100 Voices > 1: The Absolute Necessity of More Communication Than You Think You Need

Part 8 of a series on Change Management in Health Benefits

George Bernard Shaw once said, "The single biggest problem in communication is the illusion that it has taken place." 

As an employer, it’s easy to assume that your employees are hanging on your every word – especially when you’re making a monumental transition to a higher-quality, lower-cost health plan that benefits both you and them. But the reality is that a lot can get lost in translation, especially when information is detail-heavy, as it so often is with healthcare coverage.

Not having a thorough understanding of the health plan, or why a new one is even necessary, can result in employees making high-impact mistakes, ones that could put their own physical and financial well-being on the line. When employees suffer, employers suffer, and this is just one of the reasons why regular communication is critical.

This can be a challenge for HR or the other personnel helping drive this essential change forward. Odds are, they’ve invested substantial time on the rollout of the new health plan, and in all the time they’ve spent dealing with technical, implementation matters, they may not have given enough time to continuous communication. If that’s the case, if employees don’t know how or why they have to use the new health plan, all the effort these change agents put into making sure the plan itself is perfect would be all for naught. 

To avoid this, it’s critical that leaders revisit their initial message. They should frequently check in with employees to see how things are going, and also see if employees are able to reiterate why this shift is happening. If they aren’t able to do, or if the messages vary from employee to employee, this could be an indicator that early communication attempts were either ineffective or forgotten. 

From here, leaders should set aside time to recirculate their core messages – essentially why the change is happening, who will benefit from it, when it will happen, what those involved have to do and how they have to do it. 

It’s best to keep these messages short and to the point. Brevity will help ensure these messages are stored in the memory bank, and when leaders ask employees a few weeks later the answers to these questions, that they stay the same from one person to the next. 

These messages should also be relayed in multiple ways. A face-to-face meeting is a good start, made better when it’s followed up with a handout displaying each point and/or an email for individuals to later reference. 

No single individual is above participating in these discussions, either. Everyone in and connected to the organization – including spouses and other co-beneficiaries – should have a clear understanding of this information. And when employees see that this is the case, they are reminded that this is a group effort, which will only strengthen the alliance for change. 

In addition to keeping these things in mind, I encourage leaders to follow this checklist:

• Provide a summary of the health plan and vision that is compelling and impossible to misunderstand. 
• Include spouses and significant others in communication outreach plans.
• Curate the first patient experience through value-based primary care to bring the communication of the vision to life. 
• Create a 12-month editorial calendar of communication that outlines what will be communicated across various channels (email, in-person meetings, posters, etc.). 
• Ensure all employee segments, at all levels of the organization, are part of initial and ongoing communications.
• Incorporate feedback loops from employees and spouses as part of the regular cadence of implementation. 
• Include primary care partners in member communication.

In executing on each of these things, leaders will be able to build on their successes and consolidate improvements – the subject of my next post. 

Earlier pieces in the series

Part 1: I Think I’ve Figured Out Why It’s So Hard to Really Treat Employees Like They’re Your Most Valuable Asset

Part 2: Creating a Sense of Urgency — Why Change Now?

Part 3: How Great Leaders Inspire Action: Developing a Vision for Better Benefits

Part 4: To Ensure Benefits Success, Grassroots Support is Vital

Part 5: Sustain Change and Encourage Progress Using Short-Term Wins

Part 6: Be on the Lookout for these Barriers to Change

Part 7: Step by Step: Breaking Down Change Barriers

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Dave Chase is the co-founder of the Health Rosetta (a LEED-like organization for healthcare), and author of the book, “The Opioid Crisis Wake-up Call: Health Care is Stealing the American Dream. Here's How We Take it Back.” Follow the link to the book for a free download of the book. Chase's TEDx talk was entitled "Healthcare stole the American Dream -- here's how we take it back." See the Health Rosetta website for how to get involved, resources and how to join others to support its mission.

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