What does it mean if your internal team members aren’t bringing truth to the strong brand you’ve presented to your external audiences? With a strong external branding campaign showcasing their person-centered culture, Presbyterian SeniorCare Network knew it needed to bridge the gap between their external campaign and their team members by developing an internal communication strategy.
Presbyterian SeniorCare Network, with the help of Pipitone, worked to bring their person-centered culture to life through the actions and attitudes of their team members.
Inherently, team members at Presbyterian SeniorCare Network knew the saying “person-centered culture”, but we wanted to understand what it meant to them and how they felt that it inspired what they do every day. In order to achieve this, we conducted a team member survey to:
Our findings reinforced what we had hoped. Most team members found the attributes of “welcoming” and “compassion” to be the most relevant to person-centered culture and care. We then took these learnings to drive the internal communications programs.
Based on our learnings, we helped to develop a network-wide training program to instill person-centered values into each and every team member, regardless of how long they had worked there. We also began to ensure that these learnings became the message that guides everything that Presbyterian SeniorCare Network does when it comes to internal communications.
In order to reach new team members, we created “New Hire” booklets to be given out on first days of work. The booklet and matching folder reinforce the Network’s mission, values of benevolence, collaboration and innovation and what person-centered culture means to the Network and the new team members.
In order to achieve full team member buy-in of person-centered culture, we helped Presbyterian SeniorCare Network create a document we called their Passport. The Passport is a statement of each team member’s yearly goals that help support the organization’s mission. They are developed at the beginning of each year between a team member and their supervisors. Worn with their name badge, the Passport serves as a daily reminder of each team member’s personal commitment and pledge to the Network’s mission, yearly strategic plan and making a difference for residents and their families.
To further support the Network’s mission and values for all employees at all campuses every day, we created over 100 posters and hung them in high-traffic areas at each of the Network’s communities. The goal of these posters was to make sure Presbyterian SeniorCare Network team members are not only aware of the mission and values that make up the person-centered culture, but that they are living it and exposed to them day in and day out.