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Health Is Every Body’s Business: A Strategic Health CommunicationPlan
Myrna Davis-Washington
University of the Rockies
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Abstract
This paper utilizes the information learned from Tennyson and
Ray’s (2005) article, “Creating a Strategic Communication Plan
THAT GATHERS NO DUST,” the course reading assignments, at least
five scholarly journal articles, and research accessed via the
library or websites to create a strategic communications plan for
a health promotion initiative at a technology business that
manufactures microprocessors. The corporation’s CEO has requested
the implementation of a wellness and health promotion initiative
due to an increase in healthcare benefit costs, an increase in
the number of sick days being taken by employees, and an increase
in the number of employees who are taking sick days within your
company. The strategic communications plan presented in this
paper (“Health Is Every Body’s Business”) includes identification
of the health promotion initiative’s: (1) goals and objectives;
(2) target audience; (3) key message; (4) strategies, tactics,
methods, and interventions (5) priorities; (6) development and
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implementation timeline and responsibility list; and (7) means to
assess the outcome after implementation.
Health Is Every Body’s Business: A Strategic Health CommunicationPlan
‘Health communication’ is the study and use of communication
strategies to inform and influence individual and community
decisions that enhance health (National Prevention Information
Network [NPIN], 2010). Effective health communication can be both
written and verbal and carries with it the potential to change
knowledge, attitudes, behaviors, and norms of intended audiences
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through various methods, including media literacy, media
advocacy, advertising, entertainment education, individual and
group instruction, and partnership development (Auld, Radius,
Galer-Unti, & Hinman, 2011; NPIN, 2010). Effective health
communication strategies also combine theories, frameworks, and
approaches from behavioral sciences, communication, social
marketing, and health education (NPIN, 2010). A strategic health
communication plan is essential to any effective health
communication effort.
In their journal article, “Creating a Strategic
Communication Plan That Gathers No Dust,” Patricia A. Tennyson
and Kristina Ray, senior vice-president and vice-president
(respectively) of Katz & Associates in San Diego, California,
discuss ‘strategic communication planning’ as a way of enabling
organizations to use communication effectively in support of
health promotion programming. The strategies presented in their
article concur with this course’s reading assignments in their
assertions that, without a plan: (1) an organization risks
creating and disseminating messages which are disconnected,
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unfocused, and contradictory; (2) there is no basis for the
measurement of the effectiveness of a health promotion program;
and (3) programs without plans, performance monitoring, and
outcome assessment often waste money and time, and have a poor
return on investment (D. Simmons, personal communication, March
22, 2011; Tennyson & Ray, 2005). Although this article is
targeted specifically at utility companies, it provides a
substantial overview of how to create a strategic communication
plan that can be adapted to any industry; one that is realistic
in terms of the resources needed to carry it out, is flexible,
outlines specific implementation steps or timelines, has the buy-
in of those charged with implementation, and includes measurement
criteria (Tennyson & Ray, 2005).
The purpose of this paper is to utilize the information
garnered from the above reading assignment, the course reading
assignments, scholarly journal articles, and research to create a
strategic communications plan for a health promotion initiative
at a technology business that manufactures microprocessors. For
the proposed initiative, the corporation’s CEO has requested the
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implementation of a wellness and health promotion initiative due
to an increase in healthcare benefit costs, an increase in the
number of sick days being taken by employees, and an increase in
the number of employees who are taking sick days within the
company. The associated strategic communication plan presented in
this paper will include identification of the health promotion
initiative’s: (1) goals and objectives; (2) target audience; (3)
key message(s); (4) strategies, tactics, methods, and
interventions (5) priorities; (6) development and implementation
timeline and responsibility list; and (7) means to assess the
outcome after implementation.
Goals and Objectives of the Initiative
Goals are broad and usually long-term; objectives can be
thought of as interim goals leading to the attainment of the
broad goal (Tennyson & Ray, 2005). They state what the
organization wants to accomplish, how "success of the program"
will be defined and how will it be measured, and the research
upon which the health promotion program is based.
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The only statistical data associated with work injuries and
illnesses among employees working with semi-conductors and
microprocessors appears to be derived from a survey of multi-
national semiconductor manufacturing operations performed in
1995(Lassiter, n.d.). The data collected in this survey involved
the international operations of US-based semiconductor
manufacturers for the years 1993-94 and included incidence rates
calculated as numbers of cases (or lost workdays) per 200,000
worker-hours per year. Findings indicated that the annual
incidence of work injuries and illnesses among all workers in the
international survey was 3.3 cases per 100 employees (200,000
worker-hours) in 1993 and 2.7 in 1994. Most of cases (12,130 in
1993) were derived from US companies and were associated with
approximately 387,000 workers in 1993 and 458,000 in 1994. These
results indicated that the incidence rate for lost workdays (days
away from work) was approximately 15.4 days away from work per
100 workers for each of the 2 years. (Lassiter, n.d.)
As stated above, the organizational goal of this health
promotion initiative is to promote health and wellness among its
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employees. One objective is to decrease the organization’s
healthcare benefit costs by decreasing the number of sick days
being taken by employees and the number of employees who are
taking sick days within the company. The communication goal for
this health promotion initiative is, therefore, to increase
awareness of the importance of health and wellness and to foster
acceptance of healthy behaviors. A communication objective,
then, is to inform employees of the purpose and need for adopting
healthy behaviors. Success will be defined by a 15% decrease in
the number of employees taking sick days and a 30% decrease in
the number of sick days being taken by employees (from 15.4 days
per year to 10.1 days per year). This will be measured by taking
baseline assessments of the company’s total healthcare benefit
costs, the total number of employees who have taken sick days,
and the total number of sick days being; each taken for the six
months prior to the beginning of the initiative and assessed
subsequently at 30 days, 180 days, and at yearly increments,
thereafter, for up to three years. (Tennyson & Ray, 2005).
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Identification of the Target Audience
At this stage of the strategic communication plan for this
health promotion initiative, it is important to identify the
target audience. According to Tennyson and Ray (2005), “an
audience can be defined as an individual or organization on which
the utility (program) depends for success.” Since there is no
‘one-size-fits-all’ communication plan, it is essential to
determine whether the target audience for this initiative will
include all employees, high-risk employees, and/or whether it
will it include family. Audience categories that could be
important to a technology business that manufactures
microprocessors include company administrators, department
managers, and clerical staff, as well as, employees who work with
chemicals, containers, furniture/fixtures, machinery, parts and
materials, worker motions, floor/ground surfaces, handtools,
vehicles, and healthcare (Lassiter, n.d.). As is readily
apparent by these categories, all employees working in this
company may be considered ‘high-risk’ employees. In addition,
since an individual employee could easily be a member of more
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than one audience, identification of the target audience will err
on the side of identifying too many audience categories and
identify additional priority audiences later in the process.
Therefore, although there is no “general employee population”
(“general public”), the target audience of this health promotion
initiative will include all company employees (including and
especially, high-risk employees; those who have taken excessive
sick days [>7.2 days] in the six months prior to the
implementation of this initiative). (NPIN, 2010; Tennyson & Ray,
2005)
Key Messages of Initiative
‘Messages’ are nothing more than statements (ideally
supported by facts) that convey a key point and enable
organizations to focus their communication in a way their
audiences can understand and retain (Tennyson & Ray, 2005). What
are the key messages of this initiative? How do they answer,
“What's in it for me?” (“WIIFM?”). Health and wellness, for
example, are abstract concepts for most people. To be an
effective message, health and wellness needs to be translated
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into real life examples. The communication program presented in
this paper will limit the number of messages used by focusing on
no more than three main messages, which will be simple, limited,
and identified in advance. This means three real-life messages
that support the program’s overall organizational goals. If
resources permit, these messages will be tested before they are
finalized through qualitative and quantitative research conducted
in focus group(s). This will enable the program team to hear
actual employees discussing their values, beliefs, attitudes, and
cultural perspectives of health and wellness. The focus groups
will also enable communications staff to rephrase the program’s
messages to use the kind of language employees can relate to.
These refined messages will then be tested through a telephone
survey to determine which messages are most effective in
increasing understanding of the program. (NPIN, 2010; Tennyson &
Ray, 2005)
As stated previously, the CEO wants to implement a wellness
and health promotion initiative due to an increase in healthcare
benefit costs, an increase in the number of sick days being taken
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by employees, and an increase in the number of employees who are
taking sick days within your company. By identifying the
message(s) in the communication plan, the message(s) will become
central to all communication efforts for this proposed project
(Tennyson & Ray, 2005). Based on the identified communication
goals (i.e., increasing employee awareness of the importance of
health and wellness and fostering acceptance of healthy behaviors
among employees) and communication objective (i.e., informing
employees of the purpose and need for adopting healthy
behaviors), the name of this health initiative will be “Health Is
Every Body’s Business.” This will appear at the bottom of all
health messages and will communicate the message that investing
time and energy in health and wellness is ‘good business’ for
both the organization and each individual employee. It will also
answer the question of “What's in it for me?” for the
organization and its employees. For example, “WIIFM” for the
organization is decreased healthcare costs, fewer employee sick
days, and fewer employees taking sick days; and “WIIFM” for
individual employees is improved health and wellness as indicated
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by fewer sick days and fewer employees needing to take sick days.
By all indications, that is ‘good business’.
Based upon the defined goals and objectives and the
identification of the target audiences, the three ‘overarching’
messages for the “Health Is Every Body’s Business” initiative
are: (1) “Eat a varied diet”; (2) “Engage in regular physical
activity”; and “Maintain a healthy body weight” (Biltoft-Jensen,
Groth, Matthiessen, & Wachmann, 2009). These messages are based
upon Biltoft-Jensen et al.’s (2009) study on the association on
diet quality and the above health messages. The study was cross-
sectional, comprising a random sample of 3151 Danish adults aged
18075 years. Results indicated that greater food variety (OR =
1·32 for women, 1·13 for men), high leisure-time physical
activity (OR = 2·20 for women, 1·91 for men), frequent intentions
to eat healthily (OR = 8·19 for women, 5·40 for men) and low
energy intake (OR=0·78 for women, 0·85 for men) were
significantly associated with high diet quality. The study
concluded that the health behaviors ‘Eat a varied diet’ and
‘Engage in regular physical activity’ were positively associated
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with healthy eating and that dietary habits reported were
strongly influenced by personal intentions. The biggest challenge
for health communication in this initiative, however, will be to
reach non-compliers who seldom have intentions to eat healthily
or to be active. (Biltoft et al., 2009)
Strategies, Tactics, Methods, and Interventions
While ‘strategies’ refer to the approach that will be used
to meet one or more communication objectives, ‘tactics’ refer to
the specific tools. Strategies and tactics are important to
communication planning because they identify the approaches that
will be used in the initiative to meet its goals and objectives.
For example, based upon the organizational goal of promoting
health and wellness among its employees, one strategy in the
communication plan will be to ensure that all organizational
leaders are aware of the purpose and need for the health
initiative. The communication manager will participate on the
company's management team and maintain open communication with
company decision makers. This will help ensure that the
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communication strategies support the company's goals and are, in
turn, supported by company leadership. (NPIN, 2010; Tennyson &
Ray, 2005)
Once the plan is complete, the company’s management team,
which ideally includes representatives from all company
departments, will be briefed on the plan's contents with a
presentation that focuses on the broad objectives of the plan and
brief descriptions of the strategies and tactics. More time will
be spent explaining strategies and tactics that directly affect
managers. For example, if managers are asked to participate in a
speakers’ bureau, the programs functions will be explained and
its benefits will be reinforced. Finally, in order to further
solidify a buy-in from management, the communication manager will
make brief presentations to each department that focus on how the
communication plan will ultimately benefits the company and how
staff might be asked to support its implementation. (NPIN, 2010;
Tennyson & Ray, 2005)
One of the tactics supporting this strategy will be a round
of informational presentations to company planning groups. As a
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first step, a brainstorming session will be held to develop ideas
about how to get the initiative’s message to its audiences.
During this session, notes of previous and ongoing programs will
be made, other similar agencies will be polled to find out what
has worked for them, and/or a consultant will be hired to lead a
planning session. No attention will be paid to budget or staff
limitations at this time; only new and innovative ways to get the
message(s) out. (Auld et al., 2011; Tennyson & Ray, 2005)
As suggested by Tennyson and Ray (2005), this comprehensive
communication plan will include multiple methods of reaching the
communication objectives, conveying the same three messages
through several different channels (“single message, multiple
channels”). The consideration of different learning styles (i.e.,
doing, reading, seeing, or hearing) will help ensure that all
audience members receive the message in a manner that is most
effective for them. For example, for employees who learn by
doing, cooking workshops, competitions, and Walk-and-Talk
sessions will be conducted to educate them on the techniques and
strategies for putting more variety in their diet, engaging in
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regular physical activity, and maintaining a healthy body weight.
While workshops might work for some employees, however, others
may learn best when they can see and read the information. In
this case, articles in the company newsletter or in a dedicated
section (i.e., “Health Is Every Body’s Business” or “Health
Matters”) in the company’s web site may be the best way for them
to obtain health information. Still, a third group may learn best
by hearing the information. For these employees, attending a
presentation by a health professional, hearing a talk radio
interview about a health issue, or hearing a ‘web-cast’ or ‘pod-
cast’ about a health-related issue would be preferable. The
important issue here is that each message will use multiple
channels that address the different learning styles in the target
population(s). (Auld et al., 2011; NPIN, 2010; Tennyson & Ray,
2005).
To ensure that all activities support one or more objectives
and reach one or more important audiences, the above strategies
and tactics will be organized by categories. For example,
informational materials (i.e., fact sheets, brochures, bill
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stuffers, newsletters, videos, presentations, and other “things”
that help convey health messages) will be tailored to the
initiative’s goals and objectives, the target audience, and the
assessed areas of interest and possible concerns. In addition to
disseminating the three messages through multiple channels, the
following materials will be included: (1) a general fact sheet
about the health promotion initiative (Health is Every Body’s
Business), its mission, and areas of focus; (2) a frequently-
asked-questions fact sheet; (3) posters, flyers, and bumper
stickers delivering single messages; (4) a general presentation
that can be tailored for different health issues and projects;
and (5) brochures and fact sheets describing specific programs,
such as the company’s Walk-It-Off Program, the CDC’s Lean Works!
or Live Healthy America. (Tennyson & Ray, 2005)
The next section of the communication plan is the media
relations section. This section will include a description of
how the program will deal with the following media relations
activities: (1) maintaining relationships with reporters, (2)
planning media briefings on issues and projects, (3) sending news
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releases about program milestones and announcements,(4)
developing ideas for feature or "human interest" stories, (5)
preparing program spokespeople for media interviews, and (6)
writing op-ed articles and letters to the editor on behalf of
board members and program management (Tennyson & Ray, 2005). It
will also include the program’s media policy (a written statement
about who may speak to the media on behalf of the utility and how
media inquiries should be handled) and addresses how the
initiative’s spokespeople will be trained to work successfully
with the media and effectively convey the initiative’s messages
during an interview. Sample news releases will be included in
this section as a handy reference for staff; following a sample
will help ensure that the company releases consistent information
to the media. (Tennyson & Ray, 2005)
Another important section of this communication plan is
internal communication, the open, two-way communication between
the employees and board members, the two most important audiences
in the company. Activities in this section include employee
newsletters, an intranet site, presentations at employee staff
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meetings, employee tours of facilities, paycheck inserts, and
individual board member briefings.
Finally, as suggested by Tennyson and Ray (2005), this
communication plan will “plan for the unexpected.” In addition
to basic information about how communication will be managed
during a crisis, this section of the plan will be prepared in
advance and will include: (1) a list of potential crisis
situations, any unexpected occurrences that distract the company
from its daily operations (i.e., accidents at work, droughts,
food-borne illnesses, disease outbreaks, pandemics, epidemics or
viral outbreaks); (2) commonly-needed roles during a crisis
(i.e., a spokesperson, an information gatherer, a screener for
media inquiries, someone to prepare statements, a board liaison,
and a logistical coordinator) that will help the communication
team mobilize quickly; and (3) lists (i.e., a list of questions
that will need to be answered in a crisis; a list of media,
community members, and elected officials who might need to be
called; and home phone numbers for supervisors and board
members). (Tennyson & Ray, 2005)
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Priorities of the Initiative
This section discusses how priorities will be decided and
what things will be done and in what order. Before disbanding the
brainstorming session, the focus group will be asked to help
establish criteria for evaluating the priority order in which
strategies and tactics will be implemented; this will create
ownership of the final plan among the communication team.
Evaluation criteria include: (1) proven track record (Has this
strategy/tactic already been proven to work?); (2) cost versus
reach (What is the cost of implementing this strategy/tactic
compared with the number of people in our audiences it will
reach?); (3) hard-to-reach audiences (Does the strategy/tactic
enable the company to reach audiences that would otherwise be
hard to reach?); (4) cost (Can this strategy/tactic be
accomplished with the resources that are currently available?)
and (5) “High Touch" (Is this a strategy/tactic that will lead to
the creation of ongoing beneficial relationships with important
audiences?). Depending on the amount of available time, the group
will then be allowed to apply the newly-formed criteria to weed
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out strategies and tactics that do not ‘measure up’. Additional
fine-tuning may be done after the fact, but the initial cut will
be a group effort. This way, employees will have an opportunity
to make their cases for their favorites and hear the group's
rationale for cutting and the communication plan will reflect the
company’s priorities. (Tennyson & Ray, 2005)
Development and Implementation Timeline and Responsibility List
This section identifies who is responsible for which
elements and the order and dates of each step of the planning and
implementation process occur. In this section, the day-to-day
implementation of the initiative will be outlined in an ‘action
plan’ that identifies who is responsible for what and when
activities will happen. This plan will be presented in the form
of a timeline with clearly-identified leads for each task and
specific deadlines and a matrix of ongoing responsibilities. Some
of the ongoing activities included in this timeline include
updating media lists, maintaining databases of community
contacts, keeping informational materials in stock, keeping track
of presentations made to groups, and cataloging photos and
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digital images. The implementation team will meet once a month to
review progress and the communication team will meet every three
months. Quarterly meetings will help the team compare progress
with the original plan and make adjustments accordingly.
(Tennyson & Ray, 2005)
Means to Assess the Outcome of the Initiative after
Implementation
Finally, part of creating a dynamic plan is building in
mechanisms for change. As stated above, the communication plan
will cover three years and will be adapted on an ongoing basis to
reflect changing organizational goals, challenges, and
opportunities. Each team member will keep a copy of the
strategies and tactics evaluation criteria handy and, as new
ideas come up or suggestions are made by employees or board
members, they will be considered in the context of the plan's
criteria. This will help the team strike a balance between
adhering to the strategic plan and taking advantage of the
creative process. (Tennyson & Ray, 2005)
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With this in mind, the final step in Tennyson and Ray’s
(2005) “plan that gathers no dust” is evaluation. According to
these authors, a good evaluation plan is a vital tool that is
updated regularly, adapted to new situations, and a resource for
all team members (Tennyson & Ray, 2005). The benefits of
evaluation include the ability to constantly monitor what has
worked and what has not, to demonstrate the value of
communication, and to be able to make refinements in future
plans. So, how will the success of this initiative be measured?
If the results show it is unsuccessful, what are the next steps?
(Tennyson & Ray, 2005)
Ideally, this initiative’s success will be measured by the
extent to which the communication plan helps the organization
achieve its goals. In other words, as stated above, the success
of this initiative will be measured in lower healthcare costs, a
decrease in the number of employees who take sick days, and a
decrease in the number of sick days taken by employees. These
measures will be assessed through a statistically significant
baseline survey, then surveyed again at 90 days, 180 days, one
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year, and each year thereafter to check progress. (Tennyson &
ray, 2005)
Additional ‘built-in’ methods for measuring the initiative’s
success include tracking the number of employee calls to the
employee information line, the number of hits on the company's
website, the number of presentations made, the amount and nature
of media coverage, the amount of legislative support for the
company’s programs, and the level of employee participation in
company decisions. (Tennyson & Ray, 2005)
Conclusion
In the final analysis, a strategic health communication plan
is essential to any effective health communication effort. By
using Tennyson and Ray’s (2005) ‘strategic communication plan
that gathers no dust’ to develop an overview of a strategic
communication plan for a health promotion initiative, we have
seen how strategic communication enables an organization to use
communication effectively in support of health promotion
programming. From this, it is obvious that without a plan, an
organization risks creating and disseminating messages which are
Running head: ORG6354 FINAL PAPER 26
disconnected, unfocused, and contradictory and there is no basis
for the measurement of the effectiveness of a health promotion
program. The truth is, health promotion initiatives without
plans, performance monitoring, and outcome assessment often waste
money and time, and have a poor return on investment. Effective
communication messages are simple, limited, and identified in
advance; single messages using multiple channels to reach
intended audiences. “Health Is Every Body’s Business.” So, Eat
a varied diet, Engage in regular physical activity, and Maintain
a healthy body weight. This will help ensure that the company in
this paper experiences a decrease in healthcare benefit costs and
sees fewer employees experiencing fewer sick days. That’s a win-
win for everyone involved.
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