On-site ambassadors keep employees well informed
June 1, 1997 4 minutes read
On-site ambassadors keep employees well informed
Program boosts participation to 85%
An employee wellness "ambassador" program has helped boost participation rates at The Beth Deaconess Hospital in Boston from 67% in 1993 to nearly 85% in 1995, and the numbers are still rising. At the same time, this innovative strategy helped overcome one of the toughest challenges a wellness manager can face: effectively communicating to a large employee population spread out over a number of facilities.
The basic responsibility of the ambassadors is to post the hospital’s quarterly Happenings wellness newsletter on bulletin boards in high-traffic areas identified by the health management department.
At present, the health care network includes Beth Israel Hospital, Deaconess Hospital (which merged with Beth Israel in October 1996), Mount Auburn Hospital, four community hospitals, and three communitybased health centers.
Even before the merger, however, the Beth Israel system had over 5,000 employees. Prior to the ambassador program rollout, a good deal of wellness communication material was falling through the cracks.
"Before the ambassador program, basically stacks of newsletters and fliers were left in a number of places cafeterias, information desks in lobbies, and that was about it," recalls Susan Frampton, PhD, director of Beth Israel’s Tanger Center for Health Management. "We’d send those stacks to off-campus facilities to an area, not to a specific person so no one felt a specific responsibility to do anything with the material. Now, the ambassadors have ownership; this is what they do."
The ambassador program was conceived in 1993, and invitations went out at the end of the year to specific areas the health management department wanted to target. Managers were asked to identify employees who wished to serve as ambassadors.
Ambassadors earn points that can be used to purchase incentive items. The amount of the financial incentive is about $10 per quarter. At the end of each quarter, a raffle is held for a special prize.
Was that enough to motivate employees to sign on as ambassadors? "There was definitely a core group of people who were very loyal and probably would have posted the newsletter without an incentive," says Sarah Reitkopp, the health promotion assistant who oversees the program.
"Different things motivate different people," adds Frampton. "Having prizes motivates certain people."
Not as simple as it sounds
While the ambassadors had one basic responsibility, it was very important to the health management department that they perform it properly. "Our newsletter is usually four or six pages, unstapled," explains Frampton. "We want the printed sheets separated and posted so that every surface is showing."
To help ensure proper compliance, random site visits to ambassador areas began in April 1995. In addition to checking for proper postings, health management staff made sure the ambassadors were receiving their mailings on time and made themselves available to answer questions.
After one year as an ambassador, an employee who had been properly posting at least 50% of the time is asked to continue. The others are sent thank-you notes and told their term of service had been completed.
Compliance is still uneven, "It now varies from 65% to 90%," says Frampton.
The continued growth of the program brings both benefits and challenges. First, the really good news: When the initial 130 invitations were sent out, 24 responses were received. The number of ambassadors has steadily grown (and along with it, participation rates), with a total of 70 ambassadors as of this spring.
"What has improved is the communication between the person on our staff responsible for the program and the ambassadors," Frampton explains. "They have been extremely proactive. If an ambassador leaves the job, they’re really on top of refilling the position."
"[The improved communication] makes them feel like they are more a part of the program," adds Elise Phillips, MEd, health education coordinator. "Sarah communicates with the ambassadors quite often by e-mail, which adds a more personal touch."
Now, for the real challenge: integrating 3,000 new employees from Deaconess into the ambassador program. "It’s actually pretty exciting," says Phillips. "We’ll be able to draw from a whole new core group of expertise and interface with different departments, and that’s wonderful. The challenge will be to continue promoting our program, getting the word out on what we offer, tapping into specific interest areas, and maintaining quality while we expand."
Frampton plans to replicate the development of the Beth Israel ambassador program with the Deaconess employees, starting this summer. "The Deaconess wellness effort was not as large or as well known as ours, and they had no single wellness center site, so in some ways there has been a real noticeable benefit, and it has helped with the acceptance of our program," she says.
Still, she recognizes the need to be sensitive to the new employees. "We plan to integrate the name of the Deaconess wellness program, Team Health,’ into the header for our Be Well’ program," she says. "It will be part of a tag line encouraging employees to be part of our health team."
[Editor’s Note: For more information on the employee ambassador program, contact: Susan Frampton, Director, Health Management Department, The Beth Deaconess Hospital, 330 Brookline Avenue, Boston, MA 02215. Telephone: (617) 667-4671.]
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