend the
majority of their time interacting with
your employees, consistency and
authenticity in messaging is key.
Patients can never love your hospital
until your employees love it first.

Work smarter, not harder
• You are already developing strong external
content, so capture the messages in one
centralized intranet portal, making it easy
for employees to stay informed and
efficient for you to publish.

What’s the best approach?
• An internal communication program that’s integrated within your overall
marketing communication department and that leverages multiple employee
touchpoints.
• Tactics include:
• Become your own publisher
• Tell employees first
• Make it a two-way street
• Maintain a regular schedule
• Launch a brand ambassador program

Become your own publisher
• Manage all of your communication messages
across all channels with a comprehensive
content calendar.
• Channels should include all communication
touchpoints throughout the employee
experience.

Tell employees first
• Healthcare employees are
accustom to being empowered;
they are on the frontlines of
making vital decisions everyday.
• Healthcare employees should be
the first to know…and sometimes
the ONLY to know.
Daily Happenings
•Trainings
•Celebrations
•Menus
•Quality reports
•Census
information
•Births
Earned Media/PR
Updates
•Hospital
improvements
•New facility
upgrades
•Mergers or
acquisitions
•Community
programs
Leadership Updates
•Leadership blogs
•Leadership
academy
Social Feed
•Social network
updates
Crisis
Communication
•Emergency
preparation and
response

Make it a two-way street
• Successful internal communication
offers employees an opportunity to
ask questions, give ideas and
participate in the communication
overall.
• This should happen both through your
intranet and in-person.

Maintain a regular schedule
• Proactive communication on a regular
schedule is key.
• Offer relevant, timely content and they will
keep coming back for more.

Launch a Brand Ambassador Program
• Empower though leaders and influential
employees to be your boots-on-the-
ground messengers.
• Arm them with key talking points and
Q&As.
• Gather what they are hearings so
leadership gains frontline knowledge.

Intranets empower
employees.

Why an Intranet for Internal Communications?
Nurses
OperationsVolunteers
PhysiciansEmployees
Intranet Leadership
Contract
Staff
Board
Communications
Content
Social
Policies & ProceduresCalendars & Updates
Self-Service
Two-way communication
• They promote self-sufficiency
• Connects everyone in the organization
• Gives quick, real-time access to vital
information
• Automates workflow and increases
productivity
• Allows for standardized communication
• Decentralized content management
• Content is extremely easy to edit and always
up to date
• IT staff is freed up to focus on other mission
critical tasks

What is the main channel your organization
uses for internal communication?
Email
External-facing website
Printed newsletters/material
Intranet
No consistent internal communication
POLL QUESTION #1

Internal Communication
Features of an Intranet
• Events/Announcements
• Leadership Blogs
• Chat Feature
• Forums
• Idea Bank
• Hospital Wikis
• Leadership Academy
• Social media ambassador program
• Photos/Slideshows
• Community happenings
• Physician and board member portals
• Crisis Management

Slideshow/Image Gallery
• Make the images engaging
• Front and Center
• Uniform sizing & formatting
• Text + Picture/Photo
• Can be hyperlinked
• Uses
• Engaging announcements
• Feel-good stories
• Commonly viewed pages
• Internal Advertising
Announcements

News
• Uses
• Hospital events
• Training/educational classes
• New available resources
• Running newsletter
• Events Component
• Include Pictures
• Description
• Uniform look
• Limit quantity on initial display
Announcements

Events component features & options
• Picture
• Title Field
• Description Field (Brief Description)
• Detailed Description
• Date and Time
• Links
• Comments
Announcements

Scroller
Uses
• Fires
• Evacuations
• System Outages
Features
• Scheduled or on the fly
• Global
• Clickable links
Announcements

• Collaborate, learn, 2-way
communication, etc.
• Enable comments
• Archives
• Examples
• Departmental
• Adding a connection
• Personal
• Leadership/CEO
• Vlog
Blogs

Chat

Forums
• Staff Forums
• Departmental Forums
• Project collaboration
• Examples
• Classifieds/Want
Ads
• Team projects
• Ride sharing
• Employee recipes
• Q&A

Idea Bank

Hospital Wikis
• Search Wiki
• Hospital FAQs
• Click on question to see
expanded answers
• Ask HR or any department
• Submit an inquiry if question
wasn’t answered
• Employee Wiki - connect to
employee profiles

Leadership Academy
• Calendar of Events
• Collaboration center
• Leadership contacts
• Meeting resources/minutes
• Training

Social Media Ambassador Program (SMA)
• Brand standard manuals
• Hospital logos
• Social messages
• Pre-scripted emails
• Video library
• Approved photos
• Form to apply for the
program

Forms & Workflows

Restricted-View Pages for Specific Staff

Community Page
• Photo galleries
• Photo submission form
• Community events and
calendar
• Fundraising tracker
• Donation form

Board Page
• Meeting packets
• Meeting notes archives
• Committee lists
• Board calendar
• Dashboards
• Voting

Physician Page
• Physician forum
• Physician calendar
• Links to relevant resources
• On call schedule(s)
• News and announcements
• Orders and Protocols
• Onboarding resources
• Market to potential
providers

Crisis Management
Intranet
Features to
help with
Crisis
Management
Training/educational
resources
Videos
Forums
Contact directories
Emergency vendor
directories
Mass notifications/alerts
Chain of commands lists
Emergency codes
Dedicated pages to crisis
topic
Blogs
Ticket management
Emergency scroller
 Alert Employees First
 Keep Employees Constantly
Informed
 Document Crisis Management
Procedures in Place

Crisis Management Tools

Q & A

THANK YOU!
Anne La Francis
HospitalPortal.net
Director of Sales and Marketing
ALaFrancis@HospitalPortal.net
Angela Novak
H2M
Client Services Director
angela@h2m.biz

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